The Mystics

Katherine Cecil Thurston (1875 - 1911) was an Irish novelist, best known for two political thrillers. Born Katherine Cecil Madden in Cork, Ireland, she was privately educated. By the end of the 19th century she was contributing short stories to various British and American publications, such as Pall Mall Magazine, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Windsor Magazine and others. In 1901, she married the writer Ernest Temple Thurston (1879-1933). They separated in 1907 and were divorced in 1910 on grounds of his adultery and desertion. The suit went undefended. Thurston's novels achieved success in both Britain and the United States. Her best-known work was a political thriller entitled John Chilcote, M.P. (as The Masquerader in the United States), published in 1904 and on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. Her next book, The Gambler, came out in 1905 and it too made the US best-selling lists for that year. This was the first time the New York Times had recorded any author, female or male, as having two top-ten books in a single year. In 1910, she was back on the same list at No. 4 with her novel Max, the story of a young Russian princess, who flees disguised as a boy to the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, on the night before her arranged marriage. John Chilcote, M.P. was adapted for the stage by John Hunter Booth and opened on Broadway in 1917. It was filmed four times. An epileptic, Thurston's blossoming career was cut short at the age of 36 when she was found dead in her hotel room in Cork. The official enquiry on September 6, 1911 gave the cause of death as asphyxia as result of a seizure. She had been due to remarry later that month to Dr A. T. Bulkeley Gavin.