Ethel, Lady Drower ( Ethel May Stefana Stevens; 1 December 1879 – 27 January 1972) was a British cultural anthropologist, orientalist and novelist who studied the Middle East and its cultures. She was and is still considered one of the primary specialists on the Mandaeans, and was the dedicated collector of Mandaean manuscripts.

Biography

The daughter of a clergyman, in 1906, she was working for Curtis Brown, a London literary agency when she signed Arthur Ransome to write Bohemia in London. In 1911, she married Edwin Drower and after his knighthood became Lady Drower. As E. S. Stevens, she wrote a series of romantic novels for Mills & Boon and other publishers. In 1921, she accompanied her husband to Iraq where Sir Edwin Drower was adviser to the Justice Minister from 1921 to 1947. Among her grandchildren was the campaigning journalist Roly Drower. Her works include the comprehensive description and display of the last practising gnostic Mandaeans' rituals, rites, and customs in The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: Their Cults, Customs, Magic, Legends, and Folklore, The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (a translation of the Qolasta), The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis, and The Peacock Angel (novel about the Yezidis), editions of unique manuscripts such as astronomical divinations (omen) (The Book of the Zodiac) and magical texts (A Book of Black Magic; A Phylactery for Rue), and relevant translations of Mandaean religious works such as The Haran Gawaita and the Baptism of Hibil-Ziwa and The Coronation of the Great Šišlam. Drower's final major work titled Mass and Masiqta or Messiah, Mass and Masiqta remains unpublished to this day, and it is unclear if the full manuscript exists. Before her scholarly activity, "Already under her maiden name of Ethel Stefana Stevens, Lady Drower had been inspired by the Orient. Between 1909 and 1927, she published 13 novels, and she was the author of two delectable books of travel." Ethel, Lady Drower died on 27 January 1972, aged 92. She was survived by her children, including daughter, Margaret "Peggy" Hackforth-Jones, and other family members.

Awards and honors

Drower received several honours for her scholarly contributions:

Drower Collection

The Drower Collection (DC), held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford University, is the most extensive collection of Mandaean manuscripts. The collection consists of 55 manuscripts, many of which Drower had obtained through the Mandaean priest Sheikh Negm bar Zahroon. Drower donated MSS. Drower 1-53 to the Bodleian Library in 1958. MS. Drower 54, The Coronation of the Great Šišlam, was given to the library by Lady Drower in 1961. MS. Drower 55, Lady Drower's personal notebook, was added in 1986. After her death, some of Drower's private notebooks were obtained by Rudolf Macúch. These notebooks are not part of the Bodleian Library's Drower Collection. MS. DC 2, which was copied by Sheikh Negm for Drower in 1933, mentions the Mandaean baptismal name (i.e., spiritual name given by a Mandaean priest, as opposed to a birth name) of E. S. Drower as Klila pt Šušian, as her middle name Stefana means 'wreath' in Greek. MS. DC 26, a manuscript copied by copied by Sheikh Faraj for Drower in 1936, contains two qmahas (exorcisms). MS. DC 26 is dedicated to Drower's daughter, Margaret ("Peggy"), who is given the Mandaean baptismal name Marganita pt Klila ("Pearl, daughter of Wreath") in the text.

Letters

In 2012, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley published a compiled collection of E. S. Drower's letters. The book includes texts of Drower's correspondence with Cyrus H. Gordon, Rudolf Macuch, Sidney H. Smith, Godfrey R. Driver, Samuel H. Hooke, and Franz Rosenthal.

Works as E. S. Stevens

Works as E. S. Drower

Translations as E. S. Drower