On this date, September 7th, in 1903, Margaret Landon was born. After a year of teaching, she married Kenneth Landon, and in 1927 the young couple set out for service as Presbyterian missionaries in Siam (now Thailand). In her ten years there, Mrs. Landon gave birth to three children, all in Bangkok. She served as principal of a mission school in Trang, reading widely about the country and its history. In the process, she learned of Anna Leonowens. In 1937 she returned to America with her family and soon began writing, first articles, then a book about Leonowens. In 1942 she moved to Washington, D.C., where her husband had joined the government as an expert on Southeast Asia. ‘Anna And The King of Siam’ was published in 1944 and soon became a best seller. It eventually sold over a million copies and subsequently was published in more than twenty languages around the world. In 1950 Mrs. Landon sold the musical play rights to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who created the musical ‘The King and I’ from her book. Ms. Landon’s biography was also the basis for the 1946 film, ‘Anna and the King of Siam,’ starring Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne… -Jerome Robbins
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 07:20:23 +0000
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