Born: 16 September 1915, Ireland
Died: 25 October 1972
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Frances Clarke. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Crone, Anne (1915–72), novelist and teacher, was born 16 September 1915 in Dublin, daughter of William Crone, a Belfast-born civil servant who was subsequently appointed assistant secretary in the Northern Ireland ministry of commerce, and Mary Jane (‘Mollie’) Crone (née Plunkett) of Co. Fermanagh. Part of her early childhood was spent in London. Educated at the Methodist College, Belfast, and Somerville College, Oxford, she graduated BA with a first in both French and German (1936), and a B.Litt. (1940). After several years teaching in Victoria College, Belfast, she went on in 1948 to teach at the Princess Gardens School, Belfast, where she became head of the department of modern languages. Her first novel, Bridie Steen (initially published in America, 1948), examined sectarian prejudice in rural Ulster. This set the tone for her later publications, This pleasant lea (1951) and My heart and I (1955), in which she dealt with class and sectarian divisions within Ireland. Her writing came in for considerable praise from Lord Dunsany, who provided the preface to the English edition of Bridie Steen (1949). Throughout her life she was severely affected by asthma, of which she died, unmarried, in her home in the King’s Road, Belfast, 25 October 1972. She was buried in Dundonald cemetery, Co. Down.