The mystery of a ‘ghost’ author, a prophetic novel and some social media sleuths

Margaret O’Donnell couldn’t be found.

The author of “The Beehive,” a 1980 novel of speculative fiction dealing with the kind of feminist issues that would later feature in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” O’Donnell had disappeared from view. And after the folks at Richmond, Virginia-based Valancourt Books spent three months trying to locate the author or her estate in order to reprint the book, whose themes they thought resonated even more in a post-Roe world, they were ready to abandon the search.

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Hers is a very common name in Ireland. They’d tried public documents in Ireland and the U.K. and probate searches and newspaper archives. They searched using information gleaned from the book’s dust jacket, including her alma mater and the fact that she was involved in Ireland’s movement to legalize contraception.

It didn’t help that there was another woman named Margaret O’Donnell, an editor of poetry anthologies, who turned up in a bibliography found via Google Books.

“It had ‘The Beehive’ in there and attributed it to a Margaret Jane O’Donnell born in 1899,” says James Jenkins, publisher and editor of Valancourt, on a recent phone call. “That was part of the confusion. We were looking for this other person who wasn’t even the correct Margaret O’Donnell.”

So the indie imprint turned to Twitter for help.

“Normally, I wouldn’t do that because there are a lot of other publishers who follow us on there,” says Jenkins, “and if we announce that we’re after the rights to a book, it might signal to other people that this great book is out there and they might try to sign the rights instead.”

Launched in 2005, Valancourt began to publish books that had long fallen out of print, largely titles that date back to the late 1700s and early 1800s. Now a full-time endeavor for Jenkins and his husband, Valancourt has published at least 500 books, ranging from novels to short story anthologies. And while the focus is still on re-releasing titles that have gone out of print, its catalog includes a significant number of works released in the 20th century.

“In the 21st century, we can do things digitally with print on demand so we can do small print runs or even do one copy at a time if we need to,” Jenkins explains. Prior to this development, though, publishers had to be able to print a large enough run to keep the price of individual books low. “If there wasn’t a market for that many copies and they weren’t selling, then they wouldn’t re-press it.”

Sometimes, the authors aren’t all that obscure. Valancourt has been instrumental in reprinting works from Michael McDowell, the late horror writer whose screenwriting credits included the movie “Beetlejuice” and episodes of “Tales from the Crypt” and “Tales from the Darkside.”

“His novels are probably our best-selling books and probably have gotten the most interest from readers over the years,” says Jenkins, adding that readers often don’t initially know about McDowell’s work in television and film when they pick up a copy of novels like “The Elementals” and “Black Water.”

A few months ago, Valancourt caught wind of “The Beehive” via an article spotlighting out-of-print science fiction and fantasy books. “In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision on abortion rights and all the discussion about women’s rights, a book like The Beehive seemed really relevant,” Jenkins wrote when we initially connected via email.

The book itself was hard to track down. But no surprise: A library saved the day.

“There were no copies available for sale anywhere online, on any of the rare book sites or eBay or anything,” Jenkins recalls in our phone interview. “We requested it through interlibrary loan and they sent it to us through a university library.”

In the case of books that aren’t in the public domain, Valancourt must figure out who holds the copyright. Jenkins notes that can be the most difficult part of the process. Since the rights holder might be the estate of an author who died many years earlier, there’s a good amount of detective-style work involved.

Before republishing Mendal Johnson’s 1974 horror novel “Let’s Go Play at the Adams,’” Valancourt needed to track down the author’s estate, no easy task when the last name is Johnson. “We had to drive up to Maryland to this courthouse and examine the probate documents from after his death and it had the names of the daughters in them,” says Jenkins. “Then after some extensive searching, we were able to find them. It was certainly a long process. “

In the case of “The Beehive,” Margaret O’Donnell’s husband and sons were mentioned in the dedication by first name only. And, many years later, her granddaughter left a comment about the book on Goodreads, but with only a first name and no contact information.

That’s all part of what prompted Valancourt’s June 29 Twitter post and the round of internet sleuthing that followed. Some chimed in with information on others with the name Margaret O’Donnell. Others offered information or advice that they already had. But within 24 hours, one person turned up the correct Margaret O’Donnell’s obituary. She died in 2019 and the executor of her estate was her son, who Valancourt was able to reach just days later.

“He was thrilled and thought that Margaret would have been thrilled as well to see it republished,” says Jenkins.

Now, Valancourt can focus on tasks like a new introduction and cover art to ready “The Beehive” for a new generation of readers. Jenkins says they anticipate a release in the first half of 2024.