E. S. Drower

Who was E. S. Drower?

Ethel Stefana Drower née Stevens was a British cultural anthropologist who studied the Middle East and its cultures. She was considered the primary specialist on the Mandaeans, and the chief collector of Mandaean manuscripts.

She was a daughter of a clergyman. In 1910, she married Edwin Drower and began writing a series of romantic novels for Mills and Boon and other publishers. In 1921, she accompanied her husband—as Lady Drower following her husband's knighthood—to Iraq where Sir Edwin Drower was adviser to the Justice Minister from 1921 to 1946. Her works include The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans; The Secret Adam; and The Peacock Angel.