Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Rosamond Lehmann
-
Standard Name: Lehmann, Rosamond
Birth Name: Rosamond Nina Lehmann
RL
has received less critical attention than other women modernists, especially her closest literary colleagues Elizabeth Bowen
and Virginia Woolf
. However, after the reprinting of her work in the 1980s, her seven novels, her short stories, and one play became much better known. After the unexpected death of her daughter, RL
ceased writing for about seven years. When she resumed she produced only one more novel, in addition to a memoir and spiritualist writings.
The New York Times Book Review found this book charmingly realistic;
Mezei, Kathy, and Chiara Briganti. “’She must be a very good novelist’: Rereading E. H. Young (1880-1949)”. English Studies in Canada, Vol.
27
, No. 3, pp. 303-31.
315
V. S. Pritchett
thought it typical of fiction by women in its fine discrimination of character. It made some reviewers think of...
Literary responses
Elizabeth Taylor
Like ET
's first book, this was praised by distinguished but not unanimous voices: Elizabeth Bowen
found an exciting distinction about every page, and Rosamond Lehmann
noted the stripped, piercing feminine wit and called ET
Literary responses
Elizabeth Taylor
One of the first to review this novel was Rosamond Lehmann
; some of her commendatory phrases are still in use in promotional material from Virago
.
Beauman, Nicola. The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Persephone Books.
Most reviewers in England were charmed by the book, but it was hated by E. M. Forster
(who found it both snobbish and underbred), Rosamond Lehmann
, and a voice on the letters page of...
Strachey, Julia, and Frances Partridge. Julia: A Portrait of Julia Strachey. Little, Brown.
208, 252
Family and Intimate relationships
Julia Strachey
Between the summers of 1933 and 1934, JS
had an affair with Wogan Phillips
, husband of her acquaintance Rosamond Lehmann
.
Strachey, Julia, and Frances Partridge. Julia: A Portrait of Julia Strachey. Little, Brown.
116, 123, 138
Friends, Associates
Stevie Smith
SS
developed lasting friendships with Naomi Mitchison
and Rosamond Lehmann
, both of whom reviewed her work. She was also close to US poet Naomi Replansky
, with whom she corresponded before they met in 1969.
Smith, Stevie. Me Again. Editors Barbera, Jack and William McBrien, Vintage.
298-9
Literary responses
Stevie Smith
Novel on Yellow Paper was an immediate critical success. Appreciation expressed in reviews by Naomi Mitchison
and Rosamond Lehmann
laid the foundations for SS
's friendships with these and other writers.
Spalding, Frances. Stevie Smith: A Critical Biography. Faber and Faber.
125
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Rosamond Lehmann
(already a friend) expressed some reservations in her review, mainly that the protagonist lets herself be caught in her illness and weakness and little-girlness.
Spalding, Frances. Stevie Smith: A Critical Biography. Faber and Faber.
She asked Rosamond Lehmann
for her opinion before the collection reached print.
Smith, Stevie. Me Again. Editors Barbera, Jack and William McBrien, Vintage.
265-6
Literary responses
Dorothy L. Sayers
Q. D. Leavis
disliked this novel, and wrote a scathing review of it and its successor, Busman's Honeymoon, in Scrutiny. Leavis attacked DLS
's reputation for literariness, holding it against her that...
Friends, Associates
Jean Rhys
The bitterness in JR
's life had caused her to become an incurable alcoholic, so her marital happiness did not last, nor did her friendships. Those who tried to befriend her, including writers Rosamond Lehmann
Literary responses
Mary Renault
Early reviews were discouraging. Anthony West
in The New Statesman and Nation criticised MR
for ignoring the significant upheavals in a real world at war. Rosamond Lehmann
, in The Spectator, perceptively noted that...
Textual Features
Mollie Panter-Downes
This novel has many modernist features. Nicola Beauman mentions the influence of Rosamond Lehmann
, and also palpable is that of Virginia Woolf
. The first, two-page chapter describes the Sussex village of Wealding and...
Reception
Edith Mary Moore
In 1938, EMM
's name appeared in an early number of Kriticky Mesicnik, a Czech literary periodical edited by Václav Černý
(reprinted in 1972 and 1992), in a list of British writers including Rosamond Lehmann
Timeline
: The second number of Orion. A Miscellany...
Writing climate item
Autumn1945
The second number of Orion. A Miscellany appeared: Rosamond Lehmann
was one of the editors, along with C. Day Lewis
and Edwin Muir
.
1946: John Lehmann founded his own publishing house...
Writing climate item
1946
John Lehmann
founded his own publishing house at 6 Henrietta Street, London.
December 1984: The feminist publisher Virago Press, under...
Women writers item
December 1984
The feminist publisher Virago Press
, under its editor Carmen Callil
, launched its own bookshop in Covent Garden, London; the opening was performed by Rosamond Lehmann
.
9 December 2006-17 July 2007: The National Portrait Gallery in London mounted...
Writing climate item
9 December 2006-17 July 2007
The National Portrait Gallery
in London mounted an exhibition of photographs of women writers, mostly novelists, from 1920 to 1960.
Texts
Lehmann, Rosamond et al. A Man Seen Afar. Spearman, 1965.
Lehmann, Rosamond. A Note in Music. Chatto and Windus, 1930.
Lehmann, Rosamond. A Sea-Grape Tree. Collins, 1976.
Lehmann, Rosamond, and Jean Cocteau. Children of the Game. Harvill Press, 1955.
Lehmann, Rosamond. Dusty Answer. Chatto and Windus, 1927.
Lemarchand, Jacques. Geneviève. Translator Lehmann, Rosamond, John Lehmann, 1947.
Lehmann, Rosamond. Invitation to the Waltz. Chatto and Windus, 1932.
Lehmann, Rosamond. Letter to a Sister. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1931.
Lehmann, Rosamond, and Cynthia Hill Sandys. Letters from Our Daughters. College of Psychic Science, 1971.
Lehmann, Rosamond. No More Music. Collins, 1939.
Bowen, Elizabeth. “Notes on Writing a Novel”. Orion: A Miscellany, edited by Rosamond Lehmann et al., Nicholson and Watson, 1945.
Lehmann, Rosamond. Rosamond Lehmann’s Album. Chatto and Windus, 1985.
Lehmann, Rosamond. The Ballad and the Source. Collins, 1944.
Lehmann, Rosamond. The Echoing Grove. Collins, 1953.
Lehmann, Rosamond. The Gypsy’s Baby and Other Stories. Collins, 1946.
Lehmann, Rosamond. “The Red-Haired Miss Daintreys”. Folios of New Writing, Spring 1940, edited by John Lehmann, 1stst ed, Hogarth Press, 1940.
Lehmann, Rosamond. The Swan in the Evening. Collins, 1967.
Lehmann, Rosamond. The Weather in the Streets. Collins, 1936.
