Evelyn Sharp

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Standard Name: Sharp, Evelyn
Birth Name: Evelyn Jane Sharp
Married Name: Evelyn Jane Nevinson
ES , whose career occupied the end of the nineteenth century and the first several decades of the twentieth, wrote books for children, journalism, polemic (on behalf of suffragist, internationalist, pacifist, and other movements), novels, travel books, biography, and studies of education, poverty, and other social issues. Her output for children alone amounted to more than twenty books as well as stories counted in the hundreds. Important in this field, and as a suffragist activist and publicist, and with a high professional reputation as a journalist, she made less impression as a novelist (although her fiction is original and inventive). She was later forgotten more completely than almost any of her contemporaries of equal stature.
Black-and-white photo of Evelyn Sharp at her home, standing in front of a bookcase and holding a book open in front of her, 16 February 1951.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships Maude Royden
MR always regretted not having any children of her own. But in 1918 she adopted a daughter: Helen, a six-month-old war baby. From 1920 to 1924 or 1925, she also fostered another child, Friedrich...
Friends, Associates Ella D'Arcy
Lane and Harland were centres of literary social life in London. EDA had many friends among writers, many of them New Women. They included Evelyn Sharp , and Constance Smedley (who found her entirely sincere...
Friends, Associates Mary Agnes Hamilton
MAH 's memoirs give detailed and affectionate pen-portraits of innumerable friends, made both at home and in many of the other countries she travelled or worked in. Many of her English friends are known names...
Friends, Associates Beatrice Harraden
Apart from Eliza Lynn Linton , her close literary friends included Evelyn Glover , Catharine Amy Dawson Scott , Evelyn Sharp , and Flora Annie Steel (with whom she corresponded).
Friends, Associates Charlotte Mew
In the mid-1890s, CM attended literary gatherings at the home of Henry Harland , editor of The Yellow Book. Other writers who attended included Evelyn Sharp , Netta Syrett , Max Beerbohm , Kenneth Grahame
Literary responses Elizabeth Robins
ER 's publisher, Hutchinson , blamed this book's poor sales (only 300 copies) on the author's insistence on maintaining her anonymity.
John, Angela V. Elizabeth Robins: Staging a Life, 1862-1952. Routledge.
214
Reviewers, however, mostly revealed her identify, and those who quarrelled with this book...
Occupation Ella D'Arcy
Prevented by her eyesight from pursuing a career in art, she turned to writing, setting out with stories for magazines. Her low output has been attributed to her being indolent or a procrastinator or both....
Occupation Gladys Henrietta Schütze
After the war, in 1919, GHS pursued regular journalistic work as well as her own writing. For the socialist Weekly Herald she worked at the invitation of W. N. Ewer , combing European newspapers in...
politics Sarah Grand
In an interview in 1896, SG made clear her belief in the need for female suffrage: We shall do no good until we get the Franchise, for however well-intentioned men may be, they cannot understand...
politics Maude Royden
MR supported the Women's Tax Resistance League , established in 1909, which organized suffragists who refused to pay taxes without representation. (Those who wrote later about being pursued for unpaid taxes included Flora Annie Steel
politics Cicely Hamilton
Theatre manager Lena Ashwell , actress Lillah McCarthy , novelist Flora Annie Steel , and journalist Evelyn Sharp were among the many who withheld their taxes.
Whitelaw, Lis. The Life and Rebellious Times of Cicely Hamilton. Women’s Press.
104-5
politics Mary Agnes Hamilton
Its actual birthday coincided with the first Russian Revolution
Hamilton, Mary Agnes. Remembering My Good Friends. Jonathan Cape.
78-9
. Among its founders was writer Evelyn Sharp .
politics Beatrice Harraden
The Women's Tax Resistance League had been founded on 22 October 1909. Flora Annie Steel was another who had goods distrained at about this time, as Evelyn Sharp had later. In an article in Votes...
politics Henrietta Müller
Having become a householder (at 58 Cadogan Place in south-west London) for the first time the year before,
Pall Mall Gazette. J. K. Sharpe.
5932 (11 March 1884): 2
Müller refused to pay when she received her initial rates bill...
Publishing Helen Mathers
HM joined forces with Eliza Lynn Linton , Marie Leighton , Annie S. Swan , Evelyn Sharp , and Douglas B. Sladen to contribute to The Idler's Club an essay entitled Is Society a Pleasure or a Bore?
Mathers, Helen et al. “Is Society a Pleasure or a Bore?”. The Idlers’ Club, Vol.
9
, No. 6, pp. 907-14.
912-13

Timeline

1889: Andrew Lang and his wife Leonora published...

Writing climate item

1889

Andrew Lang and his wife Leonora published the first of their series of fairy volumes: The Blue Fairy Book. Other colours followed.

June 1908: The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established...

National or international item

June 1908

The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton .

10 December 1908: The inaugural meeting of the Actresses' Franchise...

National or international item

10 December 1908

The inaugural meeting of the Actresses' Franchise League was held at the Criterion Restaurant in London.

28 March 1912: The Conciliation Bill (on suffrage) was defeated...

National or international item

28 March 1912

The Conciliation Bill (on suffrage) was defeated in a House of Commons vote, after passing its second reading (the previous year) with a huge majority.

October 1914: The British War Office and Home Office combined...

National or international item

October 1914

The British War Office and Home Office combined to halt the payment of the separation allowance due to soldiers' wives during their husbands' absence at war, if the women were deemed Unworthy.

After February 1917: Supporters of the Russian Revolution including...

Writing climate item

After February 1917

Supporters of the Russian Revolution including Evelyn Sharp founded the 1917 Club to provide a venue for freely discussing the revolution without fear of attracting attention under the Defence of the Realm Act or Dora.

16 August 1921: The newly elected (second) Dail Eireann or...

National or international item

16 August 1921

The newly elected (second) Dail Eireann or Irish lower house convened for the first time.

May 1922: Madeline Linford launched the Manchester...

Building item

May 1922

Madeline Linford launched the Manchester Guardianwomen's page, which she produced on her own, with no editorial assistant. It was temporarily suspended during the Second World War.

25 February 1934: Hunger marchers from the north of England...

National or international item

25 February 1934

Hunger marchers from the north of England arrived in Hyde Park, all very quiet but determined, confounding police warnings of anticipated violence.

October 1955: Evelyn Adelaide Sharp (later a baroness;...

Building item

October 1955

Evelyn Adelaide Sharp (later a baroness; not to be confused with suffragist and writer Evelyn Sharp ) was named head of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government , becoming the first woman Permanent Secretary...

Texts

Sharp, Evelyn. A Communion of Sinners. G. Allen and Unwin, 1917.
Sharp, Evelyn. At the Relton Arms. John Lane, Bodley Head; Roberts Brothers, 1895.
Sharp, Evelyn. “Behind the Locked Door”. Nation, pp. 587-9.
Sharp, Evelyn. Fairy Tales. D. B. Friend, 1889.
Sharp, Evelyn. “How to dress in the water”. Guardian Unlimited.
Clark, Beverly Lyon, and Evelyn Sharp. “Introduction”. The Making of a Schoolgirl, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 3-23.
Mathers, Helen et al. “Is Society a Pleasure or a Bore?”. The Idlers’ Club, Vol.
9
, No. 6, pp. 907-14.
Sharp, Evelyn. Nicolete. Archibald Constable, 1907.
Sharp, Evelyn. Rebel Women. A. C. Fifield, 1910.
Sharp, Evelyn, and Alice B. Woodward. Round the World to Wympland. John Lane, Bodley Head, 1902.
Sharp, Evelyn. Somewhere in Christendom. G. Allen and Unwin, 1919.
Sharp, Evelyn, and Charles Robinson. The Child’s Christmas. Blackie and Son, 1906.
Sharp, Evelyn, and Eve Garnett. The London Child. John Lane, Bodley Head, 1927.
Sharp, Evelyn. The Making of a Prig. John Lane, Bodley Head, 1897.
Sharp, Evelyn. The Making of a School Girl. John Lane, Bodley Head, 1897.
Sharp, Evelyn, and Nellie Syrett. The Other Side of the Sun. John Lane, Bodley Head, 1900.
Sharp, Evelyn, and Charles Edmund Brock. The Youngest Girl in the School. Macmillan, 1901.
Sharp, Evelyn. Unfinished Adventure. John Lane, Bodley Head, 1933.
Nevinson, Henry. Visions and Memories. Editor Sharp, Evelyn, Oxford University Press, 1944.
Sharp, Evelyn, and Mabel Dearmer. Wymps and Other Fairy Tales. John Lane, Bodley Head, 1897.