Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Thomas Hardy
-
Standard Name: Hardy, Thomas
TH
was a poet by vocation and became a novelist by profession. The Wessex of his novels has made him arguably a regional novelist. As well as a prolific output in both these forms, he published a unique verse epic bringing together human and supernatural characters, short fiction, a volume for children, and two volumes of actual autobiography masquerading as a biography by his second wife. Since his career as a publishing novelist ran from the 1870s to the 1890s, and his first volume of poetry post-dated his final novel, he has been seen as a Victorian novelist but a mostly twentieth-century poet. This description, however, is not true to the facts of composition. He wrote poetry from early in his life, but did not publish it in volume form until his final novel.
Bowker, Gordon. “Obituary: Cecily Mackworth”. The Independent.
Mackworth, Cecily. Out of the Black Mountains.
17
Friends, Associates
Frances Cornford
Frances's association with Rupert Brooke
began with the rehearsals for the play and grew into friendship. They discussed their poetry with each other, and Frances counselled and consoled Rupert in his many love affairs. She...
Raitt, Suzanne. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian. Clarendon Press.
97
She was delighted with Thomas Hardy
, with whom she went cycling in Dorset in...
Friends, Associates
Victoria Cross
Possibly because VC
spent so much time travelling, it is difficult to judge the extent of her social circle. She is unmentioned by many literary autobiographies of the period. Charlotte Mitchell
suggests that she may...
Friends, Associates
Virginia Woolf
VW
and Leonard travelled to Dorchester to have tea at Max Gate with Thomas
and Florence Hardy
. Woolf met Hardy just this once, though, as Hermione Lee remarks, she had been reading and writing...
Friends, Associates
Charlotte Mew
CM
visited Thomas Hardy
at his home; he requested the meeting after reading and admiring her poetry.
Monro, Alida, and Charlotte Mew. “Charlotte Mew—A Memoir”. Collected Poems of Charlotte Mew, Gerald Duckworth, p. vii - xx.
She made many friends and acquaintances both as a figure in society and as an author. These included literary people such as George Meredith
, Thomas Hardy
, Punch editor Owen Seaman
, William Archer
Cunningham, Gail. The New Woman and the Victorian Novel. Macmillan.
105
Another woman writer who became her associate was John Strange Winter
, whom she met through her membership in the Pioneer Club
.
“19th Century British Library Newspapers”. Gale: 19th Century British Library Newspapers.
Glasgow Herald 301 (17 Dec 1894): 7
Friends, Associates
Anne Thackeray Ritchie
ATR
lived with the Stephens
after their marriage, and while there became a friend of such literary figures as George Meredith
, Henry James
(who described her after an early encounter as exquisitely irrational)...
