Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Marie Belloc Lowndes
-
Standard Name: Lowndes, Marie Belloc
Birth Name: Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Renée Julia Belloc
Nickname: Mary
Married Name: Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Renée Julia Lowndes
Indexed Name: Mrs Belloc Lowndes
Pseudonym: Philip Curtin
Pseudonym: Elizabeth Rayner
During a career that spanned nearly fifty years from 1889, MBL
published journalism, biography, a guidebook, history for children, novels (mostly romances or thrillers), a book about actual crimes, and four late volumes of autobiography. Her books of crime and detection were her most successful. Her list of titles numbers more than seventy.
In March 1912 when Emmeline
and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence
were arrested, ES
became, almost at a moment's notice, acting editor (officially assistant editor) of Votes for Women, the official organ of the WSPU
. She...
Boll, Theophilus E. M. Miss May Sinclair: Novelist: A Biographical and Critical Introduction. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
96
Sinclair, however, could not approve the increasingly...
Literary responses
May Sinclair
While other friends had reservations, Anthony Deane
told MS
that this was the very best book he had read for a long time.
Raitt, Suzanne. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian. Clarendon Press.
95
It received far better reviews in the USA than at home...
Literary responses
May Sinclair
Marie Belloc Lowndes
wrote to tell MS
she thought this her best book so far, though Sinclair did not agree with her.
Raitt, Suzanne. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian. Clarendon Press.
166
Reception
Edith Sitwell
In the same year Marie Belloc Lowndes
thought it no wonder that Sitwell was, like her brother Osbert, hostile to many other writers and unforgiving towards those who were puffed: she is really very...
Literary responses
Gertrude Stein
GS
's writing has been ruffling critics since Laura Riding
wrote in 1927 of her literalism, simple-mindedness, and successful barbarism.
Hoffmann, Michael J. “Gertrude Stein in the Psychology Laboratory”. American Quarterly, Vol.
17
, No. 1, pp. 127-32.
130
In 1945 Hugh Walpole
painted Stein as a self-adoring priestess of her own...
Leisure and Society
Violet Trefusis
Marie Belloc Lowndes
recorded in 1945 that VT
looked and dressed as if she was twenty-eight, was a fascinating talker who liked to hold the floor, and had wonderful joie de vivre.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. Diaries and Letters of Marie Belloc Lowndes, 1911-1947. Editor Marques, Susan Lowndes, Chatto and Windus.
264
Friends, Associates
Violet Trefusis
The following year Lowndes
stayed with Trefusis at West Coker Manor.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. Diaries and Letters of Marie Belloc Lowndes, 1911-1947. Editor Marques, Susan Lowndes, Chatto and Windus.
273
At this time VT
nurtured her (often edgy) relationship with writer Nancy Mitford
, who moved from England to Paris in April...
Friends, Associates
Susan Tweedsmuir
ST
's parents made connections through friendship as remarkable as those made for them by family descent. Her mother was a friend of many writers and intellectuals of both sexes, including Marie Belloc Lowndes
,...
Friends, Associates
Katharine Tynan
Living in a suburb of London, KT
frequented the heart of English literary culture. She had already joined London's Irish Literary Society
, and was later appointed its Honorary Vice-President.
Tynan, Katharine. The Years of the Shadow. Constable.
3-4
Among other literary figures...
Friends, Associates
Evelyn Underhill
EU
and her husband led active social lives, often entertaining friends and colleagues at their home. Blanche Alethea Crackanthorpe
introduced her to Marie Belloc Lowndes
, who became a friend of Underhill and called her...
Literary responses
Evelyn Underhill
Marie Belloc Lowndes
thought this novel and The Grey World had a quality of poetical beauty no writer has since attained. She deplored a later slighting reference to these novels, and liked them better than...
Family and Intimate relationships
Elizabeth von Arnim
This marriage produced in all five children: the first three, all girls, were born within the first three years. According to Marie Belloc Lowndes
, EA
retained her love and tenderness towards only one of...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth von Arnim
On her trips back to England EA
made some important new friends, including Maude Stanley
, a feminist interested in reforming London streetwalkers.
Usborne, Karen. "Elizabeth": The Author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden. Bodley Head.
85
Stanley advised von Arnim extensively on her children's education and helped...