Rebecca West

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Standard Name: West, Rebecca
Birth Name: Cicily Isabel Fairfield
Nickname: Cissie
Nickname: Anne
Nickname: Panther
Nickname: Rac
Pseudonym: Rebecca West
Married Name: Cicily Isabel Andrews
Used Form: R*b*cc* W*st
Rebecca West rose to fame early (before the First World War) through her witty, acerbic journalism. In addition to numerous essays and reviews, she wrote about a dozen novels, short stories, political analyses, a classic travel book, and works of literary criticism. Her journalism remains an important commentary on the contemporary women's movement, offering both strong intellectual support and trenchant satire. She is known for her pungency of phrase; on occasion she was more eager for a phrase to strike shockingly home than for it to withstand criticism.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photograph of Rebecca West looking straight forward, wearing a checked jacket with dark cuffs and collar and white flowers pinned at the neckline. With one hand she touches a chunky metal necklace. Her wavy, greying hair, jaw-length, is pushed behind her ears.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Lucille Iremonger
LI and her husband were correspondents both of Rebecca West and of controversial Conservative MP Enoch Powell .
“The Rebecca West Papers”. University of Tulsa: McFarlin Library: Department of Special Collections.
Janus. http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/.
Powell, John Enoch
Textual Production Storm Jameson
SJ edited and wrote in Challenge to Death: A Symposium on War and Peace, an anthology featuring Vera Brittain , Winifred Holtby , Rebecca West , Edmund Blunden , Julian Huxley , J. B. Priestley , and Guy Chapman .
Birkett, Jennifer. Margaret Storm Jameson: A Life. Oxford University Press.
123n53
Jameson, Storm, editor. Challenge to Death. Constable.
prelims
Jameson, Storm. Journey from the North. Harper and Row.
326-7
Friends, Associates Storm Jameson
The two women were friends through the 1930s and their relationship became increasingly intimate after the death of Winifred Holtby on 29 September 1935. Brittain stayed with Jameson and Chapman the night after Holtby died...
politics Storm Jameson
Guests included Rebecca West and Rose Macaulay . This event led to the publication of the anthology Challenge to Death: A Symposium on War and Peace (1934)
Literary responses Storm Jameson
Margaret B. McDowell wrote that while Jameson's first novels sold well, they served a greater importance as her apprentice writing. They garnered increasingly positive reviews as she began to mature as a writer. Rebecca West
Textual Production Storm Jameson
Jameson had been approached by the Ministry of Information once the USA had entered World War II, for suggestions on how to cement Anglo-American relations.
Jameson, Storm. Journey from the North. Harper and Row.
524
The resulting volume includes work by Phyllis Bentley ,...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Storm Jameson
Janet Montefiore has noted that in A Cup of Tea for Mr. Thorgill Jameson included a rancorous portrait of Rebecca West in the character of Retta Spencer-Savage, a celebrated anti-Communist writer who has built her...
Friends, Associates F. Tennyson Jesse
Gordon Place became the centre of an active female literary community, which included Elizabeth Bowen , Rose Macaulay , Virginia Woolf , Ivy Low (who was also a good friend of Viola Meynell ), Ivy Compton-Burnett
Literary responses F. Tennyson Jesse
FTJ later described it as a very bad book. The only excuse I had was that . . . I had to make a living, and Secret Bread, the other book, would take me...
Literary responses E. B. C. Jones
Mansfield further praised its distinction of style. Rebecca West found in it a sense of character that can be brilliant or touching. Her slightly acerbic account of characters and their milieu—the tone of...
Textual Production James Joyce
Preparing a defence against the allegations, Joyce's lawyer, Morris L. Ernst , obtained hundreds of written opinions from educators, librarians, writers, clergy, and business people. Among those quoted in Ernst's court brief were Rebecca West
Reception D. H. Lawrence
Penguin was emboldened to embark on the course of action that led to the trial by the Obscene Publications Act of the previous year, which admitted the defence of literary merit against charges of obscenity...
Textual Features Vernon Lee
This small volume was issued by Kegan Paul and E. P. Dutton 's Today and Tomorrow Series; other authors to publish here included Rebecca West , Bertrand Russell , and J. B. S. Haldane ...
Textual Features Wyndham Lewis
The story reflects Nietzsche 's belief that the artist must show mastery over women. Rebecca West gave it a favourable review.
Oldsey, Bernard Stanley, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 15. Gale Research.
310
Reception Norah Lofts
NL 's writing earned a high degree of popular success. Her books have sold more than one million copies. Many were reprinted in the 1970s by Corgi , Fawcett , Hodder and Stoughton , Manor

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