Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Vera Brittain
-
Standard Name: Brittain, Vera
Birth Name: Vera Mary Brittain
From her university days before the First World War, VB
was determined to be a writer. Her career as a novelist never fulfilled her own expectations; it was not until the publication of Testament of Youth, the first of her volumes combining autobiography with social and cultural history, that she achieved significant success. She also wrote both poetry and pamphlets. Much of her oeuvre is politically engaged, from her feminist journalism and social criticism of the 1920s to her pacifist writings of World War II.
SS
's list of requisites for a critic or reviewer goes like this: Attention, impartiality, and no regard for age or sex.
Smith, Stevie. Me Again. Editors Barbera, Jack and William McBrien, Vintage.
173
In April 1941 she was reviewing for John O'London's, Country Life...
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
The novel is defined by its subtitle as a Comedy of Irrelevance, and is dedicated to Vera Brittain
, V.S.V.D.L. Irrelevantly.
Holtby, Winifred. Mandoa! Mandoa!: A Comedy of Irrelevance. Virago Press.
prelims
WH
signed her letters to Brittain v.s.v.d.l.—very small, very dear love.
Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago.
115
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
She had struggled to finish this novel in the final months of her illness.
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
316
Appointed her literary executor, Vera Brittain
saw it through to publication after WH
's death, correcting the typescript and delivering...
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
After WH
completed The Crowded Street, she began work on a historical romance based on the life of John Wycliffe
and titled The Runners.
Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago.
114
By February 1927, nine publishers had rejected this...
Textual Production
Simone de Beauvoir
A valedictory volume of SB
's autobiography appeared under the title of Tout compte fait (translated into English in 1974 by Patrick O'Brian
as All Said and Done).
The original title is bound to...
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
Vera Brittain
compiled a posthumous collection of WH
's poetry, published as The Frozen Earth, and Other Poems.
Dowson, Jane, editor. Women’s Poetry of the 1930s: A Critical Anthology. Routledge.
62-3
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
This political drama, originally titled Hope of Thousands, was completed just months before Holtby's death in 1935, and by 1939 had not reached production. Vera Brittain
arranged to have it published with minor revisions...
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
Hilda Reid
and Vera Brittain
edited a collection of WH
's short stories, published as Pavements at Anderby.
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
WH
's anti-Fascist play, Take Back Your Freedom, was posthumously published with an introduction by Vera Brittain
and Tyrone Guthrie
.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Kathleen E. Innes
The pamphlet maintains that those who do not actually engage in the battle are perhaps in a position to make a saner judgment upon it as a whole than those who do.
Innes, Kathleen E. Women and War. Friends’ Peace Committee.
2
Harvey, Kathryn. "Driven by War into Politics": A Feminist Biography of Kathleen Innes. University of Alberta.
The tours were designed to acquaint League of Nations Union speakers with the workings of the League. Social and cultural events and tours of Geneva and environs were also arranged. Vera Brittain
, a LNU...
