Vera Brittain

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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.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photo of Vera Brittain, looking straight at the camera, wearing a white shirt and a white scarf wrapped around her head.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Material Conditions of Writing Winifred Holtby
WH began writing this novel, which was originally titled Anlaby Wold, in 1920 while she and Vera Brittain were still students at Oxford .
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell.
155
Textual Production Winifred Holtby
WH dedicated the novel to her friend Jean Finlay McWilliam and took its title from a poem by Vera Brittain .
Holtby, Winifred. The Crowded Street. Virago.
prelims
The novel, completed in August 1923, did not wholly satisfy its author.
Hardisty, Claire, and Winifred Holtby. “Introduction”. The Crowded Street, Virago, p. ix - xiii.
ix
Textual Features Winifred Holtby
Although not explicitly autobiographical, The Crowded Street owes much to WH 's relationship with Vera Brittain : Brittain recognized herself in Delia, and Holtby remarked that Muriel was part of me only—the stupid frightened part...
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...
Residence Winifred Holtby
Now or soon afterwards WH and Vera Brittain began sharing their first London flat at 52 Doughty Street, Bloomsbury.
Biographers of Brittain date this event as happening in January 1922.
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
166-7
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell.
159, 161
Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago.
106
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
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
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.
332
Textual Production Winifred Holtby
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.
Education Winifred Holtby
During both halves of her time at Oxford she dashed around on a very rusty cycle, cramming myriad activities into her schedule: lectures, tea parties, concerts, lacrosse matches, and meetings. I was born with a...
Literary responses Radclyffe Hall
A number of writers rallied in support of RH . E. M. Forster and Leonard Woolf drafted a letter protesting the suppression of The Well of Loneliness. Its signatories included Bernard Shaw , T. S. Eliot
Author summary May Cannan
MC was a war poet in and shortly after the First World War. In her (posthumously published) autobiography she performs, from a different viewpoint, something of the same function as Vera Brittain as the historian...
Intertextuality and Influence May Cannan
The critic and family friend Sir Walter Raleigh , who saw these poems before publication, called them heart-breaking and terribly naked.
Cannan, May, and Bevil Quiller-Couch. “Editorial Materials”. The Tears of War, edited by Charlotte Fyfe, Cavalier Books, p. Various pages.
145
Once published, they brought MC many letters, among them one from Percival James Slater

Timeline

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Texts

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