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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.
Connections
| Connections | Author name Sort ascending | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Literary responses | Storm Jameson | This text delivered a final blow to SJ
's long and close friendship with Vera Brittain
(who had dedicated her political England's Hour to Jameson only that February). Not only did Brittain remain a staunch... |
| Textual Features | Storm Jameson | Throughout this work SJ
glosses over such events as marriage, divorce, and illness in favour of examining her psychology and behaviour, her struggle to balance motherhood and a public career, the value of creative writing... |
| Friends, Associates | Storm Jameson | SJ
wrote to Vera Brittain
(who had recently reviewed her), thereby initiating a close friendship which, however, was neither wholly relaxed nor in the long run lasting. Jameson and Winifred Holtby
, both Yorkshirewomen, more... |
| Friends, Associates | Storm Jameson | SJ
invited Vera Brittain
live with her and her sister's family at Heathfield, the house they had taken at Mortimer in Berkshire. Brittain accepted, and stayed about ten weeks. Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus. 405, 556 |
| Publishing | Storm Jameson | SJ
reviewed her friend Vera Brittain
's Testament of Youth for the Sunday Times. Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell. 2, 269 |
| 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 |
| Travel | Kathleen E. Innes | 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... |
| Occupation | Kathleen E. Innes | Among those drafted to form the Mandate's Honorary Council in Britain were prominent politicians, clergy, feminists, and writers such as Margaret Ashton
, Margaret Bondfield
, Vera Brittain
, Arthur Henderson
, Laurence Housman
,... |
| 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. 210 |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Winifred Holtby | Vera Brittain
, who had believed and encouraged others to believe that WH
was in love with Harry Pearson
, got another male friend to propose to Holtby on her deathbed, so that she might... |
| Other Life Event | Winifred Holtby | In January 1940 Vera Brittain
published Testament of Friendship: The Story of Winifred Holtby, an account of their friendship which continued unbroken and unspoilt for sixteen incomparable years. Brittain, Vera, and Rosalind Delmar. Testament of Friendship. Virago. 2 Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus. 337 |
| Material Conditions of Writing | Winifred Holtby | |
| 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 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 |
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Texts
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