"Vera Brittain" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Vera_Brittain.jpg.
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.
Connections
| Connections | Author name Sort ascending | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| 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, 1995. 166-7 Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell, 1996. 159, 161 Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago, 1999. 106 |
| 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, 1999. 114 |
| 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, 1996. 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, 1995. 332 |
| Textual Production | Winifred Holtby | WH
's anti-Fascistplay, 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... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Winifred Holtby | During her first year back at Oxford, WH
met Vera Brittain
, who was also returning to complete her degree. Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus, 1995. 140 |
| politics | Winifred Holtby | She and Vera Brittain
regularly attended the League of Nations Assembly
in Geneva. In 1924 they went on a lecture tour of Central Europe for the Union. Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago, 1999. 112-13 Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus, 1995. 219 |
| 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. qtd. in Cannan, May, and Bevil Quiller-Couch. “Editorial Materials”. The Tears of War, edited by Charlotte Fyfe, Cavalier Books, 2000, p. Various pages. 145 |
| Occupation | Muriel Box | She had in fact discussed this venture with Sydney, and he had encouraged her. She had formerly been a non-active director of his publishing company Triton Books
. She was able to capitalise her new... |
| Literary responses | Muriel Box | Its recent editors call it very much a beginner's piece of work with regard to dialogue and stage impact. Yet they feel it is valuable for exemplifying the way that feminist ideas survived and continued... |
| Textual Production | Muriel Box | MB
's first contact with her future second husband arose out of correspondence about legal matters canvassed in this book. Box, Muriel. Rebel Advocate. Victor Gollancz, 1983. 195 |
Timeline
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Texts
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