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.
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...
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.
140
After a difficult beginning (they disliked each other at first sight), they became lifelong...
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.
112-13
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
WH
credited Vera Brittain
with making her a feminist during their years at Oxford. Before then, Winifred claimed that her mother's strong presence within her family had left her unaware that women suffered social and...
Friends, Associates
Winifred Holtby
Through her work with the Six Point Group
and Time and Tide, WH
met the founder of both, Margaret Haig, Lady Rhondda
. Their professional relationship grew into a friendship, and WH
dedicated her...
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
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.
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.
