May Sinclair

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Standard Name: Sinclair, May
Birth Name: Mary Amelia St Clair Sinclair
Self-constructed Name: May Sinclair
Styled: May Sinclair
Pseudonym: Julian Sinclair
MS , a major figure in the development of Modernism, wrote more than two dozen works ranging from novels (twenty-one of them), poetry, and collections of short stories to polemical pamphlets, philosophical treatises, translations, biography and a personal account of war experience. She was also a well-regarded book reviewer and literary critic. During her last decades she published nothing, and almost dropped from literary consciousness.
Oval black and white, head-and-shoulders photograph of May Sinclair in semi-profile, c. 1912. She is wearing a white, embroidered dress or blouse with a high collar; her dark hair is pulled up in a loose roll with a bun on top.
Black-and-white photo of May Sinclair. She is looking down, and pictured in profile.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Education Margaret Kennedy
Notable women writers such as May Sinclair and Phyllis Bentley , a recent predecessor to MK , had also been educated there. Margaret would later recreate Cheltenham in The Constant Nymph as Cleeve College.
Powell, Violet. The Constant Novelist. W. Heinemann.
25-6
Family and Intimate relationships Bryher
Though emotionally empty, the marriage was artistically productive. Most significantly, Bryher's introductions and family funds allowed McAlmon to establish his influential press, Contact Editions . Thus, Bryher's money and social connections enabled the publication of...
Family and Intimate relationships H. D.
Bryher, the illegitimate daughter of wealthy shipping magnate Sir John Ellerman , had developed an interest in HD after reading her poetry, and wrote to her requesting a meeting. She had obtained HD's address from...
Family and Intimate relationships Charlotte Mew
CM met novelist May Sinclair , and for a brief period an ambivalent and intense
Raitt, Suzanne. “Charlotte Mew and May Sinclair: A love-song”. Critical Quarterly, Vol.
37
, No. 3, pp. 3-17.
4
friendship developed between them.
Fitzgerald, Penelope. Charlotte Mew and Her Friends. Collins, p. 240 pp.
117-20
Friends, Associates Katharine Tynan
Living in a suburb of London, KT frequented the heart of English literary culture. She had already joined London's Irish Literary Society , and was later appointed its Honorary Vice-President.
Tynan, Katharine. The Years of the Shadow. Constable.
3-4
Among other literary figures...
Friends, Associates Violet Hunt
Distraught over her split with Ford , VH was supported by several of her women writer friends, especially Radclyffe Hall , Dorothy Richardson , Ethel Colburn Mayne , May Sinclair , and Rebecca West .
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster.
251
Friends, Associates Stella Benson
SB , recently re-established in London, met there May Sinclair , William Gerhardi , and Rose Macaulay .
Grant, Joy. Stella Benson: A Biography. Macmillan.
239
Friends, Associates Evelyn Underhill
EU and her husband led active social lives, often entertaining friends and colleagues at their home. Blanche Alethea Crackanthorpe introduced her to Marie Belloc Lowndes , who became a friend of Underhill and called her...
Friends, Associates Phyllis Bottome
PB was introduced to Ezra Pound (as half American) by May Sinclair at one of her parties in London.
Bottome, Phyllis. The Challenge. Harcourt, Brace and Company.
381-2
Friends, Associates Storm Jameson
Jameson met Romer Wilson , Charles Morgan , and J. W. N. Sullivan through her Knopf connections. By about 1924 she and Edith Sitwell had visited each other's homes. Jameson felt that in spite of...
Friends, Associates Dorothy Richardson
Throughout the late 1910s and 1920s, DR 's other friends and acquaintances included Violet Hunt , May Sinclair , Marianne Moore , C. A. Dawson-Scott , Catherine Carswell , and Sinclair Lewis .
Richardson, Dorothy. Windows on Modernism: Selected Letters of Dorothy Richardson. Editor Fromm, Gloria G., University of Georgia Press.
39, 107, 138, 141, 170, 284
Friends, Associates Mary Webb
In London, despite the shyness that made literary life difficult for her, MW became friends with May Sinclair , Robert and Sylvia Lynd , Rebecca West , novelist and critic Edwin Pugh , and Lady Cynthia Asquith
Friends, Associates Ella Hepworth Dixon
Initial members of the Club included Sidney Low , Mrs H. G. Wells , Lady Mond (later Lady Melchett) , William Heinemann, May Sinclair , W. B. Yeats , Robert Ross , Gertrude Kinnell ,...
Friends, Associates Virginia Woolf
They developed a relationship that was competitive yet sustaining and essential to both. In August 1920 Woolf commented on Mansfield in her diary: a woman caring as I care for writing is rare enough I...
Friends, Associates Marie Belloc Lowndes
Her literary friends of a generation before her own included George Meredith , Rhoda Broughton , and Henry James . She participated in the friendship of the two last-named by being regularly at Broughton's house...

Timeline

9 November 1857: The first issue appeared of the US magazine...

Writing climate item

9 November 1857

The first issue appeared of the US magazineAtlantic Monthly. It set out to provide articles of an abstract and permanent value, while not ignoring the healthy appetite of the mind for entertainment in...

June 1908: The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established...

National or international item

June 1908

The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton .

Early December 1908: A meeting of suffragists at the Albert Hall...

Building item

Early December 1908

A meeting of suffragists at the Albert Hall was marred by violence from both sides: a woman struck a steward in the face with a whip, and women were roughly handled.

Texts

Sinclair, May. “<span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>Prufrock, and Other Observations</span>: A Criticism”. The Little Review.
Sinclair, May. “A Custance of Today”. Cheltenham Ladies College Magazine, Cheltenham Ladies’ College.
Sinclair, May. A Defence of Idealism. Macmillan, 1917.
Sinclair, May. “A Defence of Men”. The English Review.
Sinclair, May. A Journal of Impressions in Belgium. Hutchinson, 1915.
Sinclair, May. Anne Severn and the Fieldings. Hutchinson, 1922.
Sinclair, May. Arnold Waterlow: A Life. Hutchinson, 1924.
Sinclair, May. Audrey Craven. W. Blackwood, 1897.
Sinclair, May. “Clinical Lectures on Symbolism and Sublimation”. Medical Press, pp. 118-22.
Sinclair, May. Essays in Verse. Kegan Paul, Trench, 1891.
Sinclair, May. Feminism. Women Writers’ Suffrage League, 1912.
Sinclair, May. “Field Ambulance in Retreat: Via Dolorosa, Via Sacra”. King Albert’s Book, edited by Thomas Caine, Daily Telegraph, 1914, p. 141.
Scott, Catharine Amy Dawson, and May Sinclair. From Four Who Are Dead. Arrowsmith, 1926.
Sinclair, May. History of Anthony Waring. Hutchinson, 1927.
Sinclair, May, and Emily Brontë. “Introduction”. Wuthering Heights, Dent; Dutton, 1907.
Sinclair, May. “Khaki”. The English Review, Vol.
15
, pp. 190-01.
Sinclair, May. Kitty Tailleur. Constable, 1908.
Sinclair, May. Life and Death of Harriett Frean. Collins, 1922.
Sinclair, May. Mary Olivier: A Life. Cassell, 1919.
Sinclair, May. Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson. W. Blackwood, 1897.
Sinclair, May. Nakiketas, and Other Poems. Kegan Paul, Trench, 1886.
Sohm, Rudolf. Outlines of Church History. Translator Sinclair, May, Macmillan, 1895.
Sinclair, May. “Red Tape”. The Queen, the Lady’s Newspaper and Court Chronicle, pp. 802-3.
Sinclair, May. Tales Told by Simpson. Hutchinson, 1930.
Sinclair, May. Tasker Jevons: The Real Story. Hutchinson, 1916.