Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
May Sinclair
-
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.
At the time she began the novel, RL
admitted that she had very little knowledge of contemporary women's writing other than May Sinclair
's. She dedicated this work to Dadie Rylands
, who had advised...
Textual Production
Margery Lawrence
ML
's ghost stories have been frequently anthologised. They appear in, for instance, Fifty Strangest Stories Ever Told (1937), The Virago
Book of Ghost Stories: The Twentieth Century (1987), and Vampire Stories (1993).
Clute, John, and John Grant, editors. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. St Martin’s Press.
under Lawrence, Margery
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.
Along with fellow author and suffragist May Sinclair
, VH
spent three days collecting funds for the WSPU
at High Street Kensington underground station.
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster.
134
Hunt, Violet. I Have This to Say. Boni and Liveright.
Her colleague and lifelong friend May Sinclair
wrote an article for the English Review in 1922 praising The Novels of Violet Hunt.
Johnson, George M., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 197. Gale Research.
197: 183
Textual Features
Violet Hunt
Focusing particularly on plot and dialogue (she was praised especially for her skill with the latter), her novels consider sexual and social relationships from an anti-romantic, feminist perspective.
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster.
282
Johnson, George M., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 197. Gale Research.
197: 181
Writing in the English...
Literary responses
Violet Hunt
Boots
the chemist, which operated circulating libraries in its shops, refused to the stock this novel (as it already refused VH
's Sooner or Later) because of its alleged sensationalism.
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster.
146-7
Secor, Marie. “Violet Hunt, Novelist: A Reintroduction”. English Literature in Transition, Vol.
CH
published a controversial article, Man, in The English Review; it provoked a response from May Sinclair
in the July issue of the journal.
Whitelaw, Lis. The Life and Rebellious Times of Cicely Hamilton. Women’s Press.
121-2
politics
Radclyffe Hall
With the support of Violet Hunt
and May Sinclair
, RH
was elected a member of the writers' organisation PEN
.
Cline, Sally. Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John. John Murray.
173
Friends, Associates
H. D.
After her move to England, Ezra Pound
introduced HD to his circle of friends, many of whom were important figures in the modernist movement. They included W. B. Yeats
, T. S. Eliot
,...
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...
