Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Martin Ross
-
Standard Name: Ross, Martin
Birth Name: Violet Florence Martin
Pseudonym: Martin Ross
Pseudonym: Somerville and Ross
It is widely suspected that MR
may have been the dominant partner, the chief creative spirit, in the partnership of Somerville
and Ross which occupied the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (though the opposite view has also been argued). Their most memorable works—an important novel and a collection of classic comic stories set in the west of Ireland and centred on fox-hunting, as well as other endearing Irish sketches and travel writings—were completed before her death, and Somerville's publications after Ross died are permeated with an elegiac tone. They themselves poured scorn on their public's desire to teize apart the individual strands in their collaboration.
Stone, Marjorie, and Judith Thompson. Literary couplings: writing couples, collaborators, and the construction of authorship. University of Wisconsin Press.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
200
Family and Intimate relationships
Edith Somerville
Within a few months Violet became a replacement for the lost Ethel Coghill. It was ES
who selected the name Martin Ross for her cousin, apparently to avoid confusion with another Violet in the family...
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
ES
published Wheel-Tracks (which she described as autobiographical),
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
263
as by both herself and Martin Ross
, illustrated with her drawings and photographs.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
262-3
Travel
Edith Somerville
Edith and Martin
made a series of journeys between 1890 and 1893, about which they wrote in various travel books.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
75, 99
They visited Connemara, the vineyards of Bordeaux, North Wales, Denmark...
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
Ten years after the death of Martin Ross
, ES
published The Big House of Inver, as by Ross and herself: the first of several of her books published by William Heinemann
.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
263
politics
Edith Somerville
ES
and Martin Ross
campaigned for women's suffrage in Ireland, but they did not support the militancy and the anti-Home-Rule stance of English suffragists.
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
ES
published French Leave, a light and pleasantly nostalgic novel,
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
91
as by herself and Martin Ross
.
In this month the US edition was published, using sheets shipped from England.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
264
Family and Intimate relationships
Edith Somerville
Throughout Martin Ross
's final illness, ES
and her sister Hildegarde remained with her. Edith recorded her friend's progress towards death both in writing and drawing.
Lewis, Gifford. Somerville and Ross: The World of the Irish R. M. Viking.
237
Family and Intimate relationships
Edith Somerville
ES
met her second cousin Violet Martin
for the first time.
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
14
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
39, 25-8
Occupation
Constance Smedley
Since the Langham Place Group
had provided a social space for women in 1860, several organizations had already challenged the flourishing institution of men's clubs. The Lyceum Club
came on the scene at a time...
Intertextuality and Influence
Kate O'Brien
Lorna Reynolds notes a parallel between the KOB
of this novel, on the one hand, and Somerville
and Ross
, on the other. Like her very different predecessors in the west-of-Ireland novel, O'Brien describes landscape...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Russell Mitford
Our Village is often said to have inaugurated its genre of small-scale, local-colour sketch writing, but (apart from Washington Irving
's Geoffrey Crayon's Sketch Book, 1819) it owes an obvious debt to the work...
Intertextuality and Influence
Molly Keane
The stories, told through the eyes of an Englishman dazzled by Ireland, concern a family in a big-house: an aristocratic father, domineering and hiding his love; a brother and sister whose lives are wrapped...
Textual Production
Molly Keane
MK
wrote a foreword for Gifford Lewis
's selection from the letters of Somerville
and Ross
, published in 1989.
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Textual Production
Elizabeth Jane Howard
She was invited to do a script for an Irish film by Jonathan Cavendish
about Edith Somerville
and Martin Ross
, but when she looked into their lives she thought they lacked the dramatic structure...