Gertrude Bell

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GB , who began publishing in the late nineteenth century, became well-known in the early twentieth century as a writer of popular travel narratives. She also wrote books on archeological and political topics, and she was most unusually qualified by experience for political writing and archeology. All of her work concerns the Middle East, especially Syria, Turkey, and present-day Iraq.
Black and white photo of Gertrude Bell standing in front of a tent in Iraq, 1941, palm trees in the background. She has a covering on her head to protect her from the sun. She is wearing a jacker, a long skirt, and unsuitable-looking shoes.
"Gertrude Bell" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/BellK_218_Gertrude_Bell_in_Iraq_in_1909_age_41.jpg/774px-BellK_218_Gertrude_Bell_in_Iraq_in_1909_age_41.jpg. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license. This work is in the public domain.

Milestones

14 July 1868
GB was born at Washington Hall, Durham, the elder of two children—or, counting her younger half-siblings, the eldest of five.
Goodman, Susan. Gertrude Bell. Berg, 1985.
3, 4
Wallach, Janet. Desert Queen. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1996.
9
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Early 1907
GB published The Desert and the Sown, an account of her travels in Syria in 1905.
Brothers, Barbara, and Julia Gergits, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 174. Gale Research, 1997.
174: 3
12 July 1926
GB died in Baghdad of an overdose of sleeping potion, and was buried the same day with full military honours.
Goodman, Susan. Gertrude Bell. Berg, 1985.
115
Winstone, Harry Victor Frederick. Gertrude Bell. J. Cape, 1978.
259
February 1937
The Earlier Letters of Gertrude Bell appeared posthumously; the volume includes letters from her childhood through to 1892, before she became a published author.
Bell, Gertrude. The Earlier Letters of Gertrude Bell. Richmond, ElsaEditor , Ernest Benn, 1937.

Biography

Birth and Family

14 July 1868
GB was born at Washington Hall, Durham, the elder of two children—or, counting her younger half-siblings, the eldest of five.
Goodman, Susan. Gertrude Bell. Berg, 1985.
3, 4
Wallach, Janet. Desert Queen. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1996.
9
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.