Rosamond Lehmann

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RL has received less critical attention than other women modernists, especially her closest literary colleagues Elizabeth Bowen and Virginia Woolf . However, after the reprinting of her work in the 1980s, her seven novels, her short stories, and one play became much better known. After the unexpected death of her daughter, RL ceased writing for about seven years. When she resumed she produced only one more novel, in addition to a memoir and spiritualist writings.
  • BirthName: Rosamond Nina Lehmann

Milestones

3 February 1901

During a violent thunderstorm, RL was born at her parents' house, Fieldhead, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, in a beautiful area of the Thames Valley.
Simons, Judy. Rosamond Lehmann. 1st ed., St Martin’s Press, 1992.
3-4
Lehmann, Rosamond. The Swan in the Evening. 1st ed., Collins, 1967.
9

Late April 1927

RL published her first novel, Dusty Answer, about a young girl who learns about life and leaves her childhood behind as a result of her university experiences.
Hastings, Selina. Rosamond Lehmann. Chatto and Windus, 2002.
90
Siegel, Ruth. Rosamond Lehmann: A Thirties Writer. Peter Lang, 1989.
180, 182
Lehmann, John. In My Own Time. Little, Brown, 1969.
81

25 August 1927

RL left very reluctantly for a trip to publicize her first novel, Dusty Answer, in the USA, where it had been chosen Book of the Month for September and where sales were expected to be high.
Hastings, Selina. Rosamond Lehmann. Chatto and Windus, 2002.
106-7

28 October 1976

RL published her final novel, A Sea-Grape Tree, which continues the story of Rebecca Landon from The Ballad and the Source.
Siegel, Ruth. Rosamond Lehmann: A Thirties Writer. Peter Lang, 1989.
177
Simons, Judy. Rosamond Lehmann. 1st ed., St Martin’s Press, 1992.
18

14 March 1990

RL died at her home in London at the age of eighty-nine, of pneumonia.
Simons, Judy. Rosamond Lehmann. 1st ed., St Martin’s Press, 1992.
19
Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford University Press, 1993.

Biography

Birth and Family

3 February 1901

During a violent thunderstorm, RL was born at her parents' house, Fieldhead, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, in a beautiful area of the Thames Valley.
Simons, Judy. Rosamond Lehmann. 1st ed., St Martin’s Press, 1992.
3-4
Lehmann, Rosamond. The Swan in the Evening. 1st ed., Collins, 1967.
9