Helen Waddell

31 May 1889 - 05 March 1965

HW , an early twentieth-century scholar in the field of medieval studies and especially Latin verse, was the author of scholarly monographs and translations (from Chinese as well as Latin), and of plays, articles, reviews, short fictions based on the Bible, religious writings, newspaper columns . . . and personal letters.

Waddell, Helen. “Acknowledgements; Note; Introduction”. Between Two Eternities, edited by Felicitas Corrigan, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, pp. viii - ix, 1.

viii

She acquired fame in her lifetime as a popular historian of the period she studied, and her lyrics have had an unusually strong appeal for composers of song-settings.

Milestones

31 May 1889

HW was born to British missionary parents in Tokyo, Japan, the youngest child in a family of ten.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

After August 1929

Helen Waddell 's Medieval Latin Lyrics was an immensely scholarly translated volume whose imaginative force and literary flair nevertheless gave it wide general appeal.

British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

By May 1933

Helen Waddell published a historical novel entitled Peter Abelard (in which, naturally, Heloise is also an important figure).

Dated from the Bodleian Library acquisition stamp.

Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

5 March 1965

HW died in London, at the Whittington Hospital in Highgate, following pneumonia and bronchitis.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Blackett, Monica. The Mark of the Maker: A Portrait of Helen Waddell. Constable.

212

Biography

Birth and Background

31 May 1889

HW was born to British missionary parents in Tokyo, Japan, the youngest child in a family of ten.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.