Rosamund Marriott Watson

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RMW published under several names during the later nineteenth and early twentieth century seven volumes of poetry, one novel, some articles, and many literary reviews. She edited Sylvia's Journal, as well as several other anthologies. She became particularly well known for her powerful ballads. A female aesthete, she also published works on fashion and interior design.

Milestones

6 October 1860
Rosamund Ball (later RMW ) was born the youngest of five children at Homerton Row, Hackney, in North London.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
September 1883
Rosamund Armytage (later RMW ) contributed an article, Modern Dress, to the Fortnightly Review; this was probably her first signed publication.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
240
By 4 May 1889
As Graham R. Tomson, Rosamund Tomson (later RMW ) published her second poetry collection, The Bird-Bride, A Volume of Ballads and Sonnets.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
240
1903-1911
Although deteriorating in health, RMW contributed reviews and poetry to the Athenæum.
Angela Leighton and Margaret Reynolds state that she was poetry editor from 1904 to 1911, but this is not confirmed by more recent sources, including Demoor's study of the Athenæum.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
240
Demoor, Marysa. Their Fair Share. Ashgate, 2000.
124-5
29 December 1911
RMW died just before midnight at her home, Vacery, at Shere in Surrey, of uterine cancer, which had also claimed her mother's life.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
240

Biography

RMW altered her publishing name with each marriage or long-term relationship. After initially publishing under her first married surname, she turned to a pen name during her second marriage: Graham R. Tomson, from an amalgam of her husband's name and her own. Although she was never legally married to H. B. Marriott Watson , she used his name in the manner of a wife.
Leighton, Angela, and Margaret Reynolds, editors. Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology. Blackwell, 1995.
581
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Birth and Background

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