Anna Wickham

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Anna Wickham was a prolific poet of the earlier twentieth century: in addition to several hundred published poems, more than a thousand remain unpublished.
Hepburn, James et al. “Editor’s Note and Acknowledgements”. The Writings of Anna Wickham, Free Woman and Poet, edited by Reginald Donald Smith, Virago Press, 1984, p. xxv - xxvi.
xxv
Her poems, with their unique blend of acerbity and lyricism, offer an explicitly female, often feminist, perspective on subjects ranging from marriage and motherhood to poetry itself. Louis Untermeyer has commented that [t]he very tone of her poetry reflects the disturbed music and the nervous protests of her age.
Untermeyer, Louis. “Anna Wickham”. Modern British Poetry, Mid-Century Edition, edited by Louis Untermeyer, Harcourt, Brace, 1950, pp. 276-7.
276
Despite his and others' efforts, her poetry has received scant critical attention over the years. In addition to poetry, AW wrote an unfinished autobiography and a handful of essays, some of which were published posthumously.
  • BirthName: Edith Alice Mary Harper
    Throughout her childhood AW was known as Edith, though her father sometimes called her Anne (as a pet name).
    Wickham, Anna, and James Hepburn. The Writings of Anna Wickham, Free Woman and Poet. Editor Smith, Reginald Donald, Virago Press, 1984.
    385

  • Married: Hepburn
  • Pseudonyms: John Oland
    This pen-name was chosen after a visit to Jenolan Caves near Sydney with a friend, cellist May Mukle .
    Hepburn, James et al. “Anna Wickham: A Memoir”. The Writings of Anna Wickham, Free Woman and Poet, edited by Reginald Donald Smith, Virago Press, 1984, pp. 1-48.
    7-8
    ; Anna Wickham
    AW chose the pseudonym by which she is known because it was at Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, that her father urged her (then aged ten) to promise him that she would become a poet.
    Hepburn, James et al. “Anna Wickham: A Memoir”. The Writings of Anna Wickham, Free Woman and Poet, edited by Reginald Donald Smith, Virago Press, 1984, pp. 1-48.
    7
    Wickham, Anna et al. “Fragment of an Autobiography: Prelude to a Spring Clean”. The Writings of Anna Wickham Free Woman and Poet, edited by Reginald Donald Smith, Virago Press, 1984, pp. 51-157.
    102

Black-and-white photo of Anna Wickham in her cluttered kitchen, originally published to accompany "Anna Wickham: A Poetess Landlady" in Picture Post, 1946. Looking off-camera, she is seated on a chair and smoking a cigarette.

Milestones

7 May 1883

Edith Alice May Harper (known as AW ) was born near London, at 5 The Ridgeway, Wimbledon.
Earlier sources give her a birth date of 1884.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

16 June 1938

AW , along with seven other women, drew up a manifesto for The League for the Protection of the Imagination of Women.
Hepburn, James et al. “Anna Wickham: A Memoir”. The Writings of Anna Wickham, Free Woman and Poet, edited by Reginald Donald Smith, Virago Press, 1984, pp. 1-48.
27

30 April 1947

AW hanged herself at her house on Parliament Hill in Hampstead.
Hepburn, James et al. “Anna Wickham: A Memoir”. The Writings of Anna Wickham, Free Woman and Poet, edited by Reginald Donald Smith, Virago Press, 1984, pp. 1-48.
28

Biography

Birth and Family

7 May 1883

Edith Alice May Harper (known as AW ) was born near London, at 5 The Ridgeway, Wimbledon.
Earlier sources give her a birth date of 1884.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

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