Radclyffe Hall

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Standard Name: Hall, Radclyffe
Birth Name: Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall
Nickname: John
Self-constructed Name: Radclyffe Hall
RH is best-known today for her landmark lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness, 1928. But she herself explained that she waited until she had made a name for myself as an author . . . because I felt that it would . . . be difficult for an unknown writer to get a novel on congenital sexual inversion published.
Hall, Radclyffe. Radclyffe Hall’s 1934 Letter About The Well of Loneliness. Lesbian Herstory Educational Foundation.
1-2
Her literary reputation was based first on her poetry but later, and more substantially, on her novels, particularly Adam's Breed.
Black and white photograph of Radclyffe Hall, shown from the waist up. She is wearing a man's suit and tie, and her short hair is slicked back. In her left hand she holds a small black dog.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Una Troubridge
UT wrote much of her 1914 diary in Italian. After 1915, her diaries document her relationship with Radclyffe Hall , touching on the two women's health, families, travels, and social activities. She also writes about...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Ethel Mannin
In it, she describes herself as an emancipated, rebellious, and Angry Young Woman.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
The final phrase in this description claims for herself membership of a largely male literary movement of the 1950s-60s, whose recognized members...
Textual Production Muriel Box
MB 's first contact with her future second husband arose out of correspondence about legal matters canvassed in this book.
Box, Muriel. Rebel Advocate. Victor Gollancz.
195
The work itself fulfilled the aim of Femina Books : to produce titles with...
Textual Production Stevie Smith
SS 's list of requisites for a critic or reviewer goes like this: Attention, impartiality, and no regard for age or sex.
Smith, Stevie. Me Again. Editors Barbera, Jack and William McBrien, Vintage.
173
In April 1941 she was reviewing for John O'London's, Country Life...
Textual Production Vera Brittain
VB published her last book, Radclyffe Hall : A Case of Obscenity?, an account of the Well of Loneliness obscenity trial commissioned by Muriel Box for her publishing company Femina Books .
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
514
Textual Production Violet Trefusis
Around 1941, VT and Vita discussed another writing of their story. Vita thought that a novel superior to Radclyffe Hall 's loathsomeWell of Loneliness could be produced, but soon dismissed the idea of a...
Textual Production Una Troubridge
UT organised this production, the first appearance of her work on Colette, as a private performance, inviting press and stage managers she thought might be willing to promote a commercial run of the play. The...
Textual Production Una Troubridge
UT kept a daily diary throughout her adult life, and she relied on these diaries in the writing of her biography of Radclyffe Hall (who did not keep a diary).
Textual Production Zoë Fairbairns
ZF wrote the introduction to a new edition of Radclyffe Hall 's The Unlit Lamp, her first-written but second-published novel, dating from 1924.
Fairbairns, Zoë, and Radclyffe Hall. “Introduction”. The Unlit Lamp, Lester and Orpen Dennys.
Textual Production Michelene Wandor
MW has specialized in adapting and abridging novels for radio. Between 1980 and 2004 she adapted a wide array of fiction by women writers, including works by Jane Austen , Charlotte Brontë , George Eliot
Textual Production Una Troubridge
UT collaborated with Radclyffe Hall on the first part of a research paper, On a Series of Sittings with Mrs. Osborne Leonard. Hall now delivered it to a private council of Society for Psychical Research
Textual Production Una Troubridge
UT published her biography, The Life and Death of Radclyffe Hall, which she had finished writing by 19 February 1945.
Norman, Sylva. “A Woman’s World”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 3119, p. 883.
883
Troubridge, Una. The Life and Death of Radclyffe Hall. Hammond, Hammond.
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Ormrod, Richard. Una Troubridge: The Friend of Radclyffe Hall. Carroll and Graf.
291, 307-8
Cline, Sally. Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John. John Murray.
107
Textual Production Anna Livia
In this text Minnie and her family return somewhat changed. While all of Minnie's relatives have taken male lovers (all named John, perhaps in honour of the name by which Radclyffe Hall liked to be...
Textual Features Violet Hunt
The protagonist having been married and lost the custody of her child through divorce, is concerned when she contemplates re-marriage to guard against the same thing happening again. The character named Isabel Agate is modelled...
Textual Features Naomi Mitchison
Her format here has stories or groups of stories introduced and ended with a poem. Topics range from ancient to contemporary, from sexuality to politics. The first poem has Phaedra telling her sister Ariadne about...

Timeline

1904: Madame C. de Broutelles founded the Prix...

Writing climate item

1904

Madame C. de Broutelles founded the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse, a prestigious French literary prize awarded by a jury of twelve women. A. Mary F. Robinson (an English writer living in France) was a co-founder.

1931: The Obelisk Press in Paris was established...

Writing climate item

1931

The Obelisk Press in Paris was established by Jack Kahane , in part to combat prudery in British publishing.

1965: Barrie and Rockliff publishers (formerly...

Writing climate item

1965

Barrie and Rockliff publishers (formerly James Barrie imprint) bought out both Herbert Jenkins Limited , publisher of P. G. Wodehouse , and Hammond, Hammond , publishers of Radclyffe Hall .

14 July 2006: The Bow Street Magistrates Court, one of...

Building item

14 July 2006

The Bow Street Magistrates Court , one of London's most famous courts, closed after dispensing justice for 267 years.

9 December 2006-17 July 2007: The National Portrait Gallery in London mounted...

Writing climate item

9 December 2006-17 July 2007

The National Portrait Gallery in London mounted an exhibition of photographs of women writers, mostly novelists, from 1920 to 1960.

Texts

Hall, Radclyffe. ’The World’ and other unpublished works of Radclyffe Hall. Editor Funke, Jana, Manchester University Press, 2016.
Hall, Radclyffe. ’Twixt Earth and Stars. J. and E. Bumpus, 1906.
Hall, Radclyffe. A Saturday Life. Arrowsmith, 1925.
Hall, Radclyffe. A Sheaf of Verses. J. and E. Bumpus, 1908.
Hall, Radclyffe. Adam’s Breed. Cassell, 1926.
Fairbairns, Zoë, and Radclyffe Hall. “Introduction”. The Unlit Lamp, Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1981.
Hall, Radclyffe. “Introduction”. Your John: The Love Letters of Radclyffe Hall, edited by Joanne Glasgow, New York University Press, 1997.
Hall, Radclyffe. Le puits de solitude. Translators Troubridge, Una and Léo Lack, Gallimard, 1932.
Hall, Radclyffe. Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself. William Heinemann, 1934.
Hall, Radclyffe. Poems of the Past and Present. Chapman and Hall, 1910.
Hall, Radclyffe. Radclyffe Hall’s 1934 Letter About The Well of Loneliness. Lesbian Herstory Educational Foundation, 1994.
Hall, Radclyffe. Songs of Three Counties and Other Poems. Chapman and Hall, 1913.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Forge. Arrowsmith, 1924.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Forgotten Island. Chapman and Hall, 1915.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Master of the House. Jonathan Cape, 1932.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Sixth Beatitude. William Heinemann, 1936.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Unlit Lamp. Cassell, 1924.
Hall, Radclyffe, and Havelock Ellis. The Well of Loneliness. Jonathan Cape, 1928.
Hall, Radclyffe, and Havelock Ellis. The Well of Loneliness. Anchor Books, 1990.