Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Radclyffe Hall
-
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.
UT
, who had for nearly two years been living intermittently with her lover Radclyffe Hall
, agreed to sign a deed of separation from her husband
. He signed the deed the next day...
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...
Cline, Sally. Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John. John Murray.
165
Baker, Michael. Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall. Hamish Hamilton.
124, 128, 131
Literary responses
Una Troubridge
Aside from her translations, UT
is largely remembered as the lover and amanuensis of Hall
. She herself is partly responsible for this view of her life and work, because of her self-presententation as wholly...
Family and Intimate relationships
Una Troubridge
UT
's lover and companion of twenty-eight years, Radclyffe Hall
, died of colon cancer: a terrible blow to her partner.
Ormrod, Richard. Una Troubridge: The Friend of Radclyffe Hall. Carroll and Graf.
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.
5
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
Author summary
Una Troubridge
Twentieth-century translator and biographer UT
is best remembered for her numerous translations from the French and Italian, and for her biography of her lover of twenty-eight years, the writer Radclyffe Hall
. UT
also published...
Occupation
Una Troubridge
By the age of sixteen, UT
had begun receiving commissions for her sculptures and had rented a studio of her own in which to exhibit her works. The money she earned from these commissions gave...
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...
Family and Intimate relationships
Noel Streatfeild
One of her close friends and literary mentors was Daphne Ionides
, whom she met in 1926.
Huse, Nancy. Noel Streatfeild. Twayne.
xv
Huse suggests that this was (in addition to a stimulating literary and professional friendship) an intense relationship...
Friends, Associates
Christopher St John
CSJ
, Edith Craig
, and Tony Atwood
spent much time in the company of Radclyffe Hall
and Una Troubridge
, who were staying temporarily in Kent while their house was being renovated.
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...
politics
Vita Sackville-West
VSW
disliked the term feminist, though many of her socially nonconforming attitudes would attract that term today. She supported the fight for Radclyffe Hall
's Well of Loneliness. She did not involve herself...
