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
met Radclyffe Hall
(John) for the second time at a tea party given by Troubridge's cousin Lady Clarendon
. In 1961 she wrote Our friendship, which was to last through life and...
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).
Baker, Michael. Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall. Hamish Hamilton.
94
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...
Family and Intimate relationships
Una Troubridge
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...
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...
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...
Family and Intimate relationships
Una Troubridge
UT
later said of her marriage: Almost before I knew it I was grown-up.
Ormrod, Richard. Una Troubridge: The Friend of Radclyffe Hall. Carroll and Graf.
39
Ernest Troubridge, who came from a distinguished naval family, was a friend of the Taylor family and a widower in...
Family and Intimate relationships
Una Troubridge
On the outbreak of World War One, Ernest Troubridge
, as the Commander of the Second Squadron, was assigned to the task of preventing German ships in the Adriatic from sallying out into the Mediterranean...
