Christopher St John

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Standard Name: St John, Christopher
Birth Name: Christabel Marshall
Pseudonym: Christopher St John
Writing from the beginning of the twentieth century, CSJ produced novels, biography, and love-journals, as well as her work for the stage, for which she wrote translations, adaptations, and original plays. She is best remembered for the suffrage play How the Vote Was Won, co-written with Cicely Hamilton .

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Birth Edith Craig
EC was born in Gusterwoods Common, Hertfordshire, the elder of two children.
This is the spelling used by Christopher St John . Other sources say Gusterd Wood Common or Gusherd Wood Common.
St John, Christopher. “Biographical Note”. Edy: Recollections of Edith Craig, edited by Eleanor Adlard, 1st ed., Frederick Muller, 1949.
9
Cultural formation Edith Craig
Since her mother's relationships with men tended to be brief, EC grew up surrounded by women. From an early age she associated women with strength and courage, and would admonish her brother for his childhood...
Cultural formation Edith Craig
From the age of thirty until her death, EC lived with writer Christopher St John (Christabel Marshall). Though Craig was reluctant to discuss this or any other aspect of her life, St John identified their...
death Ethel Smyth
She appointed Christopher St John as her literary executor. At the request of Christabel Pankhurst , St John downplayed ES 's role in the suffrage movement when she wrote her biography.
Mitchell, David J. The Fighting Pankhursts: A Study in Tenacity. MacMillan, 1967.
306
St John, Christopher. Ethel Smyth. Longmans, Green, 1959.
xvii
Family and Intimate relationships Edith Craig
EC and Christopher St John took lodgings in Smith Square, Westminster, where they lived for six years.
Melville, Joy. Ellen and Edy. Pandora, 1987.
175
Auerbach, Nina. Ellen Terry: Player in Her Time. W.W. Norton, 1987.
480
Holledge, Julie. Innocent Flowers: Women in the Edwardian Theatre. Virago, 1981.
115
Cockin, Katharine. Edith Craig (1869-1947): Dramatic Lives. Cassell, 1998.
61-2
Family and Intimate relationships Emma Marshall
Her youngest child, Christabel, who grew up to re-name herself Christopher St John , circulated a fabricated story of her family and origins, and became well known as a suffragist playwright, biographer, and lesbian.
Family and Intimate relationships Vita Sackville-West
Matheson was succeeded in VSW 's life by Evelyn Irons , editor of the Daily Mail Women's Page, and then by Christopher St John , whose Barn Theatre, Smallhythe, was of professional interest. Vita...
Friends, Associates Radclyffe Hall
During the 1920s, RH and Una Troubridge were friends with a wide range of writers, actors, and artists, including Ida Wylie , Romaine Brooks , Natalie Barney , Noël Coward , Tallulah Bankhead , and...
Friends, Associates Edith Craig
In the early 1930s—when the persecution of lesbians in general and Radclyffe Hall in particular was raging in the wake of The Well of Loneliness trial—EC , Christopher St John , and Clare Atwood
Friends, Associates George Bernard Shaw
He was an important figure in the lives and careers of almost innumerable women writers: a good friend of Annie Besant , Sylvia Pankhurst , Elizabeth Robins , and Christopher St John , a romantic...
Literary responses Vita Sackville-West
There was a widespread feeling that VSW had been too circumspect and scholarly. Virginia Woolf told Vita that she found the book solid, strong, satisfactory
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press, 1975–1980, 6 vols.
6: 49
, but wished she had allowed herself a...
names Hrotsvit of Gandersheim
  • BirthName: Hrotsvit
    Christopher St John notes with satisfaction that Hrotsvit herself had recognised the derivation of her name in German words meaning strong voice.
    St John, Christopher et al. “The Plays of Roswitha”. The Plays of Roswitha, translated by. Christopher St John, Benjamin Blom, 1966, p. xiv - xxiv.
    xiv n

  • Self-constructed: of Gandersheim
  • Indexed: Hroswitha; Roswitha
Occupation Edith Craig
The Pioneer Players produced Christopher St John 's The First Actress and Cicely Hamilton 's Jack and Jill and a Friend at their first matinee. Both plays deal with the the artistic establishment's exclusion of...
Occupation Edith Craig
Despite her successes with the Pioneer Players and the Little Theatre movement, EC was often unable to find work in London, possibly because of her relationship with Christopher St John , possibly (as St...
Occupation Inez Bensusan
These plays, written by amateur and professional writers, were made available for performance at public events in support of women's suffrage. Bensusan encouraged writers to produce plays dealing with a range of women's issues such...

Timeline

June 1908: The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established...

National or international item

June 1908

The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton .
Norquay, Glenda. Voices and Votes: A Literary Anthology of the Women’s Suffrage Campaign. Manchester University Press, 1995.
xv
Stowell, Sheila. A Stage of Their Own. University of Michigan Press, 1992.
2, 40, 102, 126n1
Cockin, Katharine. Edith Craig (1869-1947): Dramatic Lives. Cassell, 1998.
89
Whitelaw, Lis. The Life and Rebellious Times of Cicely Hamilton. Women’s Press, 1990.
68-74
Liggins, Emma. “The ’Sordid Story’ of an Unwanted Child: Militancy, Motherhood, and Abortion in Elizabeth Robins’s Votes for Women and Way Stations”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
25
, No. 3, Aug. 2018, pp. 347-61.
349

1 October 1910: The Times newspaper launched a Woman's S...

Building item

1 October 1910

The Times newspaper launched a Woman's Supplement.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

14 May 1920: Time and Tide began publication, offering...

Building item

14 May 1920

Time and Tide began publication, offering a feminist approach to literature, politics, and the arts: Naomi Mitchison called it the first avowedly feminist literary journal with any class, in some ways ahead of its time...

1925: Christine Murrell and Letitia Fairfield,...

Building item

1925

Christine Murrell and Letitia Fairfield , in association with the Medical Women's Federation , set out to explode some damaging myths by launching a survey on menstrual experience among girls.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Texts

St John, Christopher. “Biographical Note”. Edy: Recollections of Edith Craig, edited by Eleanor Adlard, 1st ed., Frederick Muller, 1949.
St John, Christopher. Edy: Recollections of Edith Craig. Editor Adlard, Eleanor, Frederick Muller, 1949.
St John, Christopher. Ellen Terry. John Lane, 1907.
St John, Christopher. Ethel Smyth. Longmans, Green, 1959.
Hamilton, Cicely, and Christopher St John. How the Vote Was Won. Woman’s Press, 1909.
Hamilton, Cicely, and Christopher St John. How the Vote Was Won. 1st ed., Dramatic Publishing Company, 1910.
St John, Christopher. Hungerheart. 1st ed., Methuen, 1915.
Gasquet, Francis Aidan et al. “Introduction”. The Plays of Roswitha, translated by. Christopher St John, Benjamin Blom, 1966, p. vii - xiii.
St John, Christopher. “Music of the Week”. Time and Tide, Vol.
1
, No. 1, p. 22.
Terry, Ellen. “Preface; Biographical Chapters”. Ellen Terry’s Memoirs, edited by Edith Craig and Christopher St John, Benjamin Blom, 1969, pp. v - xi; 279.
St John, Christopher, and Charles Thursby. The Coronation. International Suffrage Shop, 1911.
St John, Christopher. The Crimson Weed. Duckworth, 1900.
St John, Christopher. The First Actress. Utopia Press, 1909.
Heijermans, Herman. The Good Hope. Translators St John, Christopher and Jacob Thomas Grein, Hendersons, 1921.
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, and Francis Aidan Gasquet. The Plays of Roswitha. Translator St John, Christopher, Chatto and Windus, 1923.
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, and Francis Aidan Gasquet. The Plays of Roswitha. Translator St John, Christopher, Benjamin Blom, 1966, p. xxvi - xxxv; 158 pp.
St John, Christopher et al. “The Plays of Roswitha”. The Plays of Roswitha, translated by. Christopher St John, Benjamin Blom, 1966, p. xiv - xxiv.
Hamilton, Cicely, and Christopher St John. The Pot and the Kettle. 1909.
Heijermans, Herman. The Rising Sun. Translators St John, Christopher and M. V. Salvage, Labour Publishing Company, 1925.
Evreinov, Nikolai Nikolaevich. The Theatre of the Soul. Translators St John, Christopher and Marie Potapenko, Hendersons, 1915.
Despard, Charlotte, and Christopher St John. Woman in the New Era. The Suffrage Shop, 1910.