Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Pamela Hansford Johnson
-
Standard Name: Johnson, Pamela Hansford
Birth Name: Pamela Hansford Johnson
Pseudonym: Nap Lombard
Married Name: Pamela Hansford Snow
Titled: Baroness Snow
PHJ
had a long and prolific writing career, from before the second world war until late twentieth century. She is remembered primarily as a novelist (with twenty-seven titles),
Hadley, Tessa. “He wants me no more”. London Review of Books, Vol.
38
, No. 2, pp. 29-30.
30
though she also wrote poetry, drama, memoirs, and political and social commentary.
New Stories also published Pamela Hansford Johnson
, Dylan Thomas
, and Stephen Spender
. OM
's title, which is challenging in a way that was characteristic for this stage of her career, comes from...
Literary responses
Olivia Manning
Amid a chorus of praise for this novel, Pamela Hansford Johnson
's statement that it was among the ten best novels written by women in the past twenty-five years attracted ridicule for its mathematical approach...
Literary responses
F. Tennyson Jesse
The New Yorker described the letters as having vigour, clarity, humour and elegance, and found FTJ
and her husband a tough pair of gentle writers.
Colenbrander, Joanna. A Portrait of Fryn. A. Deutsch.
213
In London, Pamela Hansford Johnson
called the...
Textual Production
Elizabeth Jennings
She also joined with fellow-writers in letters to the Times on matters of public concern. She joined with forty well-known names (including Pamela Hansford Johnson
) on 25 September 1969 to defend keeping up the...
Literary responses
Aldous Huxley
This text, wrote novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson
, opened miraculous doors for her and a whole group of her literary-minded young friends.
Johnson, Pamela Hansford. Important to Me. Macmillan; Scribner.
82
Friends, Associates
Susan Hill
While studying at King's CollegeSH
, an aspiring writer, wrote to novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson
and her writer husband C. P. Snow
for advice on the profession. The couple answered her letters and even...
Intertextuality and Influence
Susan Hill
I would come home, do my homework, and then write my novel in what little time was left.
Sanderson, Caroline. “Interview, Susan Hill”. Mslexia, No. 48, pp. 13-15.
14
Novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson
not only encouraged her in the writing of this book, but also...
Literary responses
Susan Hill
This book was widely praised. Pamela Hansford Johnson
in the Daily Telegraph made it her book selection of the year.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
14
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Susan Hill
SH
gives free rein to her enjoyment of list-making. Writers mentioned (not in a list or lists) include E. Nesbit
(read by Noel Coward on his deathbed), Pamela Hansford Johnson
and her husband C. P. Snow
Occupation
John Donne
During the later seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries Donne's writings were largely forgotten or disapproved of. In June 1741 the London Magazine printed a regularised (to modern eyes butchered) version of Goe, and catche a...
Literary responses
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Leonard Woolf's decision proved a mistake. The book was not only praised to the skies by young, advanced reviewers, but also made the secondary Book of the Month for May by the newly-formed Book Society
Literary responses
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Pamela Hansford Johnson
thought this both the most attractive and one of the finest of ICB
's books, verging on the lyrical.
Johnson, Pamela Hansford. Important to Me. Macmillan; Scribner.
Johnson, Important 193, 195
Literary responses
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Of this novel ICB
wrote, I have never had such superficial reviews.
Spurling, Hilary. Secrets of a Woman’s Heart. Hodder and Stoughton.
190
They did, however, praise the book, especially in the case of reviewers who were also novelists, like Elizabeth Bowen
, Pamela Hansford Johnson
Textual Production
Ivy Compton-Burnett
The manuscript had been due in August 1964. At that time she told Gollancz then that it was not ready, but in a lamentable state.
Spurling, Hilary. Secrets of a Woman’s Heart. Hodder and Stoughton.
289
She worked on it to the end: a week...
Reception
Ivy Compton-Burnett
During the early part of ICB
's career she was little regarded or understood. Raymond Mortimer
was one of the first to perceive her quality, and she quickly began to attract the attention of younger...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Johnson, Pamela Hansford. This Bed Thy Centre. Chapman and Hall; Harcourt Brace, 1935.
Johnson, Pamela Hansford. Too Dear for my Possessing. Collins; Carrick and Evans, 1940.
