Rose Macaulay

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Standard Name: Macaulay, Rose
Birth Name: Emilie Rose Macaulay
RM was highly prolific, publishing during the earlier half of the twentieth century twenty-three novels and two volumes of poetry, as well as three books of short stories, several historical and travel narratives, and works of literary criticism. Several volumes of her personal letters have been printed. She made many appearances on the BBC and published scores of articles. Valued perhaps chiefly for its satire and wit, her writing shows impressive political complexity and understanding, and her skill at characterisation is noteworthy. In her early works one may feel that her satire is defensive: that she uses mockery to hold off painful involvement. Her treatment of religious issues and characters demonstrates her long struggle with and engagement in established religion. She continually pokes fun at people heavily invested in causes or movements; but the choice of a cause is one of her favourite topics, sometimes handled with poignancy rather than burlesque.
Photograph of a roughly drawn sketch of Rose Macaulay, depicted from the shoulders up. She is wearing a simple dress and her hair is cut short.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Naomi Royde-Smith
NRS was a close friend of Rose Macaulay , with whom in the immediate postwar period she shared entertaining duties at her flat, in something similar to a salon. They apparently met through Macaulay contributing...
Friends, Associates Naomi Royde-Smith
Woolf , going to a party there on 5 June 1921, disliked Royde-Smith and her world at first sight. Never did I see a less attractive woman than Naomi. . . .I fixed her with...
Friends, Associates F. Tennyson Jesse
Gordon Place became the centre of an active female literary community, which included Elizabeth Bowen , Rose Macaulay , Virginia Woolf , Ivy Low (who was also a good friend of Viola Meynell ), Ivy Compton-Burnett
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Bowen
Through her old headmistress, EB met Rose Macaulay , who introduced her to Naomi Royde-Smith . Royde-Smith helped her to get the first of her writing into print.
Hoogland, Renée C. Elizabeth Bowen: A Reputation in Writing. New York University Press, 1994.
8-9
Friends, Associates Ann Bridge
AB 's correspondents included Ka Arnold-Foster , John Betjeman , E. M. Forster , Margaret Haig Rhondda , Margaret Irwin , John Masefield , Naomi Mitchison , I. A. Richards , Vita Sackville-West , and...
Friends, Associates Helen Waddell
Friends from HW 's time at Somerville included Maude Clarke , whom she had known as a child and whose Oxford position had been one of the incentives to go there, and archaelogist Helen Lorimer
Friends, Associates Margaret Kennedy
Other women writers with whom MK established friendships included Lettice Cooper , Phyllis Bentley (who had also been at Cheltenham ), Marghanita Laski , Elizabeth Jenkins , and Rose Macaulay . These authors supported and...
Friends, Associates Katharine Tynan
At Clarebeg they began holding a literary salon for Irish writers and intellectuals. Their guests included Irish writer Padraic Colum , his wife Mary Gunning Maguire (later an eminent literary critic), poet and novelist James Stephens
Friends, Associates Catherine Carswell
CC 's friends included Scotswomen she grew up with—doctors Maud McVail and Isobel Hutton , sculptor Phyllis Clay , and musician Maggie Mather . Among her literary friends were Vita Sackville-West (whom she stayed with...
Intertextuality and Influence Susan Tweedsmuir
She introduces these essays with a reminder from Rose Macaulay that the Edwardians were a mixed lot . . . . merely a set of individuals, not to be lumped together under generalising adjectives.
qtd. in
Tweedsmuir, Susan. The Edwardian Lady. G. Duckworth, 1966.
prelims
Literary responses Katharine Tynan
After Flower of Youth first appeared in The Spectator, KT began receiving letters from mourners. In 1919 she wrote, I believe I have written better poems of the War, or as good, but nothing...
Literary responses Rosamond Lehmann
Leonard Woolf (in the The Nation and Athenæum on 10 September 1927), Desmond MacCarthy , Arnold Bennett , and Rose Macaulay all had more or less serious reservations about the book: Macaulay used very readable...
Literary responses Rumer Godden
One reviewer wrote, [t]here is not enough meat on this book for the library cat,
Chisholm, Anne. Rumer Godden, A Storyteller’s Life. Pan Books, 1999.
200
but Una Pope Hennessy and Rose Macaulay told RG that it ought to have won the Hawthornden Prize.
Chisholm, Anne. Rumer Godden, A Storyteller’s Life. Pan Books, 1999.
201
Literary responses Radclyffe Hall
A number of writers rallied in support of RH . E. M. Forster and Leonard Woolf drafted a letter protesting the suppression of The Well of Loneliness. Its signatories included Bernard Shaw , T. S. Eliot
Literary responses Ivy Compton-Burnett
Of this novel ICB wrote, I have never had such superficial reviews.
qtd. in
Spurling, Hilary. Secrets of a Woman’s Heart. Hodder and Stoughton, 1984.
190
They did, however, praise the book, especially in the case of reviewers who were also novelists, like Elizabeth Bowen , Pamela Hansford Johnson

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Macaulay, Rose. The Making of a Bigot. Hodder and Stoughton, 1914.
Macaulay, Rose. The Towers of Trebizond. Collins, 1956.
Macaulay, Rose. The Two Blind Countries. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1914.
Macaulay, Rose. The World My Wilderness. Collins, 1950.
Macaulay, Rose. The Writings of E. M. Forster. Hogarth Press, 1938.
Macaulay, Rose. They Went to Portugal. Jonathan Cape, 1946.
Macaulay, Rose. They Were Defeated. Collins, 1932.
Macaulay, Rose. Three Days. Constable, 1919.
Macaulay, Rose. Told By an Idiot. Collins.
Macaulay, Rose. Views and Vagabonds. John Murray, 1912.
Macaulay, Rose. What Not: A Prophetic Comedy. Constable, 1918.