Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
May Kendall
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Standard Name: Kendall, May
Used Form: Emma Goldworth Kendall
Self-constructed Name: May
Self-constructed Name: M. K.
May Kendall
is most notable for late-nineteenth-century poems characterized by sharp humour and sarcastic wit on topics related to evolutionary science and the new woman. Her novels employ sarcasm and irony to examine British society, particularly the fruitlessness of philanthropy. Early in the twentieth century she collaborated with Andrew Lang
on a social reform novel and fairy tale, and with Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree
on treatises on working-class poverty that urged legal reform and a minimum wage. MK
's brilliant work in this genre is often overshadowed by the fame of her male collaborators.