Evelyn Underhill

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Standard Name: Underhill, Evelyn
Birth Name: Evelyn Maud Bosworth Underhill
Married Name: Evelyn Maud Bosworth Stuart Moore
Nickname: Thomasina
Religious Name: Soror Quaerens Lucem
Pseudonym: John Cordelier
Perhaps more than any other person in the twentieth century, EU was responsible for fanning interest in and shaping the study of mysticism. Most of her works draw on her extensive knowledge of mystical texts from various times and places—knowledge that she uses to rescue the practice of mysticism from its antique, occult associations and argue for its applicability to modern life. In about four decades, she issued thirty-nine full-length volumes and over 350 shorter pieces.
qtd. in
Greene, Dana. Evelyn Underhill: Artist of the Infinite Life. Crossroad, 1990.
2
Though she is best known for her books and articles on mysticism, EU also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, devotional works, book reviews, and biographies. In addition, she edited and supplied prefatory pieces to several religious texts, and translated medieval folk tales.
Black and white head-shot of Evelyn Underhill, in profile with her gaze downcast. Her hair is smoothed back.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Cultural formation Naomi Royde-Smith
In about 1940 both NRS and her husband became converts to Roman Catholicism , a faith to which she was led by Evelyn Underhill and by two Jesuit priests, Martin d'Arcy (while she and her...
Friends, Associates May Sinclair
Her articles and critical reviews were encouraging for many writers, including T. S. Eliot .
Scott, Bonnie Kime. Refiguring Modernism. Indiana University Press, 1995, 2 vols.
85
Sinclair also made the acquaintance of other women writers, including Alice Meynell , Ida Wylie (a close friend), Rebecca West
Intertextuality and Influence Evelyn Glover
EG demonstrates an amazing memory for cats casually met in the course of her work, in friends' houses, on holiday, or in the street. She writes as a photographer and cat-lover, without reference to her...
Intertextuality and Influence Winefrid Thimelby
Latz also finds her style to be poetic, reflecting the influence of mystics like St Augustine and Ruysbroeck (whose work was later translated and discussed by Evelyn Underhill ); Thimelby quotes and cites these two...
Literary responses May Sinclair
Reviewers were less positive than about MS 's previous book: most of them found something or other to cavil at in the moral positions taken. But when Eleanor Cecil gave it a bad review, Evelyn Underhill
Literary responses May Sinclair
Soon after the first instalment came out the mystic Evelyn Underhill wrote enthusiastically to MS predicting it's going to be a gorgeous book.
qtd. in
Boll, Theophilus E. M. Miss May Sinclair: Novelist: A Biographical and Critical Introduction. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1973.
85
Underhill later wrote many further laudatory letters to MS on the...
Literary responses Helen Waddell
Many reviewers hailed the introduction. Among them Evelyn Underhillreceived the whole book as a feat of incomparable literature.
Blackett, Monica. The Mark of the Maker: A Portrait of Helen Waddell. Constable, 1973.
130
HW said she had received amazing letters about the book as well as lovely reviews.
qtd. in
Blackett, Monica. The Mark of the Maker: A Portrait of Helen Waddell. Constable, 1973.
131
Textual Production Monica Furlong
This saint had already attracted a number of English women writers: Evelyn Underhill , Sheila Kaye-Smith , and Vita Sackville-West (the only one in Furlong's bibliography). A new edition of MF 's book appeared in 2001.

Timeline

5-12 April 1924: The Conference on Christian Politics, Economics...

Building item

5-12 April 1924

The Conference on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship, an interdenominational conference to discuss social attitudes of the church, took place in Birmingham.
Norman, Edward R. Church and Society in England, 1770-1970. Clarendon, 1976.
279, 285, 291, 294-306
Mews, Constance. “Religious Thinker: ’A Frail Human Being’ on Fiery Life”. Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World, edited by Barbara Newman, University of California Press, 1998, pp. 52-69.
458

Texts

Underhill, Evelyn. A Bar-Lamb’s Ballad Book. Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner, 1902.
Underhill, Evelyn. Immanence. J. M. Dent; E. P. Dutton, 1912.
Underhill, Evelyn, and Jacopone da Todi. Jacopone da Todi. Translator Beck, Mrs Theodore, J. M. Dent; E. P. Dutton, 1919.
Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism. Methuen, 1911.
Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism. Doubleday.
Underhill, Evelyn. Practical Mysticism. J. M. Dent; E. P. Dutton, 1914.
Underhill, Evelyn. Practical Mysticism. Dutton, 1943.
Underhill, Evelyn. Ruysbroeck. G. Bell, 1914.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Column of Dust. Methuen, 1909.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Grey World. William Heinemann, 1904.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Letters of Evelyn Underhill. Editor Williams, Charles Walter Stansby, Longmans, Green, 1944.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-Day. Methuen, 1922.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-Day. Methuen, 1948.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Lost Word. William Heinemann, 1907.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Miracles of Our Lady Saint Mary. W. Heinemann, 1905.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Mystic Way. J. M. Dent; E. P. Dutton, 1913.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Mystic Way. J. M. Dent; E. P. Dutton, 1914.
Underhill, Evelyn. The Mystics of the Church. J. Clarke, 1925.
Underhill, Evelyn. Theophanies. J. M. Dent; E. P. Dutton, 1916.
Underhill, Evelyn. Worship. Nisbet, 1936.
Underhill, Evelyn. Worship. Harper, 1957.