Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Rebecca West
-
Standard Name: West, Rebecca
Birth Name: Cicily Isabel Fairfield
Nickname: Cissie
Nickname: Anne
Nickname: Panther
Nickname: Rac
Pseudonym: Rebecca West
Married Name: Cicily Isabel Andrews
Used Form: R*b*cc* W*st
Rebecca West
rose to fame early (before the First World War) through her witty, acerbic journalism. In addition to numerous essays and reviews, she wrote about a dozen novels, short stories, political analyses, a classic travel book, and works of literary criticism. Her journalism remains an important commentary on the contemporary women's movement, offering both strong intellectual support and trenchant satire. She is known for her pungency of phrase; on occasion she was more eager for a phrase to strike shockingly home than for it to withstand criticism.
The anthology of British women writers she published in 1990 with Michael Joseph
as The Parchment Moon: An Anthology of Modern Women's Short Stories was reprinted the following year as The Penguin Book of Modern...
Textual Production
H. G. Wells
He published a second memoir, The Anatomy of Frustration, in 1936. In the second volume of his autobiography, titled H.G. Wells in Love: Postscript to an Experiment in Autobiography, he describes his sexual...
Textual Production
Pamela Frankau
PF
's novel The Devil We Know was published; the character Jennifer Nash is an unflattering portrait of Rebecca West
.
Rollyson, Carl. Rebecca West: A Saga of the Century. Hodder and Stoughton, 1995.
138-9
Textual Production
Fay Weldon
FW
published Rebecca West, an unusual and enthusiastic biographical study.
FW
's grandmother claimed to have known both West and H. G. Wells
personally.
Parker, Peter, editor. A Reader’s Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers. Oxford University Press, 1996.
778
Kester-Shelton, Pamela, editor. Feminist Writers. St James Press, 1996.
507
Textual Production
James Joyce
Preparing a defence against the allegations, Joyce's lawyer, Morris L. Ernst
, obtained hundreds of written opinions from educators, librarians, writers, clergy, and business people. Among those quoted in Ernst's court brief were Rebecca West
Plans were afoot to relaunch The Freewoman shortly after it collapsed in its first form. When Marsden retreated to Southport for health reasons, Rebecca West
acted as liaison between her and supporters in the Freewoman Discussion Circle
Textual Production
Dora Marsden
Its editorial team consisted of DM
(editor), Rebecca West
(assistant editor), and Grace Jardine
(sub-editor and editorial assistant).
Garner, Les. A Brave and Beautiful Spirit: Dora Marsden, 1882-1960. Avebury, 1990.
99
Textual Production
Henrik Ibsen
This play was first published in Norwegian in 1886 and translated into English in 1889.
McFarlane, James, editor. The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
xxv
Florence Farr
played Rebecca in the first English staging of play; Rebecca West
took her pseudonym from the play's...
Textual Production
Dora Marsden
Formerly stored in a wicker trunk at the home of her niece Elaine Dyson Bate, DM
's papers are now at Princeton University
. Her collection contains manuscripts, papers, and letters to and from Rebecca West
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Pamela Frankau
In this book PF
offers her impressions of celebrities
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery, 1958.
119
met through her great-aunt Eliza Aria
. Place is important too, like her vivid yet dreamlike description of Sligachan on the Isle of Skye...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Storm Jameson
Janet Montefiore
has noted that in A Cup of Tea for Mr. Thorgill Jameson included a rancorous portrait of Rebecca West
in the character of Retta Spencer-Savage, a celebrated anti-Communist writer who has built her...
Travel
Violet Trefusis
In late 1927, Violet travelled with the same party through the United States. They had tea at the White House
and saw Rebecca West
while in Washington, DC.
Jullian, Philippe et al. Violet Trefusis: Life and Letters. Hamish Hamilton, 1976.
69-70
Travel
Pamela Frankau
She went on to Alassio in Italy. Next time she visited the south of France she went as the guest of Rebecca West
.
Frankau, Pamela. I Find Four People. I. Nicholson and Watson, 1935.
143, 189
Like most people of her class and period,...
Violence
Mary Gawthorpe
This description comes from Cicily Fairfield (the future Rebecca West)
, who was observing the election campaign. West also said that stewards commonly used great physical violence, and she attributed Gawthorpe's health breakdown directly to...
