May Sinclair

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Standard Name: Sinclair, May
Birth Name: Mary Amelia St Clair Sinclair
Self-constructed Name: May Sinclair
Styled: May Sinclair
Pseudonym: Julian Sinclair
MS , a major figure in the development of Modernism, wrote more than two dozen works ranging from novels (twenty-one of them), poetry, and collections of short stories to polemical pamphlets, philosophical treatises, translations, biography and a personal account of war experience. She was also a well-regarded book reviewer and literary critic. During her last decades she published nothing, and almost dropped from literary consciousness.
Black-and-white photo of May Sinclair. She is looking down, and pictured in profile.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Education Margaret Kennedy
Notable women writers such as May Sinclair and Phyllis Bentley , a recent predecessor to MK , had also been educated there. Margaret would later recreate Cheltenham in The Constant Nymph as Cleeve College.
Powell, Violet. The Constant Novelist. W. Heinemann, 1983.
25-6
Family and Intimate relationships H. D.
Bryher, the illegitimate daughter of wealthy shipping magnate Sir John Ellerman , had developed an interest in HD after reading her poetry, and wrote to her requesting a meeting. She had obtained HD's address from...
Family and Intimate relationships Charlotte Mew
CM met novelist May Sinclair , and for a brief period an ambivalent and intense
Raitt, Suzanne. “Charlotte Mew and May Sinclair: A love-song”. Critical Quarterly, Vol.
37
, No. 3, 1995, pp. 3-17.
4
friendship developed between them.
Fitzgerald, Penelope. Charlotte Mew and Her Friends. Collins, 1984, p. 240 pp.
117-20
Family and Intimate relationships Bryher
Though emotionally empty, the marriage was artistically productive. Most significantly, Bryher's introductions and family funds allowed McAlmon to establish his influential press, Contact Editions . Thus, Bryher's money and social connections enabled the publication of...
Friends, Associates Katharine Tynan
Living in a suburb of London, KT frequented the heart of English literary culture. She had already joined London's Irish Literary Society , and was later appointed its Honorary Vice-President.
Tynan, Katharine. The Years of the Shadow. Constable, 1919.
3-4
Among other literary figures...
Friends, Associates Marie Belloc Lowndes
Her literary friends of a generation before her own included George Meredith , Rhoda Broughton , and Henry James . She participated in the friendship of the two last-named by being regularly at Broughton's house...
Friends, Associates Stella Benson
SB , recently re-established in London, met there May Sinclair , William Gerhardi , and Rose Macaulay .
Grant, Joy. Stella Benson: A Biography. Macmillan, 1987.
239
Friends, Associates G. B. Stern
GBS moved in literary and artistic circles in London before the first World War. She visited Rebecca West at Leigh-on-Sea in Essex in September 1917 during a week of air-raids.
Stern, G. B. Monogram. Chapman and Hall, 1936.
268ff
Several decades later she...
Friends, Associates Phyllis Bottome
PB was introduced to Ezra Pound (as half American) by May Sinclair at one of her parties in London.
Bottome, Phyllis. The Challenge. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1953.
381-2
Friends, Associates H. D.
After her move to England, Ezra Pound introduced HD to his circle of friends, many of whom were important figures in the modernist movement. They included W. B. Yeats , T. S. Eliot ,...
Friends, Associates Catharine Amy Dawson Scott
CADS and May Sinclair began a close, lifelong friendship.
Watts, Marjorie, and Frances King. Mrs. Sappho. Duckworth, 1987.
58
Friends, Associates Ella Hepworth Dixon
Initial members of the Club included Sidney Low , Mrs H. G. Wells , Lady Mond (later Lady Melchett) , William Heinemann, May Sinclair , W. B. Yeats , Robert Ross , Gertrude Kinnell ,...
Friends, Associates Gladys Henrietta Schütze
On her first attendance at PEN , taken there by an American friend, Sarah MacConnell , she met Catharine Amy Dawson Scott (whom she took to at once), Galsworthy (whose work she much admired), Roma Wilson
Friends, Associates Violet Hunt
Distraught over her split with Ford , VH was supported by several of her women writer friends, especially Radclyffe Hall , Dorothy Richardson , Ethel Colburn Mayne , May Sinclair , and Rebecca West .
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster, 1990.
251
Friends, Associates Virginia Woolf
They developed a relationship that was competitive yet sustaining and essential to both. In August 1920 Woolf commented on Mansfield in her diary: a woman caring as I care for writing is rare enough I...

Timeline

9 November 1857: The first issue appeared of the US magazine...

Writing climate item

9 November 1857

The first issue appeared of the US magazine Atlantic Monthly. It set out to provide articles of an abstract and permanent value, while not ignoring the healthy appetite of the mind for entertainment in...

June 1908: The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established...

National or international item

June 1908

The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton .
Norquay, Glenda. Voices and Votes: A Literary Anthology of the Women’s Suffrage Campaign. Manchester University Press, 1995.
xv
Stowell, Sheila. A Stage of Their Own. University of Michigan Press, 1992.
2, 40, 102, 126n1
Cockin, Katharine. Edith Craig (1869-1947): Dramatic Lives. Cassell, 1998.
89
Whitelaw, Lis. The Life and Rebellious Times of Cicely Hamilton. Women’s Press, 1990.
68-74
Liggins, Emma. “The ’Sordid Story’ of an Unwanted Child: Militancy, Motherhood, and Abortion in Elizabeth Robins’s Votes for Women and Way Stations”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
25
, No. 3, Aug. 2018, pp. 347-61.
349

Early December 1908: A meeting of suffragists at the Albert Hall...

Building item

Early December 1908

A meeting of suffragists at the Albert Hall was marred by violence from both sides: a woman struck a steward in the face with a whip, and women were roughly handled.
Raitt, Suzanne. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian. Clarendon Press, 2000.
112 and n14

Texts

Sinclair, May. “Prufrock, and Other Observations: A Criticism”. The Little Review.
Sinclair, May. “A Custance of Today”. Cheltenham Ladies College Magazine, Cheltenham Ladies’ College.
Sinclair, May. A Defence of Idealism. Macmillan, 1917.
Sinclair, May. “A Defence of Men”. The English Review.
Sinclair, May. A Journal of Impressions in Belgium. Hutchinson, 1915.
Sinclair, May. Anne Severn and the Fieldings. Hutchinson, 1922.
Sinclair, May. Arnold Waterlow: A Life. Hutchinson, 1924.
Sinclair, May. Audrey Craven. W. Blackwood, 1897.
Sinclair, May. “Clinical Lectures on Symbolism and Sublimation”. Medical Press, pp. 118-22.
Sinclair, May. Essays in Verse. Kegan Paul, Trench, 1891.
Sinclair, May. Feminism. Women Writers’ Suffrage League, 1912.
Sinclair, May. “Field Ambulance in Retreat: Via Dolorosa, Via Sacra”. King Albert’s Book, edited by Thomas Caine, Daily Telegraph, 1914, p. 141.
Scott, Catharine Amy Dawson, and May Sinclair. From Four Who Are Dead. Arrowsmith, 1926.
Sinclair, May. History of Anthony Waring. Hutchinson, 1927.
Sinclair, May, and Emily Brontë. “Introduction”. Wuthering Heights, Dent; Dutton, 1907.
Sinclair, May. “Khaki”. The English Review, Vol.
15
, pp. 190-01.
Sinclair, May. Kitty Tailleur. Constable, 1908.
Sinclair, May. Life and Death of Harriett Frean. Collins, 1922.
Sinclair, May. Mary Olivier: A Life. Cassell, 1919.
Sinclair, May. Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson. W. Blackwood, 1897.
Sinclair, May. Nakiketas, and Other Poems. Kegan Paul, Trench, 1886.
Sohm, Rudolf. Outlines of Church History. Translator Sinclair, May, Macmillan, 1895.
Sinclair, May. “Red Tape”. The Queen, the Lady’s Newspaper and Court Chronicle, pp. 802-3.
Sinclair, May. Tales Told by Simpson. Hutchinson, 1930.
Sinclair, May. Tasker Jevons: The Real Story. Hutchinson, 1916.