Edith Somerville

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Standard Name: Somerville, Edith
Birth Name: Edith Anne Œnone Somerville
Pseudonym: Geilles Herring
Pseudonym: Viva Graham
Pseudonym: E. Œ. Somerville
Pseudonym: Somerville and Ross
ES , who published from 1885, is known from the Somerville and Ross partnership which produced at least one important novel and a collection of classic comic stories (set in the west of Ireland and centred on fox-hunting), as well as other endearing Irish sketches and travel writings. She continued to write in these genres, mostly story and memoir, after Ross's death (which she saw as interrupting but not ending their collaboration). The later works (the last appeared in 1949) are suffused with nostalgia, and very largely dominated by the need to make money, to keep going an estate which was no longer financially viable. The massive archive of ES 's diary and letters is still almost unexamined.
Black-and-white photo portrait of Edith Somerville, 1916. Shown in profile, she is seated, wears a brimmed hat and suit.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Textual Production Oscar Wilde
Wilde shifted the magazine's focus from fashion and transformed it into an organ for women's opinions and feelings on the subjects of modern life, art, and literature, as well as style. He was also dedicated...
Residence Katharine Tynan
In the autumn of 1914, KT 's husband moved from their current home, Clarebeg at Shankill near Dublin, to County Mayo in Western Ireland, where he had been appointed the Resident Magistrate. He held...
Friends, Associates Katherine Cecil Thurston
Through these social engagements, KCT came into contact with several significant figures of the day. At a dinner given by Colonel George Harvey , for instance, she probably met Mr and Mrs Winston Churchill ...
Family and Intimate relationships Ethel Smyth
ES met Edith Somerville , with whom she conducted an emotionally-charged correspondence for several years.
Collis, Louise. Impetuous Heart: The Story of Ethel Smyth. William Kimber.
152, 156-8, 161
Occupation Constance Smedley
Since the Langham Place Group had provided a social space for women in 1860, several organizations had already challenged the flourishing institution of men's clubs. The Lyceum Club came on the scene at a time...
Publishing Martin Ross
Edith Somerville and MR published In the Vine Country, a travel-book about the vineyards of Bordeaux, with F. H. Townsend 's illustrations from Somerville's sketches.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
250-1
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
93
Author summary Martin Ross
It is widely suspected that MR may have been the dominant partner, the chief creative spirit, in the partnership of Somerville and Ross which occupied the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (though the opposite...
Textual Production Martin Ross
Edith Somerville and MR published their third travel book, Beggars on Horseback: A Riding Tour in North Wales.
The title comes from the nursery rhyme which begins: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
252-3
names Martin Ross
Somerville and Ross was a joint pseudonym often used to refer to the writings of MR and her second cousin Edith Somerville .
Textual Production Martin Ross
Richard Bentley commissioned MR and Edith Somerville for a three-volume novel, which becameThe Real Charlotte.
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
38
Cultural formation Martin Ross
Violet belonged to the wealthy Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy.
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
15
Her family, of Norman origin, had been one of the largest landowners in the west of Ireland during the eighteenth century, and still held about six...
Textual Production Martin Ross
Edith Somerville and MR finished writing their novel The Real Charlotte, which first brought them public success.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
98
Intertextuality and Influence Martin Ross
Before ever meeting her cousin Edith Somerville , Violet Ross had written articles (perhaps in emulation of her eldest brother ) and probably poetry, but none of this survives.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
24
Textual Production Martin Ross
Edith Somerville and MR published, with Ward and Downey , their most popular novel, The Real Charlotte.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
98, 103
Textual Features Martin Ross
MR 's letters were always remarkable for vividness, forcefulness, and breadth of emotional sympathy. She wrote particularly memorably to Edith Somerville during the summer of 1888, from her childhood home in the west of Ireland...

Timeline

1911: The Munster Women's Franchise League was...

National or international item

1911

The Munster Women's Franchise League was founded in Cork by writers Edith Somerville and Violet Martin , who published together as Somerville and Ross.

Texts

Somerville, Edith. "Happy Days!" Essays of Sorts. Longmans, Green, 1946.
Ross, Martin, and Edith Somerville. A Patrick’s Day Hunt. Archibald Constable, 1902.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. All on the Irish Shore. Longmans, Green, 1903.
Somerville, Edith. An Enthusiast. Longmans, Green, 1921.
Somerville, Edith. An Incorruptible Irishman. Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1932.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. An Irish Cousin. Richard Bentley and Son, 1889.
Ross, Martin, and Edith Somerville. Beggars on Horseback. William Blackwood and Sons, 1895.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. Dan Russel the Fox. Methuen, 1911.
Somerville, Edith. French Leave. William Heinemann, 1928.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. Further Experiences of an Irish R. M. Longmans, Green, 1908.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. In Mr Knox’s Country. Longmans, Green, 1915.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. In the Vine Country. W. H. Allen, 1893.
O’Donovan, John et al. “Introduction”. Some Experiences of an Irish R. M., Folio Society, 1984, p. vii - xvii.
Somerville, Edith. Irish Memories. Longmans, Green, 1917.
Somerville, Edith. Little Red Riding Hood in Kerry. Privately printed for the author, 1934.
Somerville, Edith. Maria, and Some Other Dogs. Methuen, 1949.
Somerville, Edith. Mount Music. Longmans, Green, 1919.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. Naboth’s Vineyard. Spencer Blackett, 1891.
Somerville, Edith. Notes of the Horn: Hunting Verse, Old and New. Peter Davies, 1934.
Somerville, Edith. Notions in Garrison. Methuen, 1941.
Somerville, Edith. Records of the Somerville Family of Castlehave and Drishane from 1174, to 1940. Guy and Company, 1940.
Somerville, Edith. Sarah’s Youth. Longmans, Green, 1938.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. Some Experiences of an Irish R. M. Longmans, Green, 1899.
Somerville, Edith, and Martin Ross. Some Irish Yesterdays. Longmans, Green, 1906.
Somerville, Edith. Stray-Aways. Longmans, Green, 1920.