Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Martin Ross
-
Standard Name: Ross, Martin
Birth Name: Violet Florence Martin
Pseudonym: Martin Ross
Pseudonym: Somerville and 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 view has also been argued). Their most memorable works—an 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—were completed before her death, and Somerville's publications after Ross died are permeated with an elegiac tone. They themselves poured scorn on their public's desire to teize apart the individual strands in their collaboration.
Stone, Marjorie, and Judith Thompson. Literary couplings: writing couples, collaborators, and the construction of authorship. University of Wisconsin Press.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
269
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
ES
, with the woman medium Jem Barlow
, received what she took as a message from the spirit of Martin Ross
: You and I have not finished our work. Dear, we shall.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
177
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
In the year of ES
's death there appeared, as a final collaboration with Martin Ross
and with her own illustrations, Maria, and Some Other Dogs.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
39
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
271
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
In Irish Memories, the first book she published after Martin Ross
's death, ES
used both names on the title-page, and related much of her collaboration with Ross.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
52
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
259-60
Reception
Edith Somerville
ES
's nephew Nevill Coghill
broadcast a talk about her for the BBC
: she thought it beautifully done but wished he had said more about Martin Ross
.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
274-6
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
ES
published Mount Music, in the names of herself and Martin Ross
: the first novel since Ross's death.
Book Review Digest. H. W. Wilson.
1920
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
260
Family and Intimate relationships
Edith Somerville
One of ES
's great-grandfathers, whom she shared with her collaborator Ross
, was Charles Kendal Bushe
, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
28
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
ES
published as by herself and Martin RossStray-aways, a book of stories and sketches, many about her experiences with spiritualism and the occult.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
31
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
261
Family and Intimate relationships
Edith Somerville
Within a few months Violet became a replacement for the lost Ethel Coghill. It was ES
who selected the name Martin Ross for her cousin, apparently to avoid confusion with another Violet in the family...
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
ES
published a new novel, An Enthusiast, with a different arrangement of names, as (in all but the first printing) by herself in collaboration with
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
262-3
politics
Edith Somerville
ES
and Martin Ross
campaigned for women's suffrage in Ireland, but they did not support the militancy and the anti-Home-Rule stance of English suffragists.
Textual Production
Edith Somerville
Ten years after the death of Martin Ross
, ES
published The Big House of Inver, as by Ross and herself: the first of several of her books published by William Heinemann
.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
263
Family and Intimate relationships
Edith Somerville
Throughout Martin Ross
's final illness, ES
and her sister Hildegarde remained with her. Edith recorded her friend's progress towards death both in writing and drawing.
Lewis, Gifford. Somerville and Ross: The World of the Irish R. M. Viking.