Anna Kavan

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Standard Name: Kavan, Anna
Birth Name: Helen Woods
Married Name: Helen Ferguson
Married Name: Helen Edmonds
Pseudonym: Anna Kavan
AK is primarily a novelist and short story writer of the first half of the twentieth century, who based her writing quite closely on her life. In her writing, as well as in her life, there is a schism between the early novels, written as Helen Ferguson, and the later ones, written as AK . When she took on the persona AK, based on one of her early characters, she wrote more boldly and brashly in content and style than she had done heretofore. AK's novels tend to revamp episodes from her unhappy childhood and from her excruciating first marriage.

Connections

Connections Sort descending Author name Excerpt
Author summary Ann Quin
AQ was one of the less-known English experimental writers of the 1960s. She has been likened to Graham Greene , Nathalie Sarraute , Samuel Beckett , Robert Creeley , Virginia Woolf , and Anna Kavan
Textual Features Doris Lessing
Her topics range from cats to Sufism and censorship and from Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf to Anna Kavan and Muriel Spark .

Timeline

1962: Critic and biographer Ian Hamilton (not the...

Writing climate item

1962

Critic and biographer Ian Hamilton (not the man of this name who was once involved with Anna Kavan ) launched The Review: A Bi-Monthly Magazine of Poetry and Criticism; it ran, despite persistent financial...

Texts

Kavan, Anna. A Bright Green Field, and Other Stories. Peter Owen, 1958.
Kavan, Anna. A Charmed Circle. Cape, 1929.
Kavan, Anna. A Stranger Still. John Lane, 1935.
Kavan, Anna. Asylum Piece, and Other Stories. Jonathan Cape, 1940.
Kavan, Anna. Ice. Peter Owen, 1967.
Kavan, Anna. Julia and the Bazooka, and Other Stories. Editor Davies, Rhys, Peter Owen, 1970.
Kavan, Anna. Let Me Alone. Cape, 1930.
Kavan, Anna. My Madness: The Selected Writings of Anna Kavan. Pan, 1990.
Kavan, Anna. My Soul in China: A Novella and Stories. Editor Davies, Rhys, Peter Owen, 1975.
Kavan, Anna. Who Are You?. Scorpion Press, 1963.