Radclyffe Hall 320696 225716806 2008-07-15T01:36:38Z BrainyBabe 124674 /* The Girls of Radclyffe Hall */ copyedit, reword {{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] --> | name = Radclyffe Hall | image = Hallwriter.jpg | imagesize = 175px | caption = | pseudonym = | birthdate = {{birth date|1880|8|12|mf=y}} | birthplace = [[Bournemouth]], [[England]] | deathdate = {{death date and age|1943|10|7|1880|8|12|mf=y}} | deathplace = [[London]], [[England]] | occupation = Novelist, poet, short story writer | nationality = | period = 1906-1936 | genre = | subject = | movement = | influences = | influenced = | website = }} '''Radclyffe Hall''' ([[August 12]], [[1880]] - [[October 7]], [[1943]]) (born '''Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall'''), was an [[England|English]] poet and author of eight novels, including the [[lesbian]] classic ''[[The Well of Loneliness]]''. == Life == Marguerite Radclyffe Hall was born in [[Bournemouth]], [[Hampshire]] (now [[Dorset]]) in 1880, to a wealthy philandering father and quarrelsome mother. Lonely while growing up (her parents separated when she was a baby and she was virtually ignored by her mother and stepfather), she was educated at [[King's College London]], and then in [[Germany]]. Hall was a lesbian<ref name="glbtq">{{citation |title=Hall, Radclyffe |year=2002 |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/hall_radclyffe.html |last=Glagow |first=Joanne |periodical=[[glbtq.com]] |accessdate=[[2007-11-05]]}}</ref> and described herself as a "[[Sexual inversion (sexology)|congenital invert]]", a term taken from the writings of [[Havelock Ellis]] and other turn of the century [[sexologists]]. Having reached adulthood without a vocation, she spent much of her twenties pursuing women she eventually lost to marriage. [[Image:John Singer Sargent - Mabel Batten.jpg|thumb|right|Mabel Batten sang to [[John Singer Sargent]] as he painted this portrait of her, around 1897.]] In 1907 at the [[Bad Homburg|Homburg]] spa in Germany, Hall met Mabel Batten, a well-known amateur singer of [[lieder]]. Batten (nicknamed "Ladye") was 51 to Hall's 27, and was married with an adult daughter and grandchildren. They fell in love, and after Batten's husband died they set up residence together. Batten gave Hall the nickname John, which she used the rest of her life.<ref name="Cline-58">Cline, 58-67.</ref> In 1915 Hall fell in love with Mabel Batten's cousin, [[Una Vincenzo, Lady Troubridge|Una Troubridge]] (1887-1963), a sculptor who was the wife of an admiral and the mother of a young daughter. Mabel Batten died the following year, and in 1917 Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge began living together.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apurnell.com/wilreadings/Hall.htm|title=Radclyffe Hall}}</ref> The relationship would last until Hall's death. In 1934 Hall fell in love with Russian émigré Evguenia Souline and embarked upon a long-term affair with her, which Troubridge painfully tolerated.<ref>Hall's letters to Souline were published in {{cite book | last = Glasgow | first = Joanne (ed.) | year = 1997 | title = Your John: The Love Letters of Radclyffe Hall | location = New York | publisher = New York University Press | id = ISBN 0-8147-3125-2 }}</ref> Hall became involved in affairs with other women throughout the years, possibly including [[blues]] singer [[Ethel Waters]].<ref name="gianoulis">[http://www.glbtq.com/arts/waters_e.html Tina Gianoulis, "Ethel Waters"], ''GLBTQ: An encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, transgender and queer culture.''</ref> Hall lived with Troubridge in London and, during the 1930s, in the tiny town of [[Rye, East Sussex]], noted for its many writers, including her contemporary, the gay novelist [[E.F. Benson]]. She died at age 63 of [[colon cancer]], and is interred at [[Highgate Cemetery]] in [[North London]]. The vault containing her remains is in the Circle of Lebanon, half way round from the Egyptian Avenue entrance. In 1930 Radclyffe Hall received the Gold Medal of the Eichelbergher Humane Award. She was a member of the [[PEN club]], the Council of the [[Society for Psychical Research]] and a fellow of the [[Zoological Society]].<ref>Biographical note in the ''[[Virago Press]]'' edition of ''[[The Well of Loneliness]]''.</ref> Radclyffe Hall was listed at number sixteen in the [[top 500 lesbian and gay heroes]] in ''[[The Pink Paper]]'' <ref>[[September 26]], [[1997]] edition, issue 500</ref>. ==Novels== Hall's first novel was ''The Unlit Lamp'', the story of Joan Ogden, a young girl who dreams of setting up a flat in London with her friend Elizabeth (a so-called [[Boston marriage]]) and studying to become a doctor, but feels trapped by her manipulative mother's emotional dependence on her. Its length and grimness made it a difficult book to sell, so she deliberately chose a lighter theme for her next novel, a social comedy entitled ''The Forge''.<ref>Baker, 152-156.</ref> While she had used her full name for her early poetry collections, she shortened it to M. Radclyffe Hall for ''The Forge''. The book was a modest success, making the bestseller list of ''John O'London's Weekly''.<ref>Baker, 164.</ref> ''The Unlit Lamp'', which followed it into print, was the first of her books to give the author's name simply as Radclyffe Hall.<ref>Baker, 168.</ref> There followed another comic novel, ''A Saturday Life'' (1925), and then ''Adam's Breed'' (1926), a novel about an Italian headwaiter who, becoming disgusted with his job and even with food itself, gives away his belongings and lives as a hermit in the forest. The book's mystical themes have been compared to [[Hermann Hesse]]'s ''[[Siddhartha (novel)|Siddhartha]]''.<ref>Baker, 183-186.</ref> It sold very well, was critically acclaimed, and won both the [[Prix Femina]] and the [[James Tait Black Prize]], a feat previously achieved only by [[E. M. Forster]]'s ''[[A Passage to India]]''.<ref>Baker, 196-197.</ref> === ''The Well of Loneliness'' === {{Main|The Well of Loneliness}} Hall is best known for ''[[The Well of Loneliness]]'', the only one of her eight novels to have overt [[lesbian]] themes. Published in 1928, ''The Well of Loneliness'' deals with the life of Stephen Gordon, a masculine lesbian who, like Hall herself, identifies as an invert. Although Gordon's attitude toward her own sexuality is anguished, the novel presents lesbianism as natural and makes a plea for greater tolerance. Although ''The Well of Loneliness'' is not sexually explicit, it was nevertheless the subject of an [[obscenity]] [[trial (law)|trial]] in the UK, which resulted in all copies of the novel being ordered destroyed. The United States allowed its publication only after a long court battle. It is currently published in the UK by [[Virago]], and by [[Anchor Press]] in the [[United States]]. ''The Well of Loneliness'' was number seven on a list of the top 100 lesbian and gay novels compiled by The Publishing Triangle in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publishingtriangle.org/100best.asp|title=The Publishing Triangle's list of the 100 best lesbian and gay novels}}</ref> === Later novels === An anonymous verse [[lampoon]] entitled ''The Sink of Solitude'' appeared during the controversy over ''The Well''. Although its primary targets were James Douglas, who had called for ''The Well'''s suppression, and the [[Home Secretary]] [[William Joynson-Hicks]], who had started legal proceedings, it also mocked Hall and her book. One of the illustrations, which depicted Hall nailed to a cross, so horrified her that she could barely speak of it for years afterward. Her guilt at being depicted in a drawing that she saw as blasphemous led to her choice of a religious subject for her next novel, ''The Master of the House''.<ref>Baker, 257; Cline, 280.</ref> At Hall's insistence, ''The Master of the House'' was published with no cover [[blurb]], which may have misled some purchasers into thinking it was another novel about inversion. Advance sales were strong, and the book made #1 on the ''Observer'''s bestseller list, but it received poor reviews in several key [[periodicals]], and sales soon dropped off.<ref>Baker, 275-276.</ref> In the United States reviewers treated the book more kindly, but shortly after the book's publication, all copies were seized -- not by the police, but by creditors. Hall's American publisher had gone bankrupt. Houghton Mifflin took over the rights, but by the time the book could be republished, its sales momentum was lost.<ref>Baker, 279-280.</ref> ==''The Girls of Radclyffe Hall''== The British composer and bon-vivant [[Gerald Berners]], the 14th Lord Berners, wrote a ''[[roman à clef]]'' girls' [[school story]] entitled ''The Girls of Radclyffe Hall,'' in which he depicts himself and his circle of friends, including [[Cecil Beaton]] and [[Oliver Messel]], as lesbian schoolgirls at a school named Radclyffe Hall. The indiscretions the novel (which was published and distributed privately) alluded to created an uproar among Berners' intimates and acquaintances, making the whole affair highly discussed in the 1930s. The novel subsequently disappeared from circulation, making it an extremely rare book among collectors of [[gay literature]]. Rumour has it that Beaton bought all the already scarce copies of the book and destroyed them. The story is, however, included in the Berners anthology ''Collected Tales and Fantasies''. == Works == {{col-begin}}{{col-2}} ===Novels=== * ''The Forge'' (1924) * ''The Unlit Lamp'' (1924) * ''A Saturday Life'' (1925) * ''[[Adam's Breed]]'' (1926) * ''[[The Well of Loneliness]]'' (1928) * ''The Master of the House'' (1932) * ''Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself'' (1926) * ''The Sixth Beatitude'' (William Heineman Ltd, London, 1936) {{col-2}} ===Poetry=== * ''The Forgotten Island'' (London : Chapman & Hall,1915) * ''Dedicated to Sir Arthur Sullivan'' (England : s.n., 1894) * ''A Sheaf Of Verses : Poems'' (London : J. And E. Bumpus, 1908) * ''Twixt Earth And Stars'' (London : John And Edward Bumpus Ltd., 1906) * ''Poems Of The Past & Present'' (London : Chapman And Hall, 1910) * ''Songs Of Three Counties And Other Poems'' (London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd. 1913) * ''Rhymes and Rhythms'' (Milan, 1948) {{col-end}} == Further reading == * Baker, M. (1985). ''Our Three Selves. The Life of Radclyffe Hall'' (New York: William Morrow) * Cline, Sally. (1999) ''Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John'' (Overlook Press) * Souhami, Diana (1998). ''The Trials of Radclyffe Hall'' (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson) * Troubridge, Una (1961): ''The Life and Death of Radclyffe Hall'' (London: Hammond) ==References== {{reflist|2}} == External links == * Guardian story: [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1382051,00.html Lesbian novel was 'danger to nation'] * [http://myweb.lsbu.ac.uk/~stafflag/johnhall.html Radclyffe Hall The Knitting Circle: Literature] *[http://www.glbtq.com/literature/hall_radclyffe.html Hall, Radclyffe] From the Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, & Queer Culture *[http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00163.xml&query=hall,%20radclyffe&query-join=and Radclyffe Hall Collection], [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/lfhall.html Photographs] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Radclyffe}} [[Category:1880 births]] [[Category:1943 deaths]] [[Category:English novelists]] [[Category:English poets]] [[Category:Female authors who wrote under male or gender-neutral pseudonyms]] [[Category:Lesbian writers]] [[Category:Christian LGBT people]] [[Category:Alumni of King's College London]] [[Category:People from Bournemouth]] [[Category:LGBT writers from the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery]] [[de:Marguerite Radclyffe Hall]] [[es:Radclyffe Hall]] [[fr:Radclyffe Hall]] [[it:Radclyffe Hall]] [[nl:Radclyffe Hall]] [[sh:Radclyffe Hall]] [[sv:Radclyffe Hall]]