Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Arnold Bennett
-
Standard Name: Bennett, Arnold
Birth Name: Enoch Arnold Bennett
Used Form: E. A. Bennett
An extraordinarily prolific English writer of both literary-realist and mass-interest novels, short stories, pocket philosophy self-help manuals, plays, journal articles and book reviews, AB
was acclaimed as an artist in his own time and was also politically and culturally influential. He served as director of the Ministry of Propaganda under Lord Beaverbrook
in the first world war. He estimated his own output in 1930 as seventy or eighty books written, of which only a handful were well-known.
Staley, Thomas F., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 34. Gale Research, 1985.
26
His wealth and influence, as well as his painstaking realism, earned him the scorn of the modernist writers of the next generation.
GP
remained single all her life; her plays suggest a skeptical yet sentimental attitude towards marriage. Arnold Bennett
records a debate with GP
about this topic, in which he tried in vain to oppose her...
Cultural formation
Margaret Drabble
Her maternal grandparents were from the Potteries; she retains an affinity with that region and its most significant writer, Arnold Bennett
. She describes herself as provincial in background, brought up in and inclined...
Education
Philip Larkin
For ten years from 1930, as both a primary and a secondary-school student, PL
attended King Henry VIII School
in Coventry (now an independent school for both sexes, but founded in the sixteenth century as...
MacKenzie, Raymond N. A Critical Biography of English Novelist Viola Meynell, 1885-1956. Edwin Mellen, 2002.
61, 65
Family and Intimate relationships
George Paston
Emily Symonds was named after her mother, born Emily Hannah Evans
, who was also interested in books.
Stetz, Margaret, and George Paston. “Introduction”. A Writer of Books, Academy Chicago Publishers, 1999, p. v - xiv.
vii
Arnold Bennett
(a friend) described her as an ample little lady, with a quick cheerful laugh...
Family and Intimate relationships
Iris Tree
Writer, critic, and caricaturist Sir Max Beerbohm
was IT
's half-uncle, the youngest son from Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's father's second marriage. Best remembered for his drawings and caricatures of the famous, Beerbohm also wrote...
Fictionalization
Violet Hunt
In addition to the autobiographical strain running through some of her own work, VH
inspired characters created by several other writers. She is reimagined as Carlotta Peel in Sacred and Profane Love (1905) by Arnold Bennett
Friends, Associates
Ella D'Arcy
Lane
and Harland
were centres of literary social life in London. EDA
had many friends among writers, many of them New Women. They included Evelyn Sharp
, and Constance Smedley
(who found her entirely sincere...
Friends, Associates
George Paston
GP
was on good terms with Arnold Bennett
, who admired her writing as well as her mind, describing her in his journal as the most advanced and intellectually fearless woman I have met.
qtd. in
Stetz, Margaret, and George Paston. “Introduction”. A Writer of Books, Academy Chicago Publishers, 1999, p. v - xiv.
xiv
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
197
Friends, Associates
Amabel Williams-Ellis
AWE
's friends and associates included Edith Sitwell
, whose poems she often published in The Spectator; Storm Jameson
, a political mentor
Williams-Ellis, Amabel. All Stracheys Are Cousins. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983.
VH
and Maugham met again in Paris three years later, in 1905, and he introduced her to novelist Arnold Bennett
, with whom she became friends.
qtd. in
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster, 1990.
115
Friends, Associates
Edith Sitwell
By 1919 ES
was also friendly with Arnold Bennett
and his wife Marguerite
. Wyndham Lewis
became a great friend, did many drawings of her, and demonstrated a sexual interest in her as well, which...
She had an extremely strong sense of privacy. Though at first she was pleased by the suggestion of an American journalist, Witter Bynner
, that he should interview her, and though she liked him when...
Timeline
2 September 1914: The British War Propaganda Bureau (newly...
Writing climate item
2 September 1914
The British War Propaganda Bureau
(newly formed along the lines of a similar body in Germany) summoned twenty-five writers to discuss the production of texts that would boost national feeling and the war effort.
By April 1929: The Book Society (first conceived of by Arnold...
Writing climate item
By April 1929
The Book Society
(first conceived of by Arnold Bennett
) was launched by Hugh Walpole
with himself as chairman; it was the first such society in Britain.
Spurling, Hilary. Secrets of a Woman’s Heart. Hodder and Stoughton, 1984.
23
Feather, John. A History of British Publishing. Croom Helm, 1988.
187-8
Texts
Bennett, Arnold. Anna of the Five Towns. Chatto and Windus, 1902.
Bennett, Arnold. Clayhanger. Methuen, 1910.
Bennett, Arnold. Fame and Fiction. Books for Libraries Press, 1975.
Bennett, Arnold. Imperial Palace. Cassell, 1930.
Bennett, Arnold. “Journalism for Women. A Practical Guide”. Project Gutenberg.
Bennett, Arnold. Journalism for Women. A Practical Guide. John Lane, 1898.
Bennett, Arnold. Lord Raingo. Cassell, 1926.
Bennett, Arnold. Milestones. George H. Doran, 1912.
Bennett, Arnold. Riceyman Steps. Cassell, 1923.
Bennett, Arnold. The Old Wives’ Tale. Nelson and Sons, 1908.
Bennett, Arnold. The Old Wives’ Tale. London, 1908.
