Arnold Bennett

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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.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photo of a young Arnold Bennett, seen half-profile in a stiff collar.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Cultural formation George Paston
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...
Education Viola Meynell
After leaving school at sixteen, VM read widely on her own, especially English authors: George Eliot , Dickens , George Meredith , Arnold Bennett , John Galsworthy , and Thomas Hardy .
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 Naomi Royde-Smith
NRS was a close friend of Rose Macaulay , with whom in the immediate postwar period she shared entertaining duties at her flat, in something similar to a salon. They apparently met through Macaulay contributing...
Friends, Associates Storm Jameson
Michael Sadleir first took Jameson to the Thursday evening salons hosted by Naomi Royde-Smith at her Queen's Gate home. These gatherings were attended by Rose Macaulay , Arnold Bennett , Edward Marsh , and Frank Swinnerton
Friends, Associates Anne Thackeray Ritchie
In London ATR connected or re-connected with friends including Kipling , Robert Louis Stevenson , Sidney Lee , Arnold Bennett , and Rhoda Broughton .
Gérin, Winifred. Anne Thackeray Ritchie: A Biography. Oxford University Press, 1981.
260-1, 272
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.
128
as well as a creative advisor; Bertrand and Dora Russell
Friends, Associates Lady Ottoline Morrell
LOM continued to entertain in London, hosting such guests as Ethel Smyth , Elizabeth Bowen , Stephen Spender , Max Beerbohm , Hope Mirrlees , Djuna Barnes , Charlie Chaplin , the novelist Henry Green
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...

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.
Spartacus Educational. 28 Feb. 2003, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/.

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.