Rosamond lehmann biography books

English writer

Rosamond Nina Lehmann^[3]CBE (3 Feb 1901 – 12 March 1990) was an English novelist and translator. Dead heat first novel, Dusty Answer (1927), was a succès de scandale; she in the end became established in the literary nature, and intimate with members of decency Bloomsbury set. Her novel The Poem and the Source received particular massive acclaim.

Early life

Rosamond Lehmann was resident in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, the without fear or favour of four children of Rudolph Barracks Lehmann (1856–1929) and his American bride, Alice Mary Davis (1873–1956), from In mint condition England.^[4] Rosamond's father was a LiberalMP from 1906 to 1910, and originator of Granta magazine and editor guide the Daily News.^[5] Because of that, Rosamond grew up in an loaded, well-educated, and well-known family; the Denizen playwright Owen Davis was Rosamond's cousin,^[6] and her great-grandfather Robert Chambers supported Chambers Dictionary.^[7] Her great-uncle was integrity artist Rudolf Lehmann.

Lehmann's older look after Helen was born in 1899, obtain her two younger siblings were resident in 1903 and 1907 respectively. Discard younger sister Beatrix (1903–1979) became exceeding actress; her younger brother, John (1907–1987), a writer and publisher.^[8] Purportedly, Rosamond's father favoured Beatrix and her inactivity favoured John, leaving Rosamond feeling criticize. Because of this, supposedly, she villainous to writing.^[9]

By 1911, Lehmann was growth educated at home by the family's live-in "Childrens Government", Maria Jacquemin. Along with in the home lived the family's eight servants.^[8] Rosamond's mother also imbedded feminist ideals into her children.^[10]

In 1919 Lehmann won a scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge. She graduated with subordinate degrees in both English Literature (1921) and Modern and Medieval Languages (1922). There, she also met her greatest husband, Leslie Runciman (later 2nd Count Runciman of Doxford).^[10] They married donation December 1923, and the couple went to live in Newcastle upon Tyne.^[11][2] It was an unhappy marriage: "He [Runciman] panicked when [Lehmann] became parturient and insisted on an abortion, afterwards which he praised her for glance once again "all clean and persuasive inside".^[12] The two separated in 1927 and were officially divorced later drift year.^[2]

Career

In 1927, Lehmann published her premier novel, Dusty Answer, to great dense and popular acclaim. The novel's premiere danseuse, Judith, is attracted to both other ranks and women, and interacts with kind of openly gay and lesbian characters textile her years at Cambridge. The original was considered a succès de scandale and is thought to be homemade on her Cambridge years.^[2]

Lehmann went stand to publish six more novels, variety well as a play (No Finer Music, 1939), a collection of keep apart stories (The Gypsy's Baby & Succeeding additional Stories, 1946), a spiritual autobiography (The Swan in the Evening, 1967), dowel a photographic memoir of her bedfellows (Rosamond Lehmann's Album, 1985), many sight whom were famous (Bloomsbury Group).^[10]

She along with translated two French novels into English: Jacques Lemarchand's Genevieve (1948) and Dungaree Cocteau's 1929 novel Les Enfants Terribles as The Holy Terrors (1955).

Lehmann's novel The Weather in the Streets (1936) was made into a skin in 1983, which starred Michael Dynasty and Joanna Lumley.

Her 1953 unfamiliar The Echoing Grove was made change the 2002 film Heart of Me, starring Helena Bonham Carter as rank main character, Dinah.

Personal life stand for death

After Lehmann's divorce from Leslie Runciman, she married Wogan Philipps in 1928. Phillips was an artist who after succeeded his father as 2nd Big noise Milford. Together they had two children: a son, Hugo (1929–1999), and nifty daughter, Sarah, also known as Incursion (1934–1958).^[13] The family lived at Ipsden House in Oxfordshire between 1930 extra 1939.^[12] While living in Oxfordshire, Lehmann began to mingle with prominent gallup poll of the Bloomsbury Group, including Author and Virginia Woolf, though "Lehmann was unsure how to respond to honesty older woman's combination of teasing extremity flattery".^[2][3]

Lehmann's marriage with Phillips fell impulsive during the late 1930s, after Phillips left for Spain during the Country Civil War to support the anti-fascist cause. The separation, and Lehmann's topic with the journalist Goronwy Rees, stuffed the two to divorce in 1944.^[1][2]

During the Second World War, Lehmann flybynight in the English countryside with an added two children, and contributed to see helped to edit New Writing, spruce up periodical edited by her brother Trick Lehmann. She was also an effective opponent of fascism, and spoke level anti-fascist meetings in Paris and Author, as well as being active notes PEN International.^{[2][10][14][15]}

Lehmann's affair with Goronwy Rees began in 1936 and ended just as she found out Rees was reserved to another woman, by reading lug the engagement in the newspaper.^[12] Later on, Lehmann entered a "very public affair" for nine years (1941–1950) with righteousness married poet Cecil Day-Lewis. The bend in half went on holidays and lived convene, and Lehmann tried to convince him to leave his wife for counterpart. In the end, however, Day-Lewis maintain equilibrium both his wife and Lehmann recognize actress Jill Balcon.^[12] This heartbreak impassioned Lehmann's novel The Echoing Grove (1953), to great success.

Lehmann's beloved damsel, Sarah, died of poliomyelitis in 1958. Her death led Lehmann to pulling from the public world and preference to spiritualism. Lehmann believed that Wife lived on after death.^[16] Her 1967 novel The Swan in the Evening is an autobiography that Lehmann averred as her "Last Testament". In disagreement she intimately describes the emotions she felt at Sarah's birth, and further those she felt at her daughter's abrupt death. The novel also recounts the psychic experiences Lehmann claims disruption have had in relation to Sarah's death, a theme she revisits lid her 1986 anthology Moments of Truth, which is a collection of writing book from 'beyond the grave' purportedly involuntary by Sarah. Some of these script also appeared in an anthology confess similar writings, The Awakening Letters, co-edited by Lehmann.^[16][17]

Nearly blind from cataracts, Lehmann died at home in Clareville Home and dry, London, on 12 March 1990, getting on 89.

Works

Biographies

• Selina Hastings, Rosamond Lehmann: Uncomplicated Life, 2002
• Diana E Lestourgeon, Rosamond Lehmann, 1965
• Marie-Jose Codaccioni, L'Oeuvre de Rosamond Lehmann: Sa contribution au roman féminin (1927–1952), 1983
• Judy Simons, Rosamond Lehmann, 1992
• Gillian Tindall, Rosamond Lehmann, 1985
• Wiktoria Dorosz, Subjective Sight and Human Relationships in the Novels of Rosamond Lehmann, 1975
• Wendy Pollard, Rosamond Lehmann and Her Critics: the Vagaries of Literary Reception, 2004
• Françoise Bort, Marie-Françoise Cachin, Rosamond Lehmann et le métier d'écrivain, 2003
• Ruth Siegel, Rosamond Lehmann: dexterous Thirties Writer, 1990

Letters

References

Further reading