Rebecca West

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Standard Name: West, Rebecca
Birth Name: Cicily Isabel Fairfield
Nickname: Cissie
Nickname: Anne
Nickname: Panther
Nickname: Rac
Pseudonym: Rebecca West
Married Name: Cicily Isabel Andrews
Used Form: R*b*cc* W*st
Rebecca West rose to fame early (before the First World War) through her witty, acerbic journalism. In addition to numerous essays and reviews, she wrote about a dozen novels, short stories, political analyses, a classic travel book, and works of literary criticism. Her journalism remains an important commentary on the contemporary women's movement, offering both strong intellectual support and trenchant satire. She is known for her pungency of phrase; on occasion she was more eager for a phrase to strike shockingly home than for it to withstand criticism.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photograph of Rebecca West looking straight forward, wearing a checked jacket with dark cuffs and collar and white flowers pinned at the neckline. With one hand she touches a chunky metal necklace. Her wavy, greying hair, jaw-length, is pushed behind her ears.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Dora Russell
Sylvia Pankhurst enrolled her son as a day-boy at Beacon Hill, and lived nearby while writing The Suffragette Movement; Beatrice and Sidney Webb , and G. B. Shaw also visited. The school hosted annual...
Friends, Associates Violet Hunt
VH met and was fascinated by Rebecca West , who had recently written a review Hunt called a column of wit and innuendo—as destructive as a prairie fire.
qtd. in
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster, 1990.
193-4
Friends, Associates G. B. Stern
GBS moved in literary and artistic circles in London before the first World War. She visited Rebecca West at Leigh-on-Sea in Essex in September 1917 during a week of air-raids.
Stern, G. B. Monogram. Chapman and Hall, 1936.
268ff
Several decades later she...
Friends, Associates Stella Benson
Back in London after various summer travels, SB met Eddie Marsh , Rebecca West , and Elizabeth Bowen .
Grant, Joy. Stella Benson: A Biography. Macmillan, 1987.
251
Friends, Associates Laura Riding
Graves and Riding were touchy as friends, between their sense of literary mission (they saw Graves's biography of T. E. Lawrence as a somewhat demeaning potboiler, not part of his real work at all) and...
Friends, Associates Rosita Forbes
In FinlandRF met the national hero Marshal Mannerheim .
Forbes, Rosita. Gypsy in the Sun. Cassell, 1944.
302
On her first visit to the USA she met Rebecca West , Ruth Draper , Anna Pavlova , and H. G. Wells ; on...
Friends, Associates Violet Hunt
VH greatly admired West , and used their interaction as a spring board from which she delved into issues about women and writing. In 1926, for instance, she compared West physically and intellectually to George Sand
Friends, Associates Dora Marsden
During the 1920s DM 's primary focus was her writing, which she continued mainly in isolation and under much mental and physical stress. However, she was assisted in this by Harriet Shaw Weaver and Sylvia Beach
Friends, Associates Ann Bridge
AB 's correspondents included Ka Arnold-Foster , John Betjeman , E. M. Forster , Margaret Haig Rhondda , Margaret Irwin , John Masefield , Naomi Mitchison , I. A. Richards , Vita Sackville-West , and...
Friends, Associates Mary Butts
A party at MB 's flat at 43 Belsize Park Gardens in London was attended by Evelyn Waugh , G. B. Stern , and Rebecca West .
Blaser, Robin et al. “Afterword”. Imaginary Letters, Talonbooks, 1979, pp. 61-80.
65
Friends, Associates Mary Webb
In London, despite the shyness that made literary life difficult for her, MW became friends with May Sinclair , Robert and Sylvia Lynd , Rebecca West , novelist and critic Edwin Pugh , and Lady Cynthia Asquith
Friends, Associates Pamela Frankau
Her aunt Eliza Aria introduced the very young PF to many of her older, god-like friends: first of all actress Sybil Thorndike and writers Michael Arlen and Osbert Sitwell .
Frankau, Pamela. I Find Four People. I. Nicholson and Watson, 1935.
133-4
Later came John Van Druten
Friends, Associates Violet Hunt
Distraught over her split with Ford , VH was supported by several of her women writer friends, especially Radclyffe Hall , Dorothy Richardson , Ethel Colburn Mayne , May Sinclair , and Rebecca West .
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster, 1990.
251
Friends, Associates Pamela Frankau
PF 's friendship with Rebecca West began with West seeing her as a protégée worthy of her time and energy,
Frankau, Pamela. “Preface”. A Letter from R*b*cc* W*st, edited by Diana Raymond, Privately printed at the Tragara Press, 1986, pp. 3-5.
3
and Frankau being always afraid of Rebecca.
Frankau, Pamela. “Preface”. A Letter from R*b*cc* W*st, edited by Diana Raymond, Privately printed at the Tragara Press, 1986, pp. 3-5.
3
PF 's affair with Humbert Wolfe
Friends, Associates Margaret Haig Viscountess Rhondda
MHVR 's friends included novelist Elizabeth Robins , Theodora Bosanquet (spokesperson for British Federation of University Women and one-time secretary of Henry James ), MP Ellen Wilkinson (despite of their different stance on party politics)...

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

West, Rebecca. The Birds Fall Down. Macmillan, 1966.
West, Rebecca. The Court and the Castle. Yale University Press, 1957.
West, Rebecca. The Fountain Overflows. Macmillan, 1957.
West, Rebecca. “The Gospel According to Mrs. Humphrey Ward”. The Freewoman.
West, Rebecca. The Harsh Voice. Jonathan Cape, 1935.
West, Rebecca. The Judge. Hutchinson.
West, Rebecca. The Meaning of Treason. Viking.
West, Rebecca. The Meaning of Treason. Rev. ed., Pan Books, 1956.
West, Rebecca, and David Low. The Modern "Rake’s Progress". Hutchinson, 1934, http://UofA.
West, Rebecca. The New Meaning of Treason. Viking Press, 1964.
West, Rebecca. The Only Poet and Short Stories. Editor Till, Antonia, Virago, 1992.
West, Rebecca. The Return of the Soldier. Nisbet, 1918.
West, Rebecca. The Sentinel. Editor Laing, Kathryn, Legenda, 2002.
West, Rebecca. The Strange Necessity. Jonathan Cape.
West, Rebecca. The Thinking Reed. Hutchinson.
West, Rebecca. The Young Rebecca. Editor Marcus, Jane, Macmillan with Virago, 1982, http://UofA.
West, Rebecca. This Real Night. Macmillan, 1984.
West, Rebecca. War Nurse. Cosmopolitan Book Corporation.