Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Edith Somerville
-
Standard Name: Somerville, Edith
Birth Name: Edith Anne Œnone Somerville
Pseudonym: Geilles Herring
Pseudonym: Viva Graham
Pseudonym: E. Œ. Somerville
Pseudonym: Somerville and Ross
ES
, who published from 1885, is known from the Somerville and Ross partnership which produced at least one important novel and a collection of classic comic stories (set in the west of Ireland and centred on fox-hunting), as well as other endearing Irish sketches and travel writings. She continued to write in these genres, mostly story and memoir, after Ross's death (which she saw as interrupting but not ending their collaboration). The later works (the last appeared in 1949) are suffused with nostalgia, and very largely dominated by the need to make money, to keep going an estate which was no longer financially viable. The massive archive of ES
's diary and letters is still almost unexamined.
"Edith Somerville" by Hulton Archive/Stringer,1916-01-01.Retrieved from https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/irish-novelist-edith-somerville-with-her-cousin-violet-news-photo/3062689.
Edith Somerville and MR
published All on the Irish Shore, a collection of hunting stories they had previously printed in magazines, with Somerville
's illustrations.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
135
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers, 1952.
255
Publishing
Martin Ross
The novel Naboth's Vineyard appeared from Spencer Blackett
, expanded and re-written by MR
and Edith Somerville
at the request of a friend, from a short story they had published in The Lady's Pictorial.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
63, 73
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers, 1952.
248-9
Publishing
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville and MR
published another collection of their magazine stories, Some Irish Yesterdays, with Somerville
's illustrations.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
141
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers, 1952.
256
Publishing
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published In the Vine Country, a travel-book about the vineyards of Bordeaux, with F. H. Townsend
's illustrations from Somerville's sketches.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers, 1952.
250-1
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
93
Publishing
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
, rising ninety, received the news that Oxford University Press
was reprinting The Real Charlotte (by herself and MR
) in the World's Classics series.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
158-9
Reception
Augusta Gregory
Bernard Shaw
saw Lady Gregory as a born playwright . . . . doomed from the cradle to write for the stage, to break through every social obstacle to get to the stage, to refuse...
Residence
Katharine Tynan
In the autumn of 1914, KT
's husband
moved from their current home, Clarebeg at Shankill near Dublin, to County Mayo in Western Ireland, where he had been appointed the Resident Magistrate. He held...
Textual Features
B. M. Croker
Some chapter titles (Clancy's Colt, Foxy Joe Tells Tales) suggest a work by Somerville
and Ross
, and so does the opening description of Ballingoole, which used to enjoy the best and...
Textual Features
Martin Ross
MR
's letters were always remarkable for vividness, forcefulness, and breadth of emotional sympathy. She wrote particularly memorably to Edith Somerville
during the summer of 1888, from her childhood home in the west of Ireland...
Textual Production
Elizabeth Jane Howard
She was invited to do a script for an Irish film by Jonathan Cavendish
about Edith Somerville
and Martin Ross
, but when she looked into their lives she thought they lacked the dramatic structure...
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published the book for which they were and are most famous: Some Experiences of an Irish R. M., illustrated by Somerville herself.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers, 1952.
253-4
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
126
Textual Production
Molly Keane
MK
wrote a foreword for Gifford Lewis
's selection from the letters of Somerville
and Ross
, published in 1989.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published a sequel to their most successful book: Further Experiences of an Irish R. M.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
146
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers, 1952.
257
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Violet Martin (later MR
) made her first diary mention of her recently-met cousin and later collaborator, Edith Somerville
, who was painting her portrait.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.