Square Haunting

by Francesca Wade

  Thank you to all the librarians and archivists whose work has made this book possible: to the staff at the University of Arkansas; Barnard College, Columbia University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the BBC Written Archives; the Beinecke Library, Yale; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the British Library; the British Museum; Bryn Mawr College; Cambridge University Library; the Camden Local Studies and Archive Centre; Cornell University Library; Girton College Library; Glasgow University; the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin; the Houghton Library, Harvard; the Jacques Doucet Literary Library; the Keep; the Lilly Library, Indiana University; the London Library; the London Metropolitan Archives; LSE Library; the Marx Memorial Library; the University of Maryland; the University of Reading; Southern Illinois University, and the Women’s Library at LSE. Special thanks to Anne Thomson at Newnham College, Triin Vallaste at Amherst College, Laura Schmidt, Elaine Powell Hooker and Marjorie Lamp Mead at the Marion E. Wade Center, Gilbert O’Brien of the Georgian Group, Rachelle Arthey and Isobel Harcourt from Goodenough College; and Seona Ford of the Dorothy L. Sayers Society (for afternoons exploring the extensive archives held in her garage).

  Thank you to Hannah Rosefield, Tyler Curtis, Rosie Clarke and Edward Town for accommodation during my US research trip; and special gratitude to Marilyn Schwinn Smith, fount of information on John Cournos, Jane Harrison, Bears and so much more, for hospitality in Amherst and wonderful conversations and emails. Thank you to Alasdair McKinnon for help with Russian.

  Of all my subjects, it’s fitting that Dorothy L. Sayers has provided the most entertainment and mystery throughout the research process: I’m extremely grateful to Anthony Cardew for showing me the synopsis for an unpublished Sayers story in his possession, and to Martin Edwards for inviting me to a dinner of the secret Detection Club, where I witnessed a candlelit initiation ceremony using the very words Sayers wrote in the 1930s. It’s been a great pleasure to correspond with Dan Drake, possessor of an array of unpublished Sayers manuscripts, and I’m very grateful to him for sending scans of several tantalising pieces of her early writing.

  I’ve been extremely lucky to meet Basil Postan, who has allowed me to quote from previously unseen letters from Eileen Power to his father Munia; I’m hugely grateful to him for his support, and to his brother Alexander Postan.

  Another great privilege of research was to meet the late Jeremy Hutchinson, QC, then aged 101; he regaled me with stories of his own stint at 42 Mecklenburgh Square in the 1930s, of his friendship with Virginia Woolf, and of the delights of Holborn’s music halls.

  Thank you to my brilliant agents, Caroline Dawnay and Sophie Scard, for their belief in this project from the very beginning; working with them has been a joy. Thank you to the judges of the 2015 Tony Lothian Prize, and to all at the Biographers’ Club. Thank you to everyone at Faber: to Mitzi Angel, who commissioned this book and whose advice was formative at an early stage; to Laura Hassan for such generous editing and Rowan Cope for expertly seeing it through to publication; to Josh Smith, John Grindrod, Kate Ward and others. Special thanks to Ella Griffiths for perpetual support and wise conversation. Thank you to Tim Duggan and William Wolfslau at Crown; to Silvia Crompton for copy-editing, to Hilary McClellen for fact-checking and to Mark Bolland for the index.

  I wouldn’t have written this book without the support of Edmund Gordon: helping with research on his biography of Angela Carter taught me an enormous amount about archives, storytelling and structure. Thank you to Peter Stothard for his generosity and encouragement when I was first starting out in book reviewing. I’m grateful for the support of friends and colleagues, especially to Nicola Beauman and Lydia Fellgett at Persephone Books — where the idea for this book originated — and to Ben Eastham and Jacques Testard at The White Review, whose example has shown me how to be a better editor and, by extension, writer. Huge thanks to friends who read parts of the book in progress — Sandeep Parmar, Ben Eastham, Patrick Langley, Clara Jones — and very special thanks to Edmund Gordon, Alice Spawls and Matthew Rudman for reading the entirety; all their comments have deepened my thinking and improved the book immeasurably. Above all, thank you to my mother Alison. This book is for her, and in memory of my grandparents.

  TEXT PERMISSIONS

  Excerpts from Asphodel, copyright © 1991 by Perdita Schaffner. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from Bid Me to Live (A Madrigal), copyright © 1960 by Hilda Doolittle. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from ‘Eurydice’, from Collected Poems, 1912–1944, copyright © 1917 by Hilda Doolittle. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp and Carcanet Press Limited.

  Excerpts from ‘Amaranth’ and ‘Eros’, from Collected Poems, 1912–1944, copyright © 1982 by The Estate of Hilda Doolittle. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp and Carcanet Press Limited.

  Excerpts from End to Torment, copyright © 1979 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Copyright © 1979 by The Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp and Carcanet Press Limited.

  Excerpts from HERmione, copyright © 1981 by The Estate of Hilda Doolittle. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from Hirslanden Notebooks, copyright © 2015 by the Schaffner Family Foundation. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from Magic Mirror, Compassionate Friendship, Thorn Thicket, copyright © 2015 by the Schaffner Family Foundation. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from previously published archive material by H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), from New Directions Pub. acting as agent, copyright © (year of publication) by The Schaffner Family Foundation. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from unpublished archival material, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, from New Directions Pub. acting as agent, copyright © 2018 by The Schaffer Family Foundation. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from Palimpsest, copyright © 1926 by H. D. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from The Gift, copyright © 1969, 1982 by The Estate of Hilda Doolittle. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  Excerpts from Tribute to Freud, copyright © 1956, 1974 by Norman Holmes Pearson. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp and Carcanet Press Limited.

  Excerpts from Trilogy, copyright © 1945 by Oxford University Press; Copyright renewed 1973 by Norman Holmes Pearson. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp and Carcanet Press Limited.

  Excerpts from Paint It Today, copyright © 1992 by Perdita Schaffner, reprinted by permission of NYU Press.

  Excerpts from The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence: Aaron’s Rod (1988), Kangaroo (1994), Letters (1989). Cambridge University Press. Reproduced by permission of Paper Lion Ltd and Frieda Lawrence Ravagli.

  Excerpts from the writings of Dorothy L. Sayers © The Trustees of Anthony Fleming (deceased).

  Excerpts from the writings of Jane Harrison and Hope Mirrlees courtesy of The Principal and Fellows, Newnham College, Cambridge.

  Excerpts from the writings of Eileen Power courtesy of Basil and Alexander Postan as executors for the Lady Cynthia and Sir Michael Postan.

  Excerpts from The Essays of Virginia Woolf: Volume II 1912–1918 by Virginia Woolf, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1986

  Excerpts from The Essays of Virginia Woolf: Volume IV 1925–1928 by Virginia Woolf, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1988

  Excerpts from The Essays of Virginia Woolf: Volume VI 1933–1941 by Virginia Woolf, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd/Penguin Books Ltd.

  Excerpts from Moments of B
eing by Virginia Woolf, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1985

  Excerpts from The Flight of the Mind: The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume I 1888–1912 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1975

  Excerpts from The Question of Things Happening: The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume II 1912–1922 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1976

  Excerpts from A Change of Perspective: The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume III 1923–1928 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Nigel Nicolson, published by Chatto & Windus, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1977

  Excerpts from The Sickle Side of the Moon: The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume V 1932–1935 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, published by Chatto & Windus, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1982

  Excerpts from Leave the Letters Till We’re Dead: The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume VI 1936–1941 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, published by Chatto & Windus Ltd, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Limited. © 1983

  Excerpts from The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume I 1915–1919 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Anne Olivier Bell and Quentin Bell, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1977

  Excerpts from The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume II 1920–1924 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Anne Olivier Bell and Quentin Bell, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1978

  Excerpts from The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume III 1925–1930 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Anne Olivier Bell and Andrew McNeillie, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1980

  Excerpts from The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume IV 1931–1935 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Anne Olivier Bell and Andrew McNeillie, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 1982

  Excerpts from The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume V 1936–1941 by Virginia Woolf, edited by Anne Olivier Bell and Andrew McNeillie, published by The Hogarth Press, reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Limited. © 1984

  Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers would be pleased to rectify at the earliest opportunity any omissions or errors brought to their notice.

  INDEX

  Numbers in italics denote pages with illustrations; MS denotes Mecklenburgh Square.

  Aberdeen, University of, 1

  Aeschylus: Agamemnon, 1

  Aesop, 1

  Agag (DLS’s cat), 1

  Akhmatova, Anna, 1

  Albert Kahn Travelling Fellowship, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Aldington, Catherine, 1

  Aldington, Frances Perdita (later Schaffner), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Aldington, Richard: Arabella Yorke affair, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; on Berkeley party, 1;

  in Bid Me to Live, 1;

  burns H. D.’s letters, 1, 2;

  called up, 1;

  charades in MS, 1;

  divorce from H. D., 1;

  EP on his ‘medieval misogyny’, 1;

  Flo Fallas affair, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  grudge against Gray, 1;

  Hampstead flat, 1, 2;

  on Imagism, 1;

  on Lawrence, 1;

  on ‘the long armistice’, 1;

  marriage to H. D., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8;

  meeting with H. D. (1929), 1;

  moves to MS, 1;

  Patmore affairs, 1, 2, 3;

  and Perdita, 1, 2, 3;

  portrait, 1;

  ruled out of army, 1, 2;

  as soldier, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;

  Death of a Hero, 1

  Alexandria, Egypt, 1

  Allen, Hugh, 1, 2

  Allingham, Margery: ‘The Case of the Longer View’, 1

  Altrincham, Cheshire, 1, 2

  Anand, Mulk Raj, 1, 2

  Anderson, Will, 1

  Anrep, Boris, 1, 2

  Anrep, Helen, 1

  Anstey, Vera, 1

  Arnold-Forster, Ka and Will, 1

  Asche, Oscar: Chu Chin Chow, 1

  Asín Palacios, Miguel: Islam and the Divine Comedy, 1

  Asquith, Cynthia, 1, 2

  Astor, Nancy, 1

  Attlee, Clement, 1

  Auden, W. H., 1

  Austen, Jane: Emma, 1

  Austria: Congress of Vienna (1814–15), 1; EP at the Rudolfshütte, 1;

  Vienna, 1, 2, 3

  Avvakum (Russian archpriest), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Babb, James, 1

  Bach, J. S.: Double Violin Concerto in D minor, 1

  Baker, Herbert, 1

  Barnett, Charis, 1

  Barrett, Rachel, 1

  BBC: DLS commission, 1; educational radio broadcasts, 1;

  Einstein speech, 1;

  EP and Rhoda Power broadcasts, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Beard, Marion Gertrude, 1, 2

  Beard, Mary, 1

  Bedford, Francis Russell, 5th Duke of, 1, 2, 3

  Bedford, Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of, 1

  Bedford Estate, 1, 2, 3

  Bell, Angelica, 1, 2, 3

  Bell, Anne Olivier, 1

  Bell, Clive, 1, 2

  Bell, Julian, 1, 2, 3

  Bell, Quentin, 1, 2

  Bell, Vanessa: childhood and education, 1; and Fry, 1;

  loss of son, 1;

  Memoir Club at Charleston, 1;

  Monk’s House tiles, 1;

  portraits of VW, 1;

  and post-Impressionists, 1;

  scrutinises Roger Fry, 1, 2;

  studio incinerated, 1;

  VW quarrel over Rodmell, 1;

  VW suicide note, 1;

  on VW’s memoirs, 1

  Bennett, Arnold, 1

  Bentley, E. C.: Trent’s Last Case, 1

  Berg, Maxine, 1

  Bergson, Henri, 1

  Beveridge, William, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Binyon, Laurence, 1

  birth control, see contraception

  Black, Dora (later Russell), 1

  Blackwell, Basil, 1, 2, 3

  Blasco Ibáñez, Vicente: Blood and Sand, 1

  Blitz: H. D. on, 1;

  London prepares, 1; MS bombed, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  Rodmell, 1, 2;

  starts, 1

  Bloch, Marc, 1

  Blok, Alexander, 1

  Bloomsbury: bookshops, 1; in detective fiction, 1;

  development, 1;

  DLS describes party, 1;

  dubious reputation, 1, 2;

  educational establishments, 1;

  and feminism, 1;

  H. D. taken with, 1, 2;

  James on ‘Bloomsbury girl’, 1;

  literary heritage, 1, 2, 3;

  maps, 1;

  opportunity for living alone, 1, 2, 3, 4;

  popularity with travellers, 1;

  Postan’s group, 1;

  poverty, 1;

  VW and Vanessa’s escape to, 1

  Bloomsbury Group: conscientious objection, 1, 2; EP on, 1;

  EP/Tawney’s alternative, 1, 2;

  as ‘fools paradise’, 1;

  Fry post-Impressionist exhibition, 1;

  gossip, 1;

  as JEH’s friends, 1;

  Memoir Club, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  Mirrlees leaves, 1;

  Mirsky denounces, 1;

  support for militarism against fascism, 1;

  support for Versty, 1;

  Tawney on, 1;

  VW defends against Nicolson, 1;

  and VW’s diary, 1

  Blunt, Wilfrid, 1

  Bluntisham, Cambs, 1, 2

  Blyth, Harry, 1

  Board of Education, 1


  Boni & Liveright, 1

  Bonn, Moritz, 1

  Booth, Charles, 1, 2

  Bos, Charles du, 1

  Bosigran, Cornwall, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Botticelli, Sandro, 1; Birth of Venus, 1

  Bournemouth, 1, 2

  Bowen, Elizabeth, 1, 2, 3

  Brabazon, James, 1, 2

  Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, 1

  Brailsford, H. N.: ‘A Memory of Poland’, 1

  Brecht, Bertolt, 1

  Brighton, 1, 2

  British Empire: EP dislikes, 1, 2, 3; JEH as threat to, 1;

  legitimacy questioned, 1;

  London House (MS) training, 1;

  statues celebrate men, 1;

  VW ridicules, 1

  British Museum: foundation, 1; H. D. and Aldington at, 1;

  JEH as guide, 1;

  Oriental prints and drawings, 1;

  tea room, 1, 2

  READING ROOM: absence of women’s names, 1; applications for, 1;

  DLS at, 1, 2, 3;

  EP and Rhoda Power at, 1;

  opening, 1;

  VW on, 1

  The British Worker, 1

  Brittain, Vera, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Testament of Youth, 1, 2

  Brooke, Rupert, 1

  Brown, Frederick, 1

  Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1

  Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman): comparison to Mirrlees, 1, 2; correspondence with H. D., 1, 2, 3, 4;

  first meets H. D., 1;

  with H. D. in Switzerland, 1, 2;

  lesbianism, 1;

  marriages, 1;

  Perdita–Gray meeting, 1;

  on Dorothy Richardson, 1;

  sends money to Flo Fallas, 1;