Tumult and Tears

by Vivien Newman

  WINIFRED WEDGWOOD (1874-1963)

  Born in Bayswater, London, Winifred was the daughter of a stocks and shares dealer. By 1911, she and her widowed mother lived in Tunbridge Wells, looked after by a live-in cook and housemaid; neither states a profession in the census. In the Foreword to Verses of a VAD Kitchen-Maid, Wedgwood acknowledges that the inspiration for many of her poems was the ‘Military Hospital Kitchen’ where she served as a kitchen-maid with the Devonshire 26th VAD, the same hospital as Agatha Christie and Alberta Vickridge (q.v.).

  Wedgwood was undoubtedly a General Service VAD (GSVAD). This corps was formed in 1915 to assume jobs previously performed by men in military hospitals, thereby freeing up men for the Front. Kitchen work was considered the lowest form of service and many VAD nurses looked down on kitchen-maids. GSVADs served in all theatres, ran the same risks as nurses and occasionally died as a result of their service. These generally less articulate VADs have almost faded out of memory.

  LUCY WHITMELL (1869-1917)

  The daughter of a justice of the peace and magistrate, Lucy Whitmell lived in Leeds. One of her seven sisters was a member of the Army Nursing Reserve. Her much older husband was a retired inspector of schools. Her poem ‘Christ in Flanders’ was widely quoted in sermons by the Bishop of London (Padre of the London Rifle Brigade) Winnington-Ingram, and the Archbishop of York. The poem was available in leaflet form and, according to The New Outlook, by 9 August 1916 nearly 50,000 copies (cost 6d for 50 copies) had been sold. It was reprinted in New York City at the Chapel of the Comforter, in Horatio Street, as Gospel Leaflet No. 11, and was widely distributed in card form, as well as being set to music post-war.

  Appendix 2

  The Publishers

  ‘If you have words - / Fit words’

  (Helen Hamilton)

  Poets might have words, but if they are to be heard they need to be published. It is often impossible to know why a poet chose, or indeed was chosen, by a particular publishing house. Although many of the firms that published poetry during the War have undergone multiple take-overs, disappeared or are untraceable, some information is available about others. The stories and snippets that have been uncovered are integral to our understanding of women war poets, the war poetry genre and its unique place in English literature.

  Despite understandable pessimism when war broke out, the book trade did not initially see a decline in either sales or in the availability of paper, much of which was, by 1914, imported. The situation deteriorated from late 1915 and by December 1917, shipping priorities were ‘Food, Munitions or Men’. Although wood-pulp clearly did not fit into any of these categories, publishers wondered if they could claim preferential treatment as books were ‘of national importance’. In this way the industry was simply echoing sentiments expressed from early on in the War, as books (including collections of poetry) had been constructed as part of the ‘war effort’. It was felt that suitably patriotic texts reminded servicemen and women of what they were fighting to preserve and helped to maintain morale, so huge numbers were sent to troops overseas; cheap imprints were established for war workers and troops, and posters and charities pleaded for funds to purchase books for soldiers.

  What follows is in no way a comprehensive list, simply an overview of a few of the publishers active during the First World War and the poets they published:

  ANDREW MELROSE: Helen Mackay

  Andrew Melrose began publishing in 1899. In the early years of the twentieth century, he both published and contributed to Boys of the Empire, the official paper of the Boys’ Empire League whose aim was ‘to promote and strengthen a worthy Imperial Spirit in British-born boys’. Despite these rather Establishmentarian ideas, Melrose was not afraid of controversy and in 1915 he published Welsh author Caradoc Evans’ My People, a shocking portrayal of poverty in Wales.

  B H BLACKWELL: May Wedderburn Canaan; Eleanor Farjeon; Helen Hamilton

  Having opened a bookshop in Oxford in 1879, bookseller Benjamin Blackwell moved into publishing in 1897, his one aim being to promote access to literature for poorer people. The Blackwell family had roots in the Temperance movement, which promoted self-education and reading as well as teetotalism. Blackwell’s produced cheaper editions of Shakespeare and popular novels. According to the firm’s own history, customers and visitors to the shop were welcome ‘to scrutinise and handle the books on the shelves without obligation to buy’. In 1915, Blackwell’s published Tolkein’s first poem, ‘Goblin’s Feet’.

  BODLEY HEAD: Helen Parry Eden, Dorothy Una Ratcliffe

  So named for the founder of the Oxford Bodleian Library – the firm had a head of Sir Thomas Bodley as its insignia and a bust of him above the shop door. In 1887, Elkin Mathews and John Lane had started a joint publishing venture, Bodley Head, to produce works ‘of stylish decadence’ as well as the belles-lettres of the fin-de-siècle, including Oscar Wilde. The partnership was short-lived, as Elkin Mathews left in 1894 to set up his own house. Both before and during the War, Bodley Head published several young poets and also many mainstream authors including, post-war, Agatha Christie.

  BURNS AND OATES: Alice Meynell; Alys Fane Trotter

  Established in 1835, the house faced collapse when the owner, James Burns, converted to Catholicism in 1847; however assistance from Cardinal Newman, who chose the firm as his publisher, helped it survive. Alice Meynell’s husband Wilfred became literary advisor and manager at the house in the 1870s. According to Wilfred’s 1948 obituary, ‘beautifully printed books (for the first and last time) issued from a Catholic publisher’. The Meynells moved into the empty disused top floor of Burns and Oates’s London premises, which had a lift that deposited visitors in the bathroom. In 1913 Burns and Oates became even more closely connected to the Meynells, as their son Francis (subsequently a conscientious objector), began working there. Due to his interests, high standards of typography were soon noticeable.

  CONSTABLE & CO LTD: Celia Furse, Katherine Mansfield

  Founded in 1795 by Edinburgh resident Archibald Constable, the firm published Sir Walter Scott as well as Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Generous to authors, in 1813 Constable was the first publisher to offer an advance on royalties and in 1825 began to publish mass-market high-quality literature. Closed due to bankruptcy in 1826, the firm re-opened the following year and remained in business. In 1921 Constable became the first publisher to advertise on the London Underground.

  C W DANIEL: Elsie Paterson Cranmer; S Gertrude Ford

  Established in 1902, C W Daniel had links with the firm that had the agency for Tolstoy’s writing. Daniel wanted to make the thoughts of the world’s greatest thinkers affordable for the common man; he sold these so cheaply it is unlikely that he made a profit. A pacifist and a vegetarian, the name he initially chose for one of the magazines he published, The Crank, must have appeared to many in Edwardian times to reflect its owner’s tendencies.

  Daniel was twice prosecuted under the terms of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) for publishing pacifist works. His refusal to pay the £80 fine led to his being imprisoned for two months. Perhaps not anticipating wide sales, authors (and presumably poets) were asked to subsidise or even pay the costs of publishing. Some had to guarantee to buy a certain number of copies. This would indicate that the women he published enjoyed at least some financial independence.

  CHATTO & WINDUS: Helen Dircks

  Founded in 1855. By 1914, minor poet E Windus was a partner. The firm had a prestigious list of authors including Mark Twain, W S Gilbert, Wilkie Collins, H G Wells, Richard Aldington, and it also handled the first translation of Marcel Proust’s A La Recherche du Temps Perdu.

  ELKIN MATHEWS: Kathleen Braimbridge; Helen Key

  Considered an important figure in London literary life at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Mathews’ list included W B Yeats (who soon left him), Lionel Johnson, James Joyce and Ezra Pound. According to a 1992 review of Elkin Mathews: Publisher to Yeats, Joyce, Pound, he was a timid individual – app
arently he would go rushing for the ‘cellar privy’ when certain female customers arrived in his shop. He nevertheless gave evidence at the Oscar Wilde trials. Although cautious by nature, he could also make bold publishing decisions and he instigated two cheap poetry series.

  Known for his meanness when dealing with authors, he struggled post-war to adapt to the modernist winds of change blowing through the literary world.

  ERSKINE MACDONALD: Madeleine Bedford; Sybil Bristowe; Vera Brittain; Mary Collins; S Gertrude Ford; I Grindlay; Mary Henderson; Nina Mardel; Constance Renshaw; Alberta Vickridge

  Erskine Macdonald became, according to London Opinion, the ‘unofficial publisher to the poets of the British Army’ and indeed to many of the women poets of the War. The firm’s far from scrupulous behaviour provides insights into the wave of poetry and desire for publication that was sweeping the land at the time. Would-be poets of both genders were encouraged to submit work to ‘Macdonald’ which, for a fee of half a crown (about £12 in 2015), would be critiqued, but only if the aspiring poet also subscribed to the firm’s series Little Books of Georgian Verse. The ploy worked and significant numbers of poets were drawn into his net.

  At least on some occasions, Erskine Macdonald published at the expense of the author or their family and paid royalties slowly, if at all. He may have worked on the premise that for at least some of his authors, or their parents, getting published was more important than any money they might earn. Many amongst the publishing fraternity considered his methods abhorrent.

  Erskine Macdonald was not averse to taking what we would now call ‘sweeteners’ from would-be authors. In 1918, Vera Brittain’s father, a paper manufacturer, offered Erskine Macdonald ten reams of antique printing paper. Brittain was probably not alone in becoming increasingly frustrated by the delays in publication of her Verses of a VAD. Sadly, in her case the delay was such that her brother Edward who had followed the progress of the collection with interest, was killed two months before it finally appeared. The situation may not have been unique. Erskine Macdonald published S Gertrude Ford’s Poems of War and Peace, which was sold in aid of the British Red Cross Society.

  HEFFER: Mary Boyle; Kathleen Wallace

  William Heffer was the son of a Suffolk agricultural labourer who worked in Cambridge as a groom. Having been loaned a small sum of money, he set up business as a stationer, then subsequently a bookseller in Cambridge and by 1898, he had moved into publishing. Cheap textbooks for undergraduates became a hallmark of the business. Five of his nine children became actively involved in the business, which survived for 100 years.

  HEINEMANN: Enid Bagnold; Mary Borden; Alexandra Grantham

  Founded by William Heinemann in 1890; his father came originally from Hanover in Germany. By the turn of the century, Heinemann’s list included Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson and H G Wells. It is interesting to speculate that Heinemann’s Germanic roots may have attracted German-born Alexandra Grantham. Heinemann had been at the Book Trade Fair in Germany when war broke out.

  Despite his nephew and heir serving in the British Army, his German name made him a target for the anti-German wave of hatred sweeping the land and his London office was pelted with rubbish and horse manure. Unlike a number of British citizens with German antecedents (including the Royal Family), he decided against Anglicising his name. The firm’s output remained ‘patriotic’ although it attracted the attention of the censors. Heinemann published Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon’s first collections (both authors had Germanic roots) and he became friendly with Sassoon. Proud of his German heritage, Heinemann was nevertheless an outspoken critic of German atrocities, including the August 1914 destruction of the library at Louvain in Belgium.

  METHUEN & CO: Muriel Stuart

  Teacher Algernon Methuen founded the firm in 1889 as a way of producing and marketing his own textbooks. He believed in books that were ‘helpful’ and early publications were predominantly non-fiction, academic works. In 1892, Methuen published Rudyard Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads. The firm grew rapidly and began to encourage female authors. Charged with obscenity after publishing D H Lawrence’s The Rainbow (1915), Methuen agreed to destroy all remaining copies following two police visits to their premises on 3 November 1915. This might, according to Iain Stevenson in Book Makers – British Publishing in the Twentieth Century, have stemmed from Lawrence’s far from generous portrait of the chief editor’s brother who had recently been killed.

  SIDGWICK AND JACKSON: Elinor Jenkins, Violet Spender, Katharine Tynan

  Founded in 1908, it was considered one of the premier publishing houses of the War. Katharine Tynan in The Bookman (October 1916) wrote that ‘Sidgwick and Jackson’s name on a volume of poetry is nearly always a guarantee of the quality’. They published a number of Tynan’s collections, as well as works by Rose Macauley, Rupert Brooke and several other male poets.

  SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT AND CO: Viviane Verne

  This firm originated before 1814 under a Benjamin Crosby; Simpkin and Marshall were his assistants. During the mid-nineteenth century the firm was England’s largest book wholesaler. In about 1890-1891, it expanded to become Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Company with a wide publishing remit.

  STOCKWELL: Eva Dobell; Olive Downes; Evelyn Tollemache

  Established in 1898, it is still run by the great-grandchildren of the founder, Arthur Stockwell having moved from London to Devon, after being bombed during the Second World War.

  THACKER, SPINK & CO.: Aimée Byng Scott

  Set up in Bombay by William Thacker in the 1830s, by 1914, the firm was based in Calcutta. Unsurprisingly, they published a number of Anglo-Indian writings and writers including Rudyard Kipling, who carried on a lengthy correspondence with them in the 1880s.

  Publications:

  The Bookman

  A monthly literary periodical devoted to ‘Book buyers, Book readers and Book sellers.’ Established in 1891, it was a middlebrow publication, priced at 6d, about the same cost as a 1914 4lb (1.8kg) loaf of bread; ‘aspirational readers’ with limited disposable income could afford to buy a copy. It had featured some of J M Barrie and W B Yeats’ early works and always contained book reviews, poems, literary criticism and features on authors.

  The Englishwoman

  This monthly journal cost one shilling with about the same as 4lb (2kg) of sugar in 1914 was intended to ‘reach the cultured public and bring before it in a convincing and moderate form the case for the Enfranchisement of Women’. The articles were generally but not exclusively on ‘women’s topics’ and most editions during the War included at least one poem, not all with war themes. Its September 1914 edition assured readers that the publication ‘will endeavour to represent the opinion of the large number of women who feel the full horrors of the War, who ardently desire peace, but who yet would not buy it at the price of honour.’ The range of poems it published largely reflect this view.

  Herald

  By August 1914 the previously Daily Herald only appeared weekly. Firmly anti-war, it played a key role in the anti-conscription campaigns and supported conscientious objectors. Throughout the War, it unsurprisingly published pacifists’ work. In 1917 it supported the Russian Revolution and was never averse to publishing articles showing the particular burdens war was placing on the poor. Alice Meynell’s pacifist son Francis was on the editorial board.

  The Nation

  Despite starting life in 1907 as a Liberal publication, during the War, it became a Labour one. Its editor H V Massingham, a member of the Union for Democratic Control, used it to campaign for peace. Post-war, it attacked the economic policies of Stanley Baldwin and the Conservative Government. In 1930, it merged with The New Statesman and as The New Statesman and The Nation earned the reputation of being the country’s leading intellectual weekly.

  Westminster Gazette

  Initially a daily, subsequently evening liberal broadsheet first published in 1893; it used distinctive light green paper. Poems by
many revered poets, as well as unknowns, appeared in the Gazette. With its sister paper, Saturday Westminster Gazette, it was ‘an organ of wide intellectual interests and sound taste in all the arts’ (The Spectator). Gender-blind, it offered a weekly ‘Prize Poem’ competition on wide-ranging topics. Some were home-based, others for men and women on active service, sometimes parodies were suggested, on other occasions a ‘Latin or Greek tag’. During the War, its circulation was not particularly wide but it was seen as influential. It merged with the Daily News in 1918 and ceased publication in 1928.

  (Edward) Lawrence Levy 1851-1932 (Scrapbook Compiler)

  Lawrence Levy was a prominent member of the Birmingham Jewish community. Born in London, in 1891 at the age of forty he won the first British Amateur Weightlifting Championship. He also acted as a weightlifting judge in the 1896 Olympic Games. He was a pioneering teacher, and newspaper reporter. When war broke out, he became a leading theatrical impresario directing the Birmingham Athletic Club in a three-year campaign to entertain wounded soldiers in the suburban military hospitals. He encouraged members of the Birmingham Athletic Group to undertake voluntary work at weekends in munitions factories. He was the founder of the Amateur Gymnastics Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.

  Appendix 3

  The Birmingham War Poetry Scrapbooks

  Collection

  ‘Everybody’s Aunt Lucy and Uncle George has written something’

  (Ezra Pound)

  No serious student of World War One poetry should overlook this unique collection, which corroborates Ezra Pound’s much-quoted statement. In December 1918, Walter Powell, Chief Librarian of Birmingham Public Library, began placing advertisements in local, national and international newspapers requesting readers to submit a poem or poems that they had written during the War. He specified that these should have been written as ‘private expressions’ or published only in ‘ephemeral’ form, such as broadsides or postcards.