Michael Field (author)
Encyclopedia
Michael Field was a pseudonym
used for the poetry
and verse drama of Katherine Harris Bradley (27 October 1846 - 26 September 1914) and her niece and ward Edith Emma Cooper (12 January 1862 - 13 December 1913). As Field they wrote around 40 works together, and a long journal Works and Days. Their intention was to keep the pen-name secret, but it became public knowledge, not long after they had confided in their friend Robert Browning
.
, England
, the daughter of Charles Bradley, a tobacco manufacturer, and of Emma (née Harris). Her grandfather, also Charles Bradley (1785-1845), was a prominent follower and financial backer of prophetess Joanna Southcott
and her self-styled successor John "Zion" Ward
. She was educated at the Collège de France
and Newnham College, Cambridge
.
Bradley's elder sister, Emma, married James Robert Cooper in 1860, and went to live in Kenilworth
, where their daughter, Edith Emma Cooper was born on 12th January 1862. Emma Cooper became an invalid for life after the birth of her second daughter, Amy, and Katherine Bradley, being her sister, stepped in to become the legal guardian of her niece Edith Cooper.
Bradley was for a time involved with Ruskin
's utopian project. She published first under the pseudonym Arran Leigh, a nod to Elizabeth Barrett. Edith adopted the name Isla Leigh.
From the late 1870s, when Edith was at University College, Bristol
, they agreed to live together and were, over the next 40 years, lesbian
lovers, and co-authors. The first joint publication as Michael Field was in 1884. They had financial independence: Bradley's father Charles Bradley had been in the tobacco industry
in Birmingham
.
They were Aestheticists, strongly influenced by the thought of Walter Pater. They developed a large circle of literary friends and contacts; in particular painters and life partners Charles Ricketts
and Charles Shannon, near whom they settled in Richmond
, London. Robert Browning was also a close friend of theirs, and they knew and admired Oscar Wilde, whose death they bitterly mourned. While they were always well connected, the early critical success was not sustained ( this is often attributed to the joint identity of Field becoming known). They knew many of the aesthetic movement of the 1890s, including Walter Pater
, Vernon Lee
, J. A. Symonds and also Bernard Berenson
. William Rothenstein
was a friend.
They wrote a number of passionate love poems to each other, and their name Michael Field was their way of declaring their inseparable oneness. Friends referred to them as the Fields, the Michaels or the Michael Fields. They had a range of pet names for each other. They also were passionately devoted to their pets, in particular a dog named Whym Chow, for whom they wrote a book of poems named after him. This continued a tradition of lesbian couples forming families that included beloved animals - the Ladies of Llangollen
had established a similar household.
Their joint journal starts with an account of Bradley's passion for Alfred Gérente, an artist in stained glass
and brother of Henri Gérente, who was of an English background but worked mostly in France. It goes on to document Michael Field as a figure, amongst 'his' literary counterparts, and a pet dog. When the latter died in 1906, the emotional pattern of the relationship was disturbed; both women became Roman Catholic converts in 1907. Their religious inclinations are reflected in their later works, where their earlier writing is influenced by classical and Renaissance culture, in its pagan aspects particularly, Sappho
as understood by the late Victorians, and perhaps Walter Savage Landor
.
Edith died of cancer
in 1913, as did Katherine less than a year later. A much-edited selection from the journals, which were two dozen annual volumes in ledger
s with aspects of scrapbook
s combined with a self-conscious literary style of composition, was prepared by T. Sturge Moore, a friend through his mother Marie.
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
used for the poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and verse drama of Katherine Harris Bradley (27 October 1846 - 26 September 1914) and her niece and ward Edith Emma Cooper (12 January 1862 - 13 December 1913). As Field they wrote around 40 works together, and a long journal Works and Days. Their intention was to keep the pen-name secret, but it became public knowledge, not long after they had confided in their friend Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
.
Biographies
Katherine Bradley was born on 27th October 1846 in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the daughter of Charles Bradley, a tobacco manufacturer, and of Emma (née Harris). Her grandfather, also Charles Bradley (1785-1845), was a prominent follower and financial backer of prophetess Joanna Southcott
Joanna Southcott
Joanna Southcott , was a self-described religious prophetess. She was born at Gittisham in Devon, England.-Self-revelation:...
and her self-styled successor John "Zion" Ward
John Ward (prophet)
John Ward , known as "Zion Ward", was an Irish preacher, mystic and self-styled prophet, active in England from around 1828-1835. He was one of those claiming to be the successor of prophetess Joanna Southcott after her death...
. She was educated at the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
and Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
.
Bradley's elder sister, Emma, married James Robert Cooper in 1860, and went to live in Kenilworth
Kenilworth
Kenilworth is a town in central Warwickshire, England. In 2001 the town had a population of 22,582 . It is situated south of Coventry, north of Warwick and northwest of London....
, where their daughter, Edith Emma Cooper was born on 12th January 1862. Emma Cooper became an invalid for life after the birth of her second daughter, Amy, and Katherine Bradley, being her sister, stepped in to become the legal guardian of her niece Edith Cooper.
Bradley was for a time involved with Ruskin
Ruskin
- Surname :*John Ruskin , an English author, poet and artist, most famous for his work as art critic and social critic, and for his writing on the architecture of Venice....
's utopian project. She published first under the pseudonym Arran Leigh, a nod to Elizabeth Barrett. Edith adopted the name Isla Leigh.
From the late 1870s, when Edith was at University College, Bristol
University College, Bristol
University College, Bristol was an educational institution which existed from 1876 to 1909. It was the predecessor institution to the University of Bristol, which gained a Royal Charter in 1909...
, they agreed to live together and were, over the next 40 years, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
lovers, and co-authors. The first joint publication as Michael Field was in 1884. They had financial independence: Bradley's father Charles Bradley had been in the tobacco industry
Tobacco industry
The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any warm, moist environment, which means it can be farmed on all...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
.
They were Aestheticists, strongly influenced by the thought of Walter Pater. They developed a large circle of literary friends and contacts; in particular painters and life partners Charles Ricketts
Charles Ricketts
Charles de Sousy Ricketts was a versatile English artist, illustrator, author and printer, and is best known for his work as book designer and typographer from 1896 to 1904 with the Vale Press, and his work in the theatre as a set and costume designer.-Life and career:Ricketts was born in Geneva...
and Charles Shannon, near whom they settled in Richmond
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a London borough in South West London, UK, which forms part of Outer London. It is unique because it is the only London borough situated both north and south of the River Thames.-Settlement:...
, London. Robert Browning was also a close friend of theirs, and they knew and admired Oscar Wilde, whose death they bitterly mourned. While they were always well connected, the early critical success was not sustained ( this is often attributed to the joint identity of Field becoming known). They knew many of the aesthetic movement of the 1890s, including Walter Pater
Walter Pater
Walter Horatio Pater was an English essayist, critic of art and literature, and writer of fiction.-Early life:...
, Vernon Lee
Vernon Lee
Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the British writer Violet Paget . She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, she also wrote over a dozen volumes of essays on art, music, and travel.-Biography:She was born at Château...
, J. A. Symonds and also Bernard Berenson
Bernard Berenson
Bernard Berenson was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. He was a major figure in pioneering art attribution and therefore establishing the market for paintings by the "Old Masters".-Personal life:...
. William Rothenstein
William Rothenstein
Sir William Rothenstein was an English painter, draughtsman and writer on art.-Life and work:William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Yorkshire. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's burgeoning textile industry...
was a friend.
They wrote a number of passionate love poems to each other, and their name Michael Field was their way of declaring their inseparable oneness. Friends referred to them as the Fields, the Michaels or the Michael Fields. They had a range of pet names for each other. They also were passionately devoted to their pets, in particular a dog named Whym Chow, for whom they wrote a book of poems named after him. This continued a tradition of lesbian couples forming families that included beloved animals - the Ladies of Llangollen
Ladies of Llangollen
The Ladies of Llangollen were two upper-class women from Ireland whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries.-Early lives:...
had established a similar household.
Their joint journal starts with an account of Bradley's passion for Alfred Gérente, an artist in stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
and brother of Henri Gérente, who was of an English background but worked mostly in France. It goes on to document Michael Field as a figure, amongst 'his' literary counterparts, and a pet dog. When the latter died in 1906, the emotional pattern of the relationship was disturbed; both women became Roman Catholic converts in 1907. Their religious inclinations are reflected in their later works, where their earlier writing is influenced by classical and Renaissance culture, in its pagan aspects particularly, Sappho
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
as understood by the late Victorians, and perhaps Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landor was an English writer and poet. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem Rose Aylmer, but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity...
.
Edith died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in 1913, as did Katherine less than a year later. A much-edited selection from the journals, which were two dozen annual volumes in ledger
Ledger
A ledger is the principal book or computer file for recording and totaling monetary transactions by account, with debits and credits in separate columns and a beginning balance and ending balance for each account. The ledger is a permanent summary of all amounts entered in supporting journals which...
s with aspects of scrapbook
Scrapbook
Scrapbook can refer to:* Scrapbooking, the process of making a scrapbook* Scrapbook , a Mac OS application* Scrapbook , a Switchblade Symphony album* Scrapbook * ScrapBook, a Firefox extension...
s combined with a self-conscious literary style of composition, was prepared by T. Sturge Moore, a friend through his mother Marie.
Works
- The New Minnesinger and other poems (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1875) poems by Arran Leigh.
- Bellerophon (C. Kegan Paul, 1881) by Arran and Isla Leigh.
- Callirrhoe & Fair Rosamund (1884) verse dramas.
- The Father's Tragedy (1885) verse drama.
- William Rufus (1885) verse drama.
- Loyalty Or Love? (1885) verse drama.
- Brutus Ultor (1886) verse drama.
- Canute the Great (1887) verse drama.
- The Cup of Water (1887) verse drama.
- Long Ago (1889) poems.
- The Tragic Mary (1890) verse drama.
- Sight and Song (E. Mathews and J. Lane, 1892).
- Stephania, a Trialogue (1892) verse drama.
- A Question of Memory (1893) drama.
- Underneath the Bough (1893) poems.
- Attila, My Attila] (1896) verse drama.
- World at Auction (1898) Vale Press verse drama.
- Noontide Branches (1899) verse drama.
- Anna Ruina (1899) verse drama.
- Race of Leaves (1901) Vale Press, verse drama.
- Julia Domna (1903) Vale Press, verse drama.
- Borgia (1905) verse drama.
- Wild Honey from Various Thyme (1908) poems.
- Queen Mariamne (1908) verse drama.
- Tragedy of Pardon (1911) verse drama.
- Tristan de Léonois (1911) verse drama.
- Dian (1911) verse drama.
- The Accuser (1911) verse drama.
- A Messiah (1911) verse drama.
- Poems of Adoration (1912).
- Mystic Trees (1913) poems.
- Ras Byzance (1918) verse drama.
- Deirdre (1918) verse drama.
- In The Name Of Time (1919) verse drama.
- Selection (1923).
- The Wattlefold: Unpublished Poems (1930).
- Works and Days: From the Journal of Michael Field, (1933) edited by T. Sturge Moore (unpublished journals are now available on microfilm) kept from 1888, annual to 1914.
- A Shorter Shırazad: 101 Poems of Michael Field (1999) selection by Ivor C. Treby
- Where the Blessed Feet Have Trod - poem.
- Whym Chow: Flame of Love (poems).
External links
- Michael Field (Biography and poems - "Isle of Lesbos")
- Michale Field ("The Poetry Foundation")