Rosamond Lehmann
Encyclopedia
Rosamond Nina Lehmann, CBE
(3 February 1901 - 12 March 1990), was a British novelist. Her first novel, Dusty Answer
(1927), was a succès de scandale
; she subsequently became established in the literary world and intimate with members of the Bloomsbury set. Her novel The Ballad and the Source received particular critical acclaim and both The Echoing Grove and The Weather In The Streets were filmed after her death.
, the second of four children of Rudolph Chambers Lehmann
(1856-1929) and his American wife Alice Mary Davis (1873-1956), from New England. Rosamond's father was a Liberal
MP
, founder of Granta
magazine and editor of the Daily News. Her older sister was Helen Chambers Lehmann (1899-1985) and her younger sister was the actress Beatrix Lehmann
(1903-1979). Her younger brother was John Lehmann
(1907–1989), the writer and publisher. The American playwright Owen Davis
was her cousin, and her great-grandfather Robert Chambers founded Chambers Dictionary
. Her great-uncle was the artist Rudolf Lehmann
.
Home educated, in 1919 she won a scholarship to Girton College, University of Cambridge
. She graduated with a second class degree in both English Literature
(1921) and Modern and Medieval Languages (1922). In December 1923 she married Walter Leslie Runciman
(later 2nd Viscount Runciman of Doxford
) (1900–1989), and the couple went to live in Newcastle upon Tyne
. It was an unhappy marriage: they separated in 1927 and were divorced later that year.
In 1927, Lehmann published her first novel, Dusty Answer
, to great critical and popular acclaim. The novel's heroine, Judith, is attracted to both men and women, and interacts with fairly openly gay and lesbian characters during her years at Cambridge. The novel was a succès de scandale
. Though none of her later novels were as successful as her first, Lehmann went on to publish six more, as well as a play (No More Music, 1939), a collection of short stories (The Gypsy's Baby & Other Stories, 1946), a spiritual autobiography (The Swan in the Evening, 1967), and a photographic memoir of her friends (Rosamond Lehmann's Album, 1985), many of whom were famous Bloomsbury
figures such as Leonard
and Virginia Woolf
, Dora Carrington
, and Lytton Strachey
. She also translated two French novels into English: Jacques Lemarchand's Genevieve (1948) and Jean Cocteau
's Children of the Game (1955). Her novels include A Note in Music (1930), Invitation to the Waltz (1932), The Weather in the Streets (1936), The Ballad and the Source (1944), The Echoing Grove (1953), and A Sea-Grape Tree (1976).
In 1928, Lehmann married Wogan Philipps
, 2nd Baron Milford, an artist. They had two children, a son Hugo (1929–1999) and a daughter Sarah, also known as Sally (1934–1958). The family lived at Ipsden
House in Oxfordshire
between 1930 and 1939. The marriage fell apart during the late Thirties with her husband leaving to take part in the Spanish Civil War
. During World War II Lehmann helped to edit and also contributed to New Writing, a periodical edited by her brother, John Lehmann
. She had an affair with the journalist Goronwy Rees
and then a "very public affair" for nine years (1941–1950) with the married poet Cecil Day-Lewis
, who eventually left her to marry his second wife, Jill.
The Weather in the Streets (1936) was made into a movie in 1983 and starred Michael York
and Joanna Lumley
. Lehmann visited the film set in Cheltenham.
Her 1944 book The Ballad and the Source depicts an unhappy marriage from the point of view of a child, and has been compared to Henry James
' What Maisie Knew
.
Her 1953 novel The Echoing Grove was made into the 2002 film Heart of Me
, starring Helena Bonham Carter
as the main character, Dinah.
The Swan in the Evening (1967) is an autobiography which Lehmann described as her "Last Testament". In it, she intimately describes the emotions she felt at the birth of her daughter Sally, and also when Sally died abruptly of poliomyelitis
at the age of 23 (or 24) in 1958 while in Jakarta
, Indonesia. She never recovered from Sally's death and claimed to have had psychic experiences related to Sally, which were documented in Moments of Truth.
Lehmann was awarded the CBE
in 1982. Nearly blind from cataracts, she died at home in Clareville Grove, London on 12 March 1990, aged 89.
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
(3 February 1901 - 12 March 1990), was a British novelist. Her first novel, Dusty Answer
Dusty Answer
Dusty Answer is English author Rosamond Lehmann's first novel, published in 1927. She sent it unsolicited to publishers Chatto & Windus who agreed to publish it, saying it showed 'decided quality'....
(1927), was a succès de scandale
Succès de scandale
Succès de scandale is French for "success from scandal", i.e. when a success derives from a scandal.It might seem contradictory that any kind of success might follow from scandal: but scandal attracts attention, and this attention is sometimes the beginning of notoriety and/or other successes...
; she subsequently became established in the literary world and intimate with members of the Bloomsbury set. Her novel The Ballad and the Source received particular critical acclaim and both The Echoing Grove and The Weather In The Streets were filmed after her death.
Life & Writings
Rosamond Lehmann was born in Bourne End, BuckinghamshireBourne End, Buckinghamshire
Bourne End is a village predominantly in the parish of Wooburn and Bourne End, but also in the parish of Little Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated close to the border with Berkshire, near where the River Wye meets the River Thames...
, the second of four children of Rudolph Chambers Lehmann
R. C. Lehmann
Rudolph Chambers "R.C." Lehmann was an English writer and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1910. As a writer he was best known for three decades in which he was a major contributor to Punch as well as founding editor of Granta magazine.Lehmann was born in...
(1856-1929) and his American wife Alice Mary Davis (1873-1956), from New England. Rosamond's father was a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, founder of Granta
Granta
Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
magazine and editor of the Daily News. Her older sister was Helen Chambers Lehmann (1899-1985) and her younger sister was the actress Beatrix Lehmann
Beatrix Lehmann
Beatrix Alice Lehmann was a British actress, theatre director and author.She trained at the RADA and made her stage debut as Peggy in a 1924 production The Way of the World at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. As well as her extensive theatrical career she appeared in films and on television...
(1903-1979). Her younger brother was John Lehmann
John Lehmann
Rudolf John Frederick Lehmann was an English poet and man of letters, and one of the foremost literary editors of the twentieth century, founding the periodicals New Writing and The London Magazine.The fourth child of journalist Rudolph Lehmann, and brother of Helen Lehmann, novelist Rosamond...
(1907–1989), the writer and publisher. The American playwright Owen Davis
Owen Davis
Owen Gould Davis, Sr. was an American dramatist. He received the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1923 play Icebound, and penned hundreds of plays and scripts for radio and film. Before the First World War, he also wrote racy sketches of New York high jinks and low life for the Police Gazette...
was her cousin, and her great-grandfather Robert Chambers founded Chambers Dictionary
Chambers Dictionary
The Chambers Dictionary was first published by W. and R. Chambers as Chambers's English Dictionary in 1872. It was an expanded version of Chambers's Etymological Dictionary of 1867, compiled by James Donald...
. Her great-uncle was the artist Rudolf Lehmann
Rudolf Lehmann
Rudolf Lehmann may refer to:*Rudolf Lehmann *R. C. Lehmann , writer and poet*Rudolf Lehmann...
.
Home educated, in 1919 she won a scholarship to Girton College, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. She graduated with a second class degree in both English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
(1921) and Modern and Medieval Languages (1922). In December 1923 she married Walter Leslie Runciman
Leslie Runciman, 2nd Viscount Runciman of Doxford
Walter Leslie Runciman, 2nd Viscount Runciman of Doxford was a prominent member of a well-known Newcastle ship-owning family.-Background:...
(later 2nd Viscount Runciman of Doxford
Viscount Runciman of Doxford
Viscount Runciman of Doxford, of Doxford in the County of Northumberland, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1937 for the Hon. Walter Runciman, a politician whose career included service as a Member of Parliament, President of the Board of Trade and Lord President of...
) (1900–1989), and the couple went to live in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
. It was an unhappy marriage: they separated in 1927 and were divorced later that year.
In 1927, Lehmann published her first novel, Dusty Answer
Dusty Answer
Dusty Answer is English author Rosamond Lehmann's first novel, published in 1927. She sent it unsolicited to publishers Chatto & Windus who agreed to publish it, saying it showed 'decided quality'....
, to great critical and popular acclaim. The novel's heroine, Judith, is attracted to both men and women, and interacts with fairly openly gay and lesbian characters during her years at Cambridge. The novel was a succès de scandale
Succès de scandale
Succès de scandale is French for "success from scandal", i.e. when a success derives from a scandal.It might seem contradictory that any kind of success might follow from scandal: but scandal attracts attention, and this attention is sometimes the beginning of notoriety and/or other successes...
. Though none of her later novels were as successful as her first, Lehmann went on to publish six more, as well as a play (No More Music, 1939), a collection of short stories (The Gypsy's Baby & Other Stories, 1946), a spiritual autobiography (The Swan in the Evening, 1967), and a photographic memoir of her friends (Rosamond Lehmann's Album, 1985), many of whom were famous Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
figures such as Leonard
Leonard Woolf
Leonard Sidney Woolf was an English political theorist, author, publisher and civil servant, and husband of author Virginia Woolf.-Early life:...
and Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, Dora Carrington
Dora Carrington
Dora de Houghton Carrington , known generally as Carrington, was a British painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton Strachey....
, and Lytton Strachey
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
. She also translated two French novels into English: Jacques Lemarchand's Genevieve (1948) and Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
's Children of the Game (1955). Her novels include A Note in Music (1930), Invitation to the Waltz (1932), The Weather in the Streets (1936), The Ballad and the Source (1944), The Echoing Grove (1953), and A Sea-Grape Tree (1976).
In 1928, Lehmann married Wogan Philipps
Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford
Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford was the only member of the Communist Party of Great Britain ever to sit in the House of Lords.-Early life:...
, 2nd Baron Milford, an artist. They had two children, a son Hugo (1929–1999) and a daughter Sarah, also known as Sally (1934–1958). The family lived at Ipsden
Ipsden
Ipsden is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, about southeast of Wallingford.-Parish church:The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin was built late in the 12th century as a chapelry of North Stoke...
House in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
between 1930 and 1939. The marriage fell apart during the late Thirties with her husband leaving to take part in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. During World War II Lehmann helped to edit and also contributed to New Writing, a periodical edited by her brother, John Lehmann
John Lehmann
Rudolf John Frederick Lehmann was an English poet and man of letters, and one of the foremost literary editors of the twentieth century, founding the periodicals New Writing and The London Magazine.The fourth child of journalist Rudolph Lehmann, and brother of Helen Lehmann, novelist Rosamond...
. She had an affair with the journalist Goronwy Rees
Goronwy Rees
Goronwy Rees was a Welsh journalist, academic and writer. He was educated at the University of Oxford.He was during the 1930s a Marxist intellectual, and in contact with the Cambridge Five spy ring through Guy Burgess. Right at the end of his life he admitted spying for the USSR for a short time,...
and then a "very public affair" for nine years (1941–1950) with the married poet Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis CBE was an Irish poet and the Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake...
, who eventually left her to marry his second wife, Jill.
The Weather in the Streets (1936) was made into a movie in 1983 and starred Michael York
Michael York (actor)
Michael York, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May , a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks and Spencer department stores...
and Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
. Lehmann visited the film set in Cheltenham.
Her 1944 book The Ballad and the Source depicts an unhappy marriage from the point of view of a child, and has been compared to Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
' What Maisie Knew
What Maisie Knew
What Maisie Knew is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in the Chap-Book and in the New Review in 1897 and then as a book later in the same year. The story of the sensitive daughter of divorced and irresponsible parents, What Maisie Knew has great contemporary relevance as an...
.
Her 1953 novel The Echoing Grove was made into the 2002 film Heart of Me
The Heart of Me
The Heart of Me is a 2003 British period drama film directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Paul Bettany, and Olivia Williams. Set in London before and after World War II, it depicts the consequences of a woman's torrid affair with her sister's husband...
, starring Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
as the main character, Dinah.
The Swan in the Evening (1967) is an autobiography which Lehmann described as her "Last Testament". In it, she intimately describes the emotions she felt at the birth of her daughter Sally, and also when Sally died abruptly of poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...
at the age of 23 (or 24) in 1958 while in Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, Indonesia. She never recovered from Sally's death and claimed to have had psychic experiences related to Sally, which were documented in Moments of Truth.
Lehmann was awarded the CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
in 1982. Nearly blind from cataracts, she died at home in Clareville Grove, London on 12 March 1990, aged 89.
Works
- Dusty AnswerDusty AnswerDusty Answer is English author Rosamond Lehmann's first novel, published in 1927. She sent it unsolicited to publishers Chatto & Windus who agreed to publish it, saying it showed 'decided quality'....
(1927) - A Note in Music (1930)
- Invitation to the Waltz (1932)
- The Weather in the Streets (1936)
- No More Music (1939)
- The Ballad and the Source (1944)
- The Gipsy's Baby & Other Stories (1946)
- The Echoing Grove (1953)
- The Swan in the Evening: Fragments of an Inner Life (1967) (non-fiction)
- A Sea-Grape Tree (1976)
- Moments of Truth (1986) (anthology, non-fiction)
- Orion (as editor) (1945)
Biographies
- Selina Hastings, Rosamond Lehmann: A Life, 2002
- Diana E Lestourgeon, Rosamond Lehmann, 1965
- Marie-Jose Codaccioni, L'Oeuvre de Rosamond Lehmann: Sa contribution au roman féminin (1927-1952), 1983
- Judy Simons, Rosamond Lehmann, 1992
- Gillian TindallGillian TindallGillian Tindall is a British writer. Among her better-known works are City of Gold: Biography of Bombay and Celestine: Voices from a French Village...
, Rosamond Lehmann, 1985 - Wiktoria Dorosz, Subjective Vision and Human Relationships in the Novels of Rosamond Lehmann, 1975
- Wendy Pollard, Rosamond Lehmann and Her Critics: the Vagaries of Literary Reception, 2004
- Françoise Bort, Marie-Françoise Cachin, Rosamond Lehmann et le métier d'écrivain, 2003.
- Ruth Siegel, Rosamond Lehmann: a Thirties Writer, 1990
Letters
- My Dear Alexias: Letters from Wellesley Tudor PoleWellesley Tudor PoleMajor Wellesley Tudor Pole O.B.E. was a spiritualist and early British Bahá'í.He authored many pamphlets and books and was a lifelong pursuer of religious and mystical questions and visions, being particularly involved with spiritualism and the Bahá'í Faith as well as the quest for the Holy Grail...
to Rosamond Lehmann by Rosamond Lehmann (1979)
External links
- Rosamond Lehmann biography, with details of family origins and childhood. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
- Rosamond Lehmann papers. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
- Official website; biography. Another description of her biography by Selina Hastings is available.
- Rosamond Lehmann's photograph and a description of her memoirs is available here. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
- the Literary Encyclopedia (2)
- Virago Classics
- Guardian review
- Collected papers
- The Literary Encyclopedia
- This is London
- Rosamond Lehmann biography with incorrect year of birth