Female Poets of The First World War

Saturday, 16 August 2014

Exhibition photos and apology

First of all my sincere apologies - I somehow managed to leave Beatrix Brice Miller off the List I posted previously of Poets who Nursed, etc. during WW1. I don't know how that happened because Beatrix was one of the very first on that list to go to France in 1914. Beatrix and her mother both went - Beatrix's mother was a trained nurse and Beatrix went as a "Lady Helper". Lady Helpers worked as orderlies, clerks, kitchen helpers - in fact anywhere that needed a spare pair of hands.

Photos from the exhibition at Blackpool Central Library, Lancashire (left) and The Marine Hall, Fleetwood, both August 2014 (right).

Tuesday, 12 August 2014

Female poets who were VADs, nurses, ambulance drivers, etc. during WW1

I am currently researching women who wrote poetry who were also nurses, VADs, drivers, cooks, artists, entertainers, munitions workers, and so on, during the First World War.

I have so far found the following. If anyone knows of any others, please get in touch. I am very keen to include women from all countries of the world - not just the UK, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland and so on - and would welcome your input. Many thanks.

BRITISH

Edith Bagnold (Great-grandmother to Samantha Cameron wife of the current British Prime Minister)

Maud Anna Bell

Vera Brittain (nursed in Malta, France and Britain)

May Wedderburn Cannan (VAD - Rouen, France 1915 and Paris in 1918)

Eva Dobble

Rosaleen Graves (nursed in Britain and in France)

I. Grindley

Winifred Holtby (drove ambulances in France)

Nina Mardel

Carola Oman

Jessie Pope (volunteered at St. Dunstan's home for soldiers who had been blinded which opened in 1915)

May Sinclair (Travelled to France with Dr. H. Monro in August 1914, May had to return to England after six weeks due to shell shock)

Millicent Sutherland - her work was painted by the French artist Victor Tardieu

Joan Thompson

Evelyn Underhill (I am not sure if she nursed but she did work for the SSAFA - Soldiers, Sailors, Air Force Association - a welfare group)

Alberta Vickridge

M. Winifred Wedgwood

Alice Williams (went to Paris to run a refugee centre)

AMERICAN

Mary Borden set up and funded a medical team and went to France 1915 - 1918

Mary H.J. Henderson lived in England and went with Elsa Inglis to Russia and Serbia to nurse

Marie Van Vorst

Edith Wharton

Ella Wheeler Wilcox - went to France in 1918 to read poetry and lecture to the troops

Grace Ellery Channing went as a War Correspondent

GERMAN

Henriette HARDENBERG - poet and nurse

Thursday, 7 August 2014

"Welsh Women's Poetry 1460 - 2001"

Edited by Katie Gramich and Catherine Brennan and published by Honno Classics in 2003, this wonderful bi-lingual anthology is full of the most beautiful poetry.

I have asked Honno if I might review the book for my weblog and exhibition panels as it is so very good. When I hear from them I will post further details. In the meantime, Welsh Women Poets of WW1 included in the volume are:

(Bardic names in brackets)

Sarah Jane Reese (Cranogwen)
Alice Gray Jones (Ceridwen Pewris)
Ellen Hughes
Elizabeth Mary Jones (Moelona)
Eiluned Lewis
and Dilys Cadwaladr

With grateful thanks to Deb Fisher of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship and also to the lovely people at the Drill Hall Project.

Wednesday, 6 August 2014

Nell Walden (1887 Karlskrona/Sweden – 1975 Bern)

My grateful thanks to Penelope Monkhouse in Germany for her hard work in finding German women poets. I am deeply indebted to Penelope for her continuing support of this commemorative project.

Nell was born Nell Roslund. She was an artist and writer, daughter of a pastor. The family moved to Landskrona in 1903. Nell studied music in Lund, receiving her diploma as an organist in 1908. She went to Berlin to study German, where she lived until 1911. In Berlin Nell met Herwarth Walden, the editor of Der Sturm. The couple married the following year in London and travelled widely in Europe.

Nell Walden then met Klee and Kandinsky, who encouraged her to paint. When The First World War broke out, Nell worked as a journalist and collected works of the “Sturm”-artists, Swedish art as well as African and Oceanic art. In 1916 she attended painting classes in the newly founded “Sturm”-art school and the following year exhibited for the first time. In 1923 she ended her work for Der Sturm and divorced Herwarth Walden.

From 1932 Nell worked as a painter, poet, translator and art collector. Her second husband, the doctor Hans Hermann Heimann whom she married in 1926, was murdered by the Nazis. In 1940 she married the Swiss teacher Hannes Urech. From 1944 the couple lived in Schinznach-Bad AG. In 1957, for her 70^th birthday, Nell's paintings were shown in a special exhibition in Aarau and a volume of her pictures and poems was published, edited by Hannes Urech and Lothar Schreyer.

Hannes and Nell moved to a new house “Seehalde” in Seengen in 1962, where her husband died the following year. In her last years, Nell travelled to Israel and Ibiza. She is buried next to her third husband in Aarau in Switzerland.

Penelope Monkhouse (*1952) is a German-British scientist living in Schwetzingen/Germany and is a granddaughter of the novelist, dramatist and literary critic Allan Monkhouse. Literature of the early 20^thcentury is presently one of her chief non-scientific interests; she is presently engaged on a comparative study of German and English poetry of this period. She also writes poetry of her own and translates poetry to and from German and English.

Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Exhibition at Blackpool Central Library, August 2014

We went to the launch of the Poetry Exhibition (mostly Female but including Wilfred Owen who visited the town in 1916 while he was at the Gunnery School in Fleetwood) at Blackpool Central Library, Blackpool, Lancashire, UK on 4th August 2014. The lovely people at the Library planted some poppies on the little piece of grass outside and they looked amazing yesterday, so we took a photo to share with you all. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM ALL

During WW1, the white feather was used as a symbol of cowardice. Now, however, it is a symbol of hope and peace. There were loads of white feathers near the poppies yesterday

Blackpool Central Library,

Queen St, Blackpool, Lancashire FY1 1PX

Opening Hours:

Monday - Thursday - 9.30 a.m. - 7.00 p.m.

Friday and Saturday - 9.30 a.m. - 5. 00 p.m.

Sunday - closed

Tel.: 01253 478080

Website: http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Residents/Libraries-arts-and-heritage/Libraries/Blackpool-libraries.aspx

Friday, 1 August 2014

Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska - Polish - one of the poets featured at the Blackpool Exhibition

One of the poets featured in the Blackpool Central Library Exhibition to be held from 4th August until the beginning of September 2014 is Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska (1891 - 1945).

Maria is also featured in Volume 1 of "Female Poets of the First World War". Why Maria? Well, she spent some time in Blackpool at the beginning of WW2.

Maria became ill and died in hospital in Manchester, where she is buried. If anyone knows where Maria is buried and has a photo of her grave, could they please get in touch. Thank you.

WW1 Commemorative Exhibition at Blackpool Central Library, Blackpool, Lancashire - August 2014

This morning, in torrential rain, we went to take some panels in for the setting up the exhibition of Female Poets, Inspirational Women and Fascinating Facts that is to be held in Blackpool Central Library from 4th August 2013. Clancy and her team are doing a fantastic job setting up the panels (see photo).

On Monday, 4th August 2014 under the title "Pack up Your Troubles" Blackpool Central Library are holding a launch event from 1 pm, featuring a talk, refreshments and poetry readings. £1 per person - payable on arrival.

The lyrics to the famous World War 1 marching song "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile", were written by Welsh songwriter George Henry Powell (1880 - 1951). George used the pen-name George Asaf for this song and his words were set to music written by his brother, Felix Powell (1878 - 1942). Felix and George Powell were from St. Asaph, Denbighshire in North Wales.

The brothers entered their song into a competition held during the First World War to find the best 'morale-building' song for WW1. Their song won first prize with the commendation "perhaps the most optimistic song ever written. Felix was a Staff Sergeant during WW1 and George was a conscientious objector.