In and out of Bloomsbury: Biographical Essays on Twentieth-Century Writers and Artists

Description

This volume presents new and little-known texts and images of pivotal members of the Bloomsbury group - the artists Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell, the art critic Clive Bell (Vanessa's husband), and the writer Virginia Woolf (Vanessa's younger sister). The essays supplementing existing accounts, and also correct misreadings and misidentifications but they also range much wider than that. The move out of Bloomsbury begins with Rose Macaulay, whose father, like Rupert Brooke's, was a master at Rugby School. Further essays cover: the teenage years of another alumna of Somerville College, Dorothy L. Sayers, detective-novelist, religious writer, and translator of Dante; the first detailed study of the life of Richard ('Dickie') Williams Reynolds, close friend of Edith Nesbit and teacher of J. R. R. Tolkien; and Tristram Hillier, who made a distinctive and distinguished contribution to twentieth-century British art in the early 1930s.

Martin Ferguson Smith is Professor Emeritus of Classics at Durham University -- .

'In this masterful collection of essays, he [Martin Ferguson Smith] shines a welcome new light on the oft-told stories of the Bloomsbury Group and their acquaintances, correcting errors, filling in gaps and revealing much 'new' information.' The Times Literary Supplement 'In and out of Bloomsbury introduces its readers to people who grappled with sorrows and setbacks with admirable fortitude, and it is a delight from beginning to end.' English Studies 'Smith brings a depth of knowledge and a level of meticulous scholarship to these biographical essays about important literary, artistic and historical figures of the early twentieth century that would be difficult to equal, let alone surpass.' Virginia Woolf Bulletin 'Delightfully written essays packed with revelations, many of them arising from Martin Ferguson Smith's access to hitherto unpublished sources. A scrupulously scholarly book that will be read with pleasure and astonishment from the first page to the last.' Professor Robin Simon, editor of The British Art Journal 'Like an intrepid archaeologist carefully unearthing treasures, Martin Ferguson Smith brings to light through painstaking research all kinds of new facts about and relationships among the subjects of these fascinating essays.' Mark Hussey, Distinguished Professor of English, Pace University, New York City, author of Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism: A Biography 'These meticulously researched essays are a testimony to the wonderful breadth and depth of Martin Ferguson Smith's scholarship. They present a wealth of colourful new material on artists and writers both famous and forgotten, at the heart as well as at the periphery of Bloomsbury. Both the specialist and the general reader will find plenty of interest here.' Professor Odin Dekkers, former editor of English Studies -- .