Radclyffe Hall

Radclyffe Hall (August 12, 1880 - October 7, 1943) (born Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall, in life she went by the name John) was a British author of The Well of Loneliness. Radclyffe Hall was born in Bournemouth, Dorset. Born Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall, the daughter of Radclyffe Radclyffe-Hall, she was known as Peter as a child, but later called herself John, probably after her great-grandfather whom she strongly resembled. She was educated at King's College, London, and then in Germany.

Early life, romances

Hall was, by all accounts, lesbian from a young age. In 1907 her poetry brought her to the attention of the then 50-year-old Mabel Batten, who was married with an adult daughter. Batten and Hall fell in love, and set up residence together when Batten's husband died.

In 1915 Hall fell in love with Mabel Batten's cousin, Una Troubridge (1887-1963), a sculptor who was married to an admiral and had a young daughter. Mabel Batten died that same year, and in 1917 Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge began living together, although Troubridge did not immediately end her marriage. Hall was involved in other affairs during this time, most notably with artist Romaine Brooks, but remained with Troubridge for many years. ^*

Best known published works

In 1928, The Well of Loneliness was the subject of an obscenity trial which resulted in all copies of the novel ordered destroyed. It was subsequently reprinted, and is currently published in the UK by Virago, and by Anchor Press in the United States. Not only a classic of lesbian literature, The Well of Loneliness is also an example of sentimental literature. Hall described herself as a congenital invert, a term she acquired from the writings of Havelock Ellis and other turn of the century sexologists.

Judith Halberstam, in her book Female Masculinity writes about Radclyffe Hall and The Well of Loneliness.

Radclyffe Hall lived in London and, durng the 1930s, in the tiny town of Rye, East Sussex with her second partner, Uma Troubridge. She may have had an affair with blues singer Ethel Waters. ^* Radclyffe Hall is interred at Highgate Cemetery, London, UK. The vault with her remains is in the Circle of Lebanon, half way round from the Egyptian Avenue entrance.

Radclyffe Hall was listed at number 16 in the top 500 lesbian and gay heroes in The Pink Paper, September 26th, 1997, issue 500, page 22.

Quotes

"Let them criticize. Everyone has a right to think and say exactly what they like in this world. If no one took any notice of them slanders would injure no one."

The Girls of Radclyffe Hall

The British composer and bon-vivant Gerald Berners, also the 17th Lord Berners, wrote a roman à clef The Girls of Radclyffe Hall, in which he depicts himself and his circle of friends, including Cecil Beaton and Oliver Messel, as lesbian schoolgirls at a school named Radclyffe Hall. The indiscretions made in this novel (which was published and distributed privately) created an uproar among Berners' intimates and acquaintances, making the whole affair highly discussed in the 1930s. The novel subsequently disappeared from circulation, making it an extremely rare book among collectors of gay literature. Rumour has it that Beaton bought all the already scarce copies of the book and destroyed them.