Radclyffe Hall

RADCLYFFE HALL WAS BORN AT BOURNEMOUTH, HANTS, ENGLAND, IN 1886, THE ONLY DAUGHTER OF RADCLIFFE RADCLYFFE-HALL. SHE WAS

RAISED AS A BOY AND THOUGH CHRISTENED MARGUERITE RADCLYFFE-HALL HER TRUE FIRST NAME WAS NEVER USED EVEN AS A YOUNG CHILD. HER FIRST LITERARY VENTURE WAS AT THE AGE OF THREE WHEN SHE DICTATED A POEM.

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HER FORMAL EDUCATION WAS ACCOMPLISHED AT KING'S COLLEGE IN LONDON, AND IN GERMANY. BETWEEN 1906 AND 1915 SHE PUBLISHED FIVE VOLUMES OF POETRY ALL OF WHICH HAVE A REMARKABLE SINGING LYRIC QUALITY. VARIOUS CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS OF THE EARLY PART OF THIS CENTURY SET HER POETRY TO MUSIC; NOTABLY, CONINGSBY CLARKE WHO DID THE NOW FAMOUS BLIND PLOUGHMAN. DURING THIS SAME PERIOD MISS HALL HAD NUMEROUS SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED IN VARIOUS ENGLISH LITERARY MAGAZINES. THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN AVAILABLE TO THIS AUTHOR WERE NOT

APPARENTLY PERTINENT TO THE STUDENT OF LESBIAN LITERATURE.

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'ILLIAM HEINEMANN BECAME INTERESTED IN HER WORK AND ENCOURAGED HER TO TRY A NOVEL. IN 1924, AFTER A LAPSE OF NINE YEARS, MISS HALL BROUGHT OUT THE UNLIT LAMP, HER FIRST NOVEL AND HER FIRST PUBLIC INTEREST IN LESBIANISM, MUTED IN TONE BUT APPARENT EVEN TO THE CASUAL EYE, AND ALSO FLELISHED THE FORGE.

IN 1925 SHE PUBLISHED A LIGHT PIECE OF HUMOROUS NONSENSE ENTITLED

A SATURDAY LIFE. IN THE HANDS OF A LESS TALENTED WRITER THE LATTER WORK WOULD HAVE BEEN A FARCE.

THE NEXT FEW YEARS BROUGHT FAME AND GLORY.

IN 1926 ADAM'S BREED,

THE STORY OF A FRUSTRATED ITALIAN POET TURNED RESTAURANT KEEPER,

WON THE COVETED FEMINA-VIE HEUREUSE PRIZE AND THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL BOOK PRIZE. LATER, IN 1930, THIS SAME NOVEL WON THE GCLD MEDAL OF THE EICHELBERGHER HUMANE AWARD.

BETWEEN 1926 AND 1930, HOWEVER, MUCH OF MISS HALL'S LIFE CHANGED. AGAINST THE ADVICE OF FRIENDS SHE PUBLISHED THE WELL OF LONELINESS IN 1928 AND BROUGHT A STORM OF CONTROVERSY INTO THE PUBLISHING WORLD THAT HAS NEVER BEEN EQUALLED BEFORE OR SINCE. A LONDON MAGISTRATE,

SIR CHARTRES BIRON, RULED THAT EVEN THOUGH THE BOOK WAS DIGNIFIED AND RESTRAINED IN MANNER, IT PRESENTED AN APPEAL FOR THE RECCGNITION BY "DECENT PEOPLE" THAT SEXUAL INVERSION EXISTS AND IS NOT THE

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