Helen Waddell

Helen Jane Waddell (May 31 1889 – March 1965) was an Irish poet, translator and playwright.

She was born in Tokyo, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister who was lecturing in the Imperial University. When still very young, her family returned to Belfast, where she was educated at Victoria College for Girls and Queen's University Belfast.

After earning a BA with first class honours in English followed by a master’s degree, she enrolled in Somerville College, Oxford, to study for her doctorate.

She is quite well known for bringing to light the history of the medieval goliards in her 1927 book "The Wandering Scholars". Her other works range widely in subject matter. For example, she also wrote plays. Her first play was "The Spoilt Buddha", which was performed at the Opera House, Belfast, by the Ulster Literary Society. Her "The Abbe Prevost" was staged in 1935.

She also wrote many articles for the "Standard", the "Manchester Guardian" and "The Nation" and did lecturing and broadcasting.

Helen Waddell was the assistant editor of "The Nineteenth Century" magazine. Among her circle of friends in London, where she was vice-president of the Irish Literary Society, were W. B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, Rose Macaulay, Siegfried Sassoon, Max Beerbohm and George William Russell.

Waddell received honorary degrees from Columbia, Belfast, Durham and St. Andrews and won the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature. [ [http://www.ulsterbiography.co.uk/biogsW.htm Helen Waddell biography] in the Dictionary of Ulster Biography]

A serious debilitating neurological disease put an end to her writing career in 1950. She died in London in 1965.

Representative works

* [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp35314 "Lyrics from the Chinese"] (1913)
* "The Wandering Scholars" (1927)
* "Medieval Latin Lyrics" (1929)
* "Peter Abelard" (1933)
* "The Desert Fathers" (1936)
* "Stories from Holy Writ" (1949)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.ulsterhistory.co.uk/helenwaddell.htm Short Article on Helen Waddell] by the Ulster History Circle.
* [http://www.belfastsafaris.com/people.php Helen Waddell short biography] in Belfast Safaris.
* [http://www.banbridge.com/template1.asp?parent=340&parent2=343&pid=343&area=2 Helen Waddell entry] in the Banbridge District Online by Banbridge District Council.
* [http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/genesis/search/$-search-results.cfm?CCODE=2592 Helen Waddell papers] at the Genesis Project in the UK.
*NRA|P29426