Alice Meynell

Alice Christiana Gertrude Thompson Meynell (22 September 1847 - 27 November 1922) was an English writer, editor, critic, and suffragist, now remembered mainly as a poet.

Born in Barnes, London, to Thomas James and Christiana (nee Weller) Thompson. The family moved from England, Switzerland, and France, but she was brought up mostly in Italy. Her father was a friend of Charles Dickens.

"Preludes" (1875) was her first poetry collection, illustrated by her elder sister Elizabeth (the artist Lady Elizabeth Butler, 1850-1933, whose husband was Sir William Francis Butler). The work was warmly praised by Ruskin, although it received little public notice. Ruskin especially singled out the sonnet "Renunciation" for its beauty and delicacy.

After Alice, following inline with the entire Thompson family, converted to the Roman Catholic Church (1868 to 1880), her writings migrated to subjects of religious matters. This eventually led her to the Catholic newspaper publisher and editor Wilfrid Meynell (1852 - 1948) in 1876. A year later (1877) she married Meynell, and they settled in Kensington. They became proprietor and editor of "The Pen", the "Weekly Register", "Merry England", and other magazines. Alice and Wilfrid had a family of eight children, Sebastian, Monica, Everard, Madeleine, Viola, Vivian (who died at three months), Olivia, and Francis. Viola Meynell (1885-1956) became an author in her own right, and the youngest child Francis Meynell (1891-1975) was the poet and printer at the Nonesuch Press.

Alice was much involved in editorial work on publications with her husband, and in her own writing, poetry and prose. She wrote regularly for "The World", "The Spectator", "The Magazine of Art", "The Scots Observer", "The Tablet", "The Art Journal", the "National Observer", edited by W. E. Henley the "Pall Mall Gazette", and "The Saturday Review".

The British poet Francis Thompson, down and out in London and trying to recover from the opium addiction that had overtaken him, sent the couple a manuscript. His poems were first published in Wilfred's "Merrie England", and the Meynells became a supporter of Thompson. His 1893 book "Poems" was a Meynell production and initiative.

At the end of the nineteenth century, in conjunction with uprisings against the British (among them the Indian’s, the Zulu’s, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Muslim revolt lead by Muhammad Ahmed in the Sudan), many European scholars, writers, and artists, especially Catholics, began to question Europe’s colonial imperialism, and its attempt to rule the world. This led Alice, Wilfrid, Elizabeth, and others in their circle to speak out for the oppressed. Alice became a leading figure in the Women Writers' Suffrage League, which was founded by Cicely Hamilton and active 1908 to 1919.

Her prose essays were remarkable for fineness of culture and peculiar restraint of style. After a series of illnesses, she died 27 November 1922. She is buried at Kensal Green Catholic Cemetery, London, England.

Works

*"Preludes" (1875) poems
*"The Rhythm of Life" (1893) essays
*"Poems" by Francis Thompson (1893) editor and producer
*"Holman Hunt" (1893)
*"Selected Poems of Thomas Gordon Hake" (1894) editor
*"The Color of Life and other Essays" (1896)
*"Poetry of Pathos and Delight" by Coventry Patmore (1896) editor
*"The Flower of the Mind" (1897) anthology of English verse, editor, critic.
*"The Children" (1897) essays
*"The Spirit of Place" (1898) essays
*"London Impressions" (1898)
*"Ruskin" (1900)
*"Later Poems" (1901)
*"The Work of John S. Sargent" (1903)
*"Essays" (1914)
*"The Second Person Singular" (1921)
*"The Poems of Alice Meynell", Complete Edition (Oxford University Press, 1940)
*"Prose and Poetry" (1947) introduction Vita Sackville-West, various editors

External links

* [http://essays.quotidiana.org/meynell/ Essays by Alice Meynell at Quotidiana.org]
* [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~PUBLIC/FEG/alice/ambio.html Alice's Bio @ the University of Virginia]
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