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Information About

Rebecca West




She was born in London . Her Irish journalist father deserted her Scottish mother -- and then died -- while Cecily was still a child. The rest of the family moved to Edinburgh , Scotland , where she was educated. She trained as an Actress , taking the name "Rebecca West" from '' Rosmersholm '' by Henrik Ibsen . She became involved in the Women's Suffrage Movement before the First World War , and worked as a journalist on '' Freewoman '' and the '' Clarion ''. She met Wells in 1913 , and their affair lasted ten years. They had a son, Anthony West , but Wells was already married (for the second time). West is also said to have had affairs with Charlie Chaplin and newspaper magnate Max Beaverbrook .

In 1930 , she married a banker, Henry Maxwell Andrews , and they remained together until his death in 1968 . Before and during World War II , West travelled widely, collecting material for books on travel and politics. She was present at the Nuremberg Trials . Her later work as a writer and broadcaster reflected these experiences.


QUOTES

  • "I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."



FICTION



NON-FICTION

  • ''Henry James'' ( 1916 )

  • ''The Strange Necessity: Essays and Reviews'' ( 1928 )

  • ''St. Augustine'' ( 1933 )

  • '' Black Lamb And Grey Falcon '' ( 1941 ), an 1,181-page classic of Travel Literature , largely pro- Serb in its point of view, giving an account of Balkan history and ethnography, and the significance of Naziism, structured about her trip to Yugoslavia in 1937.

  • ''The Meaning of Treason'' ( 1949 )

  • ''The New Meaning of Treason'' ( 1964 )

  • ''A Train of Powder'' ( 1955 )

  • ''The Court and the Castle:some treatments of a recurring theme'' ( 1958 )


Rebecca West was created a DBE ("Dame") in 1959 for her services to literature.


EXTERNAL LINKS



REFERENCES

  • Carl E. Rollyson, ''Rebecca West: A Saga of the Century''