Writing for Their Lives by Gillian Hanscombe; Virginia L. Smyers

Detailed analysis of the network of women writers who were writing innovative and influential literature in the early years of this century, and who have been relatively overlooked compared to their male counterparts. The book chronicles in fascinating detail how writers like Dorothy Richardson, H.D., Djuna Barnes, and Amy Lowell formed networks with each other. In her preface, Gillian Hanscombe writes “The overview we trace presents two themes which seem to us particularly significant; one is the importance of women’s patronage, both directly financial. ..and literary... The second theme is what appears to be a clear connection between literary endeavour and the shunning of conventionally heterosexual Jives...?? The authors make it clear that for these women “the need to find emotional satisfaction had somehow to be balanced against the need to pursue independence of vision”: they chose to do this in various ways, including open lesbian relationships, passionate friendships, and complicated triangles with men. But all of them shared an emotional connectedness to women which gave them the intellectual freedom they needed.