Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of LettersRosamund Marriott Watson was a gifted poet, an erudite literary and art critic, and a daring beauty whose life illuminates fin-de-siècle London and the way in which literary reputations are made--and lost. A participant in aestheticism and decadence, she wrote six volumes of poems noted for their subtle cadence, diction, and uncanny effects. Linda K. Hughes unfolds a complex life in Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters, tracing the poet's development from accomplished ballads and sonnets, to avant-garde urban impressionism and New Woman poetry, to her anticipation of literary modernism. Despite an early first divorce, she won fame writing under a pseudonym, Graham R. Tomson. The influential Andrew Lang announced the arrival of a new poet he assumed to be a man. She was soon hosting a salon attended by Lang, Oscar Wilde, and other 1890s notables. Publishing to widespread praise as Graham R., she exemplified the complex cultural politics of her era. A woman with a man's name and a scandalous past, she was also a graceful beauty who captivated Thomas Hardy and left an impression on his work. At the height of her success she fell in love with writer H. B. Marriott Watson and dared a second divorce. Graham R. combines the stories of a gifted poet, of London literary networks in the 1890s, and of a bold woman whose achievements and scandals turned on her unusual history of marriage and divorce. Her literary history and her uncommon experience reveal the limits and opportunities faced by an unconventional, ambitious, and talented woman at the turn of the century. |
From inside the book
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... poem . called " Procris " in the Universal Review . The poet was Graham R. Tomson . I had recently completed a book with Michael Lund on Victorian novels and poems first published in parts , so I was interested in this find and ...
... poems , and lyrics on Picardy to " The Fairies ' Valediction " ) , translations from French , and " New Words to Old Tunes " ( ballades , poems on art , and , to close , a triolet entitled " Les Roses Mortes , " from Ballades and ...
... poems of 1890 and 1891 deleted the nod to mid - Victori- anism and foregrounded the daring elements of " A Summer ... poems were " In the Rain " and " Chimaera , " notable for their compelling rhythms and for Graham R.s ability to evoke ...