Jennifer Vaughan Jones (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994) is a professor whose seminal work, The Poetry and Place of Anna Wickham 1910-30, provides the first complete bibliography of Anna Wickham's work and contribution to literary modernism. This is her first book.
Using interviews with the poet's family, her works, and what can be
found of her correspondence, Jones crafts an engaging account of
the trials and successes of Wickham's life.
*Women's Review of Books*
Jones has written a most striking and culturally informative
biography of early twentieth-century poet Anna Wickham. Although
she wrote in the rhymed iambic form of the time, Wickham's
sentiments were feminist, free, and adventuresome. She was able to
combine her 'wildness' with domesticity and the mothering of four
sons, as well as acting as an inspiration to the artists around
her.
*Joanne Kyger, Author of Again: Poems, 1989-2000 and As
Ever: Selected Poems*
This excellent, meticulously researched, and well-written biography
is a fascinating account of how a talented and unconventional woman
struggled to become a fresh, lively, poetic voice while
establishing close and intriguing friendships with some of the
period's significant literary and artistic figures. Jones'
compelling study is a sympathetic and critically acute exploration
of the life and work of this long overlooked poet.
*James G. Nelson, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin, and
author of Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the
Careers of Bea*
Anna Wickham is an authoritative and much-needed biography of a
neglected poet. Jones skillfully weaves the narrative of Wickham's
lonely childhood in Australia, a tempestuous marriage, and a
vibrant poetic development with a social history spanning Edwardian
England to the Second World War. We encounter a fascinating woman
whose free spirit and self-doubt were in constant dialogue and
conflict. This book also points us to Wickham’s invigorating poetry
which was once internationally renowned. Like the poems, her life
story will resonate with present day readers.
*Dr. Jane Dowson, Author of Women, Modernism, and British Poetry,
1910-1939 and Editor of Frances Cornford: Selected Poems*
Jones has written an absorbing biography of the larger-than-life
yet ultimately tragic Anna Wickham, which is detailed and
affectionate. It tells of an inspired woman who escaped from a
tyrannical marriage into literature and literary society, including
the Anglo-American lesbian world of Natalie Barney. Furthermore, it
throws light on a poet who nurtured and encouraged many young
poets, among them Malcolm Lowry, Lawrence Durrell, and Dylan
Thomas. Like all worthwhile biographies, the story also gives the
reader a slice of literary history. It draws one into the
intriguing life of a woman who had to overcome the prejudices of a
stifling age in order to register as a truly independent spirit
with an original poetic voice.
*Gordon Bowker, Author of Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm
Lowry and Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence
Durrell*
Anna Wickham is a carefully researched, critical biography of ‘a
major woman’ whose poetry reveals the forces that shaped female
artists from the early twentieth century through the World Wars and
beyond.
*Phyllis Walsh, Editor and Publisher of Hummingbird Press, and
Author of Lorine Niedecker: Solitary Player and River: A Haiku
Sequence<*
Jones does a good job not only of disclosing the initimate details
of the poet's tragic life but also of interweaving her poems
through the narrative and paying special attention to her writing
techniques.
*Library Journal*
A Poe'ts Daring Life is a simply fascinating biograpical study and
presentation enhanced with exclusive interviews with members of
Anna Wickham's family and a newly discovered written
corespondence.
*Bookwatch*
A compelling, critically dextrous and long-overdue portrait of an
important poet.
*Times Literary Supplement*
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