Evelyn Sharp: Rebel Woman, 1869-1955

by Angela John

Overview

This is the first biography of a remarkable writer and incorrigible rebel. Evelyn Sharp’s story encapsulates the shifts in opportunities for talented Victorian women who survived into the mid-twentieth century.

She was born into a privileged family in 1869 and became a very popular writer of schoolgirl fiction. Extremely versatile, she also produced fairy tales alongside stories for the infamous ‘Yellow Book’. A Manchester Guardian journalist for over four decades, Evelyn Sharp became the first regular contributor to its iconic Women’s Page. Before and during the First World War she was a leading suffragette, editing the newspaper, ‘Votes for Women’.

This biography draws on Evelyn Sharp’s publications, as well as letter and diaries vividly describing experiences such as famine relief in Soviet Russia and daily life in wartime Kensington for and elderly woman. It will be of interest to gender and social historians as well as to those interested in children’s and women’s literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780719080159
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2009
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Angela V. John is Honorary Professor of History at Aberystwyth University

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Evelyn Sharp’s Life
Introducing the Rebel Woman
1 From Evie to Becky Sharp
2 Writing for the young
3 Fellow traveller: meeting Henry Nevinson
4 Words in Deed: women’s suffrage
5 Working with war
6 The relief of peace: in Weimar Germany
7 Irish Rebels
8 Somewhere in Russia: fiction and famine
9 Still rebelling: women, writing and politics in the 1920s
10 The Child Grows Up: configuring childhood in the inter-war years
11 Defying time and the times
12 War and widowhood: Chipping Campden and Kensington
Appendix 1 Evelyn Sharp’s major publications
Appendix 2 The Cheap Holiday. A short story by Evelyn Sharp.

Editorial Reviews

“This is a fascinating account of a forgotten feminist. Evelyn Sharp was an 1890s ‘new woman’ who became a militant suffragette before 1914 and became renowned both as a journalist and children’s writer. Angela V. John’s lucid and scholarly biography brings her back into view, illuminating the social and political history of her era while skilfully weaving into the story Sharp’s long, secret love affair with the Guardian journalist she eventually married -- Henry Nevinson.” --Professor Shelia Rowbotham

From the Publisher