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Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861-1944), a co-operator, feminist and socialist, was well known in her time as the outstanding leader of the Women's Co-operative Guild. This first full-scale biography chronicles her life and achievements, intertwining activity among working class women with her personal story. Margaret Llewelyn Davies helped open doors. Women became impressive activists, committed to change both in the co-operative movement and the wider public world. As one Guild member put it, 'from a shy, nervous woman the Guild made me a fighter'. The Guild flourished, developing what has been termed a distinctively working-class feminism. By 1914 the Manchester Guardian could describe it as 'probably the most remarkable women's organisation in the world'.The Guild pressed for boycotting 'sweated' goods, supported trade unions, battled for a minimum wage, fought for the vote, new divorce laws and for state maternity benefit to be paid to the wife.
'I was born in Bethnal Green . . . a tiny scrap of humanity. I was my mother's seventh, and seven more were born after me . . . When I was ten years old I began to earn my own living.' Told in the distinctive and memorable voices of working class women, Life as We Have Known It is a remarkable first-hand account of working lives at the turn of the last century. First published in association with the Women's Co-operative Guild in 1931, Life as We Have Known it is a unique evocation of a lost age, and a humbling testament to what Virginia Woolf called 'that inborn energy which no amount of childbirth and washing up can quench'. Here is domestic service; toiling in factories and in the fields, and of husbands - often old and ill before their time, some drinkers or gamblers. Despite telling of the hardship of a poverty-stricken marriage, the horrors of childbirth and of lives spent in search of jobs, these are spirited and inspiring voices.
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'I was married at twenty and a mother of three by twenty-three . . . When I look back at the first three years of my marriage, I wonder how I lived through it.' When it was published in 1915 No One But a Mother Knows provoked a sensation - for the first time, working women were able to put across their view of maternity. These humbling autobiographical portraits are as valuable today as they were almost 100 years ago: in their own words these women tell of the horrors of bringing ten children into the world in as many years; of not being able to afford a doctor or nurse; of the physical and emotional strain of bringing up large families with very little help. These extraordinary and inspiring stories of poverty and hardship remind us of the astounding endurance of woman and of the strength of a mother's love.
Grimshaw discusses issues of vision in anthropology, considering some key figures throughout the twentieth century.
Maternity: Letters from Working-Women, has been acknowledged as a major work throughout human history, and we have taken precautions to assure its preservation by republishing this book in a modern manner for both present and future generations. This book has been completely retyped, revised, and reformatted. The text is readable and clear because these books are not created from scanned copies.
"I ought to be grateful to Richmond & Hogarth, and indeed, whether it's my invincible optimism or not, I am grateful." - Virginia Woolf Although more commonly associated with Bloomsbury, Virginia and her husband Leonard Woolf lived in Richmond-upon-Thames for ten years from the time of the First World War (1914-1924). Refuting the common misconception that she disliked the town, this book explores her daily habits as well as her intimate thoughts while living at the pretty house she came to love - Hogarth House. Drawing on information from her many letters and diaries, the author reveals how Richmond's relaxed way of life came to influence the writer, from her experimentation as a novelist t...
This literary biography is “a story of obsession and the search for pure childhood . . . Moving, charming, a revelation” (Los Angeles Times). J. M. Barrie, Victorian novelist, playwright, and author of Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, led a life almost as interesting as his famous creation. Childless in his marriage, Barrie grew close to the five young boys of the Davies family, ultimately becoming their guardian and surrogate father when they were orphaned. Andrew Birkin draws extensively on a vast range of material by and about Barrie, including notebooks, memoirs, and hours of recorded interviews with the family and their circle, to describe Barrie’s life, the tragedies that shaped him, and the wonderful world of imagination he created for the boys. Updated with a new preface and including photos and illustrations, this “absolutely gripping” read reveals the dramatic story behind one of the classics of children’s literature (Evening Standard). “A psychological thriller . . . One of the year’s most complex and absorbing biographies.” —Time “[A] fascinating story.” —The Washington Post
Before the Second World War and long before the second wave of feminism, Virginia Woolf argued that women's experience, particularly in the women's movement, could be the basis for transformative social change. Grounding Virginia Woolf's feminist beliefs in the everyday world, Naomi Black reclaims Three Guineas as a major feminist document. Rather than a book only about war, Black considers it to be the best, clearest presentation of Woolf's feminism. Woolf's changing representation of feminism in publications from 1920 to 1940 parallels her involvement with the contemporary women's movement (suffragism and its descendants, and the pacifist, working-class Women's Co-operative Guild). Black g...