Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall was born in 1880 to an American widow and a rich, gadabout Brit whose father, a wealthy physician, had been knighted. Marguerite lived through a miserable childhood. She hated her name, and by most accounts, she didn't care for her mother either. When she got older, she took to calling herself John, and to the end of her life, that is the name by which all friends and associates addressed her. Her readers and fans knew her as Radclyffe.

Radclyffe Hall,
whom Esther Newton called,
"The most infamous
mannish lesbian of all time."

It was early in the twentieth century, and there was no such thing as a Lesbian Identity. (In fact, the word "lesbian," denoting female homosexual, had only just been coined near the turn of the century.) It seems odd to realize under today's circumstances, but without books and TV and the Internet, not to mention the oral tradition and classes taught at university on the subject, any woman of Hall's time who was attracted to other women would have to consider herself a bizarre abomination at worst, an odd anomaly at best.

The last words of the novel, where Stephen is entreating God, go like this:

"Acknowledge us, oh God, before the whole world. Give us also the right to our existence!"

Those words, calling for fairness, understanding, and the right to exist as lesbians in a world that was seldom accepting, constituted a very brave demand.

As of the time of writing this (in 2005), it's been 125 years since Radclyffe Hall was born and over sixty years since she died. Her most famous novel, The Well of Loneliness, which she published herself, was deemed obscene by the British and not published in England until 1952, nine years after her death. But American audiences were able to get hold of copies with ease. And for decades after 1928, Americans read the novel with great interest. But in the last ten to twenty years, though the mystique about Hall has perhaps increased, knowledge and awareness about the woman and her groundbreaking work, The Well of Loneliness, have actually decreased. And this has occurred because the portrait Hall painted of The Lesbian in Society is no longer an accurate one. We are not "inverts." And we are no longer alone. For the last forty years (at least) an entire culture of women has been exploring and defining their identities as lesbians.

The Well of Loneliness is marked with pain, anguish, loneliness, grief, suffering, and heartache. Those who had read the book in the first five decades following its publication couldn't possibly have found solace there, could they? But yes, apparently they did. Lesbians who felt alone and filled with the same self-hatred as Stephen Gordon felt experienced some measure of relief that perhaps they weren't so alone after all. Someone, somewhere - even if it was way over in jolly old England - understood what it was like to feel rejected and rejectable. The book was gradually translated, at last count into 15 languages, so women all over the Western world could potentially read this novel. That the British chancellors and magistrates and censors stopped the publication of the book in 1928 only served to further popularize it and make Radclyffe Hall a hero for generations of lesbians.

A Place in History

Radclyffe Hall must have felt very alone - without the right or even the full understanding to validate her own butch, lesbian existence. If she hadn't been well-educated and wealthy, it's unlikely she would ever have had the opportunity to explore these issues or write about women who love women.

Hall is still read and referenced in women's studies classes and by those who study about lesbian history, but despite being given her expected place in the canon, Hall's seminal work is read less and less as each year goes by, and I have to celebrate that. Heather Love puts it best in her article, "Hard Times and Heartaches: Radclyffe Hall's Well of Loneliness":

Portrait of the Author
as a Young Woman

It's a humbling and amazing experience to read The Well of Loneliness, then follow that with pulp novels of the 40s and 50s, the nascent novels of the 60s, and the subsequent books that reflect the advances made culturally and socially by and for lesbians. Radclyffe Hall demanded a niche in creation, and women who came after her worked to envision what it should look like. Lesbians in Western society are coming into our own, and our writing resonates with belief in our self-worth. For that, I am truly grateful.

We've certainly come a long way, baby!

If you would like to read more about Radclyffe Hall, her place in history, and her novels and poetry, here are some excellent books:

Sally Cline, "Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John"
Diana Souhami, "The Trials of Radclyffe Hall"
Claudia Stillman Franks,"Beyond the Well of Loneliness: The Fiction of Radclyffe Hall"
Your John: The Love Letters of Radclyffe Hall, ed. with an introduction by Joanne Glasgow

Other biographical information and analysis of Radclyffe's Hall's work can be found here at Today in Literature.

"On the Lagoon," Radclyffe Hall, 1906

Radclyffe Hall's Poetry Books
Twixt Earth and Stars, 1906
Poems of the Past & Present, 1910
Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, 1913
The Forgotten Island, 1915
Rhymes and Rhythms, Milan, 1948

Questions? Hit me at Lori (at) LoriLLake (dot) com.

Until next time!
Lori