Rose Macaulay

Rose Macaulay
Dame; Rose Macaulay; DBE
	Pencil sketch of Rose Macaulay
Born	Emilie Rose Macaulay; 1 August 1881; Rugby, Warwickshire, England
Died	30 October 1958 (aged 77)
Nationality	English
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Education	Oxford High School for Girls
Alma mater	Somerville College, Oxford
Notable works	They Were Defeated (1932); The World My Wilderness (1950); The Towers of Trebizond (1956);
Notable awards	James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1956) ; Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1958)
Partner	Gerald O'Donovan (c. 1918–1942)

Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, DBE (1 August 1881 – 30 October 1958) was an English writer, most noted for her award-winning novel The Towers of Trebizond, about a small Anglo-Catholic group crossing Turkey by camel. The story is seen as a spiritual autobiography, reflecting her own changing and conflicting beliefs. Macaulay's novels were partly influenced by Virginia Woolf; she also wrote biographies and travelogues.

Early years and education

Macaulay was born in Rugby, Warwickshire the daughter of George Campbell Macaulay, a Classical scholar, and his wife, Grace Mary (née Conybeare). Her father was descended in the male-line directly from the Macaulay family of Lewis. She was educated at Oxford High School for Girls and read Modern History at Somerville College at Oxford University.[1]

Career

Macaulay began writing her first novel, Abbots Verney (published 1906), after leaving Somerville and while living with her parents at Ty Isaf, near Aberystwyth, in Wales. Later novels include The Lee Shore (1912), Potterism (1920), Dangerous Ages (1921), Told by an Idiot (1923), And No Man's Wit (1940), The World My Wilderness (1950), and The Towers of Trebizond (1956). Her non-fiction work includes They Went to Portugal, Catchwords and Claptrap, a biography of John Milton, and Pleasure of Ruins. Macaulay's fiction was influenced by Virginia Woolf and Anatole France.[2]

During World War I Macaulay worked in the British Propaganda Department, after some time as a nurse and later as a civil servant in the War Office. She pursued a romantic affair with Gerald O'Donovan, a writer and former Jesuit priest, whom she met in 1918; the relationship lasted until his death, in 1942.[3] During the interwar period she was a sponsor of the pacifist Peace Pledge Union; however she resigned from the PPU and later recanted her pacifism in 1940.[4] Her London flat was utterly destroyed in the Blitz, and she had to rebuild her life and library from scratch, as documented in the semi-autobiographical short story, Miss Anstruther's Letters, which was published in 1942.

The blue plaque on Hinde House at 11–14 Hinde Street where Macaulay lived from 1941 until her death[5][6]

The Towers of Trebizond, her final novel, is generally regarded as her masterpiece. Strongly autobiographical, it treats with wistful humour and deep sadness the attractions of mystical Christianity, and the irremediable conflict between adulterous love and the demands of the Christian faith. For this work, she received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1956.

Personal life

Macaulay was never a simple believer in "mere Christianity", and her writings reveal a more complex, mystical sense of the Divine. That said, she did not return to the Anglican church until 1953; she had been an ardent secularist before and, while religious themes pervade her novels, previous to her conversion she often treats Christianity satirically, for instance in Going Abroad and The World My Wilderness. She never married.

She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on 31 December 1957 in the 1958 New Years Honours[7] and died ten months later, on 30 October 1958, aged 77, an active feminist throughout her life.[2]

Memorable quotes

From The Towers of Trebizond:

Adultery is a meanness and a stealing, a taking away from someone what should be theirs, a great selfishness, and surrounded and guarded by lies lest it should be found out. And out of meanness and selfishness and lying flow love and joy and peace beyond anything that can be imagined.

First line of The Towers of Trebizond, cited by librarian Nancy Pearl in "Famous First Words: A Librarian Shares Favorite Literary Opening Lines," hosted by Steve Inskeep on NPR's Morning Edition, 8 September 2004, as an example among "some notable opening lines that have made Pearl's heart pound".

"Take my camel, dear", said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.

From Staying with Relations. Discussing the coat worn by a visitor, a character remarks:

Is rabbit fur disgusting because it's cheap, or is it cheap because it's disgusting?

Works

Fiction:

Abbots Verney (1906) John Murray
The Furnace (1907) John Murray
The Secret River (1909) John Murray
The Valley Captives (1911) John Murray
Views and Vagabonds (1912) John Murray
The Lee Shore (1913) Hodder & Stoughton
The Making of a Bigot (c 1914) Hodder & Stoughton
Non-Combatants and Others (1916) Hodder & Stoughton
What Not: A Prophetic Comedy (1918) What Not was an influence on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World Constable & Co
Potterism (1920) William Collins
Dangerous Ages (1921) William Collins
Mystery At Geneva: An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings (1922) William Collins
Told by an Idiot (1923) William Collins
Orphan Island (1924) William Collins
Crewe Train (1926) William Collins
Keeping Up Appearances (1928) William Collins
Staying with Relations (1930) William Collins
They Were Defeated (1932) William Collins
Going Abroad (1934) William Collins
I Would Be Private (1937) William Collins
And No Man's Wit (1940) William Collins
The World My Wilderness (1950) William Collins
The Towers of Trebizond (1956) William Collins

Poetry:

The Two Blind Countries (1914) Sidgwick & Jackson
Three Days (1919) Constable
Misfortunes, with engravings by Stanley Morison (1930)

Non-fiction:

A Casual Commentary (1925) Methuen
Some Religious Elements in English Literature (1931) Hogarth
Milton (1934) Duckworth
Personal Pleasures (1935) Gollancz
The Minor Pleasures of Life (1936) Gollancz
An Open Letter (1937) Peace Pledge Union
The Writings of E.M. Forster (1938) Hogarth
Life Among the English (1942) William Collins
Southey in Portugal (1945) Nicholson & Watson
They Went to Portugal (1946) Jonathan Cape
Evelyn Waugh (1946) Horizon
Fabled Shore: From the Pyrenees to Portugal By Road (1949) Hamish Hamilton
Pleasure of Ruins (1953) Thames & Hudson
Coming to London (1957) Phoenix House
Letters to a Friend 1950–52 (1961) William Collins
Last Letters to a Friend 1952–1958 (1962) William Collins
Letters to a Sister (1964) William Collins
They Went to Portugal Too (1990) (The second part of They Went to Portugal, not published with the 1946 edition because of paper restrictions.) Carcanet

References

Crawford, Alice (1995). Paradise Pursued: The Novels of Rose Macaulay. Farleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 17. ISBN 9780838635735.
Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, editors; Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, (3rd edition). New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1950, pp. 865–66.
Profile, guardian.co.uk; 31 May 2003; accessed 25 July 2015.
Martin Ceadel, Semi-Detached Idealists:The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854–1945. Oxford University Press, 2000; ISBN 0199241171 (p. 361).
Williams, George G. Assisted by Marian and Geoffrey Williams. (1973) Guide to Literary London. London: Batsford, p. 285; ISBN 0713401419
Hibbert, Christopher; Ben Weinreb; John Keay; Julia Keay (2010). The London Encyclopaedia. London: Pan Macmillan. p. 402. ISBN 978-0-230-73878-2.
London Gazette notice of Macaulay's damehood

External links

Works by Rose Macaulay at Project Gutenberg
Works by Rose Macaulay at Faded Page (Canada)
Works by or about Rose Macaulay at Internet Archive
Works by Rose Macaulay at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Works by Rose Macaulay at Open Library
"Archival material relating to Rose Macaulay". UK National Archives.
Profile of Rose on Great Shelford website where she lived some of her life

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[1] Crawford, Alice (1995). Paradise Pursued: The Novels of Rose Macaulay. Farleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 17. ISBN 9780838635735.

[k&h-2] Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, editors; Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, (3rd edition). New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1950, pp. 865–66.

[3] Profile, guardian.co.uk; 31 May 2003; accessed 25 July 2015.

[4] Martin Ceadel, Semi-Detached Idealists:The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854–1945. Oxford University Press, 2000; ISBN 0199241171 (p. 361).

[Will-5] Williams, George G. Assisted by Marian and Geoffrey Williams. (1973) Guide to Literary London. London: Batsford, p. 285; ISBN 0713401419

[EncylLon-6] Hibbert, Christopher; Ben Weinreb; John Keay; Julia Keay (2010). The London Encyclopaedia. London: Pan Macmillan. p. 402. ISBN 978-0-230-73878-2.

[7] London Gazette notice of Macaulay's damehood