Rebecca West

Description

A novelist, critic, biographer, travel writer, and investigative journalist, Rebecca West had a keen eye for conflict, and a razor tongue for battle. Called "George Bernard Shaw in skirts" by pundits, she was a woman both feted for her achievements and feared for her cutting wit - "With malice toward all" was her motto, and her barbs are legend. Yet her vitriol was a mask for the pain she spent her life trying to escape. Born Cicily Fairfield to a ne'er-do-well, sexually abusive father and an emotionally fragile mother, she took the name Rebecca West from a strong-willed character in an Ibsen play, and thus began the remarkable process of reinvention that would culminate in her being named Dame of the British Empire at the peak of her career. West's first great love was H. G. Wells, with whom she had a son out of wedlock; her stormy relationship with both father and son would plague her throughout her life. She traveled around the world for her writing, and her fame, beauty and wit drew men to her wherever she went. She left behind a notable train in her wake, including the likes of Wells, Lord Beaverbrook, and Charlie Chaplin. . Drawing upon a wealth of never-before-seen archival material and interviews with family and friends, authorized biographer Carl Rollyson has re-created this singular life with compassion, animation, and rare insight. He has plumbed deeply, to the truth behind Dame West's outrageous reputation, and - a harder feat - he has taken the first full measure of her dazzling range of accomplishments. At last, one of this century's most gifted and colorful writers has been given the biography she so richly deserves.

First Sentence

Two-year-old Cicily Fairfield toddles into the sea.

Description

"Rebecca West's wide-ranging writing career, as a novelist, journalist, travel and history writer and biographer, made her one of the most feted and feared women of her day. Despite the acclaim she attracted throughout her life - her books were often bestsellers - her work has undeservedly fallen out of fashion." "Carl Rollyson has had exclusive access to West's vast archive of letters, diaries, journals and manuscripts. He has interviewed her friends and family, many of whom speak out for the first time. He reveals new details about her affairs with HG Wells (by whom she had a son); the press magnate, Lord Beaverbrook; the renowned journalist, John Gunther; the Nuremberg judge, Francis Biddle; Charlie Chaplin and others. How Cicily Fairfield became the audacious Rebecca West, one of the century's great literary critics and reporters, producing masterpieces such as Black Lamb and Grey Falcon and The Meaning of Treason, is the story of this biography. In a life of extremes, she was seen as a feminist, an evil mother (Rollyson presents the definitive portrayal of her lifelong battle with her son, Anthony West), an ardent anti-communist, a gossip. Like Dr Johnson, she was both the scourge and the wit of her century. When she died on the Ides of March 1983, aged 90, she was a Dame of the British Empire and had finally made it to the screen Reds, a heroine of her age."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Rebecca West: a lifeScribner1996-01-01
• Rebecca WestHardcoverHodder & Stoughton1995
• Rebecca WestPaperbackiUniverse2000-04-01