Another Side of Ethel Smyth

A view of the later life and interests of the English composer, writer and suffragette Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), as revealed through a lively correspondence with Elizabeth Mary Williamson, her great niece, between 1922 and 1944.

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Ethel Smyth was a prolific author, including volumes of autobiographical writing, and was herself the subject of biography. After a brief introduction to the family and social context of the letters, this volume therefore can focus on the relationship and exchange of ideas between 'ES' and Elizabeth Williamson, the grand-daughter of Ethel's eldest sister Mary Hunter. In part thanks to her great-aunt, Elizabeth's Edwardian childhood led not to marriage but to a degree, work at the University of London Observatory, and the freedom to continue her studies in classical Greek. In their correspondence the two women talk about books, theatre, travel, current affairs and personal philosophies, as well as friendships and family life with all their problems and rivalries and, of course, dogs. All against the backdrop of an interleaving aristocratic, political, academic, literary and business world. The letters themselves, clearly valued by Elizabeth, almost perished three times - including once after the editor of the collection had herself inherited them. This volume is a selection, with the bulk of the collection now in the Beinecke Library at Yale.