Anna Wickham

A Poet's Daring Life

By (author) Jennifer Vaughan Jones

Not available to order

Publication date:

04 June 2003

Length of book:

400 pages

Publisher

Madison Books

ISBN-13: 9781461662730

Anna Wickham's life is characterized by the turbulent, burgeoning feminism of the early 20th century. A woman whose incisive mind and inquisitive nature sent her husband into jealous rages, she was forcibly committed to a mental hospital at the age of 30. Upon her release, she began a life-long quest for happiness, exhibited first and foremost through her poetry. Anna Wickham became a widely acclaimed writer whose life, at times immersed in scandal, is a story of success and sadness. Eventually leaving her husband and four sons to live in Paris's left bank, she became a confidante of D.H. Lawrence, the long-time lover of millionairess Natalie Clifford Barney, and a strong-willed literary icon, rumored to have once thrown Dylan Thomas into a snowstorm. Despite her fame and achievement, Wickham's struggles with depression and anxiety would eventually lead to her untimely death.
Jones does a good job not only of disclosing the initimate details of the poet's tragic life but also of interweaving her poems through the narrative and paying special attention to her writing techniques.