Michael Field: The Poet

by Katherine Bradley, Edith Cooper, Marion Thain (Editor)

“Michael Field” was the literary pseudonym of two women, Katharine Bradley (1846-1914) and her niece Edith Cooper (1862-1913). The women were poets, playwrights, diarist, and lovers who lived and wrote together during the final decades of the nineteenth century up to World War I. Their arresting poetry has recently gained them a place in the canon, and their extensive engagement with other writers puts them at the centre of fin de siècle literary culture. This Broadview Edition offers selections from all published books of poetry by Michael Field, and a substantial section of transcriptions from largely unpublished manuscript letters and diaries that gives insight into the extraordinary life and work of the authors. A critical introduction, bibliography, and selection of contemporary reviews are also included.

Genres: Poetry, Victorian, Nonfiction, Classics

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Daniel]

I found this book in a record store on a lazy afternoon last summer. It has been a really nice book to carry around with me when I have time on my hands and want to read through a little poetry. Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper (together Michael Field) were great poets writing from the late nineteen century up to the beginning of World War I. This edition includes excerpts from their diary and it's humbling/endearing to listen to their commentary on life from being young and just starting to their careers to being on their deathbeds. Would recommend.

[Abby]

i’m lying i didn’t read all of this

[adam]

The highlight? Ruskin calling Field a goose

[isabel mary]

Read ‘Maids, not to you my mind doth change’, ‘It was deep April, and the morn’, ‘The Sleeping Venus’, ‘La Gioconda’, ‘Oh free me, for I take the leap’, and ‘Tiresias’.

[Mir]

"Michael Field" was a pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper, aunt and niece lovers who wrote poetry and drama together for 40 years. They also wrote separately, and more briefly, under the names Arran Leigh and Isla Leigh.

[A.]

*sigh* Incest is, indeed, wincest.