Mary Stella Edwards (1893-1989) was an English painter, creator of

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

s and poet.

Biography

Mary Stella Edwards was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

in 1893, the daughter of Robert Cromwell Edwards, an architect. She grew up at 12 Fairfield Avenue, in Staines, Middlesex (now part of Surrey). Edwards studied art at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

and The Regent Street Polytechnic (now part of the

University of Westminster , mottoeng = The Lord is our Strength , type = Public , established = 1838: Royal Polytechnic Institution 1891: Polytechnic-Regent Street 1970: Polytechnic of Central London 1992: University of Westminster , endowment = £5.1 million ...

) where she met fellow student

Judith Ackland Judith Ackland (1892–1971) was an English artist, a landscape painter and creator of dioramas. Biography Judith Agnes Maud Ackland was born at Stowford House on Bideford Strand in 1892, the daughter of Charles Kingsley Ackland, a well-known ...

. They became life partners and used a tiny cabin, a former fisherman's store, dating from the mid-19th century, at

Bucks Mills Bucks Mills is a small English village within the parish of Woolfardisworthy on the north coast of Devon. It was anciently the mill of the manor of Bucks, anciently ''Bokish'', Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1 ...

as their studio from 1924 until Ackland's death in 1971. Together with Ackland, Edwards produced dioramas, Ackland made all the models (she invented a method called "Jackanda" to make the models), and Edwards painted their backdrops. The town of Windsor commissioned these dioramas to celebrate the town's history, and they are now at the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum. Edwards was also a poet and published several volumes throughout her life. She published her first book of poetry ''Time and Chance'' in 1926 with the

Hogarth Press The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now ...

Leonard Woolf Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society, Woolf was an avid publisher of his own work ...

and

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

;

Gilbert Murray George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece ...

, philologist, wrote the introduction. The London antique dealer

Maggs Bros Ltd Maggs Bros. Ltd. is one of the longest-established antiquarian booksellers in the world, established in 1853 by Uriah Maggs, born c. 1828 in Midsomer Norton, Somerset. All four of Uriah's sons eventually joined the business, taking over on his ret ...

has a copy Edwards dedicated to Irish publisher and book collector

Alan Clodd Harold Alexander Clodd (22 May 1918 – 24 December 2002), generally known as Alan Clodd, was an Irish publisher, book collector, and dealer. Edward Clodd was his grandfather. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Clodd went to Bishop's Stortford College and l ...

, who in 1967 published her works with his

Enitharmon Press Enitharmon Press is an independent British publishing house specialising in artists’ books, poetry, limited editions and original prints. The name of the press comes from the poetry of William Blake: Enitharmon was a character who represented ...

. Individual poems subsequently appeared in

Thomas Moult Thomas Moult (1893–1974) was a versatile English journalist and writer, and one of the Georgian poets. He is known for his annual anthologies ''Best Poems of the Year'', 1922 to 1943, which were popular verse selections taken from periodicals on ...

's ''The Best Poems of 1930'', '' Art, Prose and Poetry'', ''

The Contemporary Review ''The Contemporary Review'' is a British biannual, formerly quarterly, magazine. It has an uncertain future as of 2013. History The magazine was established in 1866 by Alexander Strahan and a group of intellectuals anxious to promote intellig ...

'' and ''

The Living Age Eliakim Littell (2 January 1797 – 17 May 1870) was a United States editor and publisher, the founder of a long-lived periodical named ''Littell's Living Age'' (1844-1941). Biography Littell was born in Burlington, New Jersey. He moved to Philad ...

''. She also published poetry between 1962 and 1964 in '' Literary Criticism Teaching'' edited by Margaret Willy for the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. In 1968 she published ''A Truce with Time'' and in 1978 ''Before and After'', with poems in memory of her late partner, Judith Ackland: these poems, according to

May Sarton May Sarton was the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), a Belgian-American poet, novelist and memoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of ‘lesbi ...

, "express the long-standing affection and solidarity of these two remarkable women and give strength to make unbearable bearable". The volume was published by

, as did ''Years Between'' (1982) and ''A Further Harvest'' (1985) with unpublished poems from the period between 1932 and 1984. Edwards also illustrated books, mostly children's books, painted or drew the frontispiece and designed dust covers. Examples include: ''The Normal Saturday Fairy Book'' (1924), ''The Grand Buffalo'' (1926), ''From Track to Highway. A Book of British Roads'' (1935), ''Worzel Gummidge Or the Scarecrow of Scatterbrook'' (1936), ''Miss Milligan Comes Out'' (1937), ''The Muddle-Headed Postman and Other Stories'' (1937), ''The Giant Who Made Mistakes'' (1938) and ''The Dogs at Abbey Lodge'' (1937). In addition, she designed - as well as

Nina Hamnett Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia. Early life Hamnett was born in Shirley House, Picton Road in the small c ...

, among others - an envelope for the literary journal '' Coterie'', in which the Sitwells, Huxley, Eliot and others published texts; critics thought the cover was too reminiscent of Beardsley. Edwards' book covers from 1922 to 1938 include illustrations for authors such as

Douglas Jerrold Douglas William Jerrold (London 3 January 18038 June 1857 London) was an English dramatist and writer. Biography Jerrold's father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent. In 1807 Dougla ...

, Countess Barcynska,

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish writer, novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, especi ...

Anatole France (; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...

Rufus King Rufus King (March 24, 1755April 29, 1827) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and was one of the signers of the Unit ...

G.B. Stern Gladys Bronwyn Stern or GB Stern (17 June 1890 – 20 September 1973), born Gladys Bertha Stern in London, England, wrote many novels, short stories, plays, memoirs, biographies and literary criticism. The National Portrait Gallery, London hold ...

Peggy Wood Mary Margaret Wood (February 9, 1892 – March 18, 1978) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. She is best remembered for her performance as the title character in the CBS television series ''Mama'' (1949–1957), for which sh ...

. After Ackland's death, Edwards closed The Cabin at Bucks Mill and moved to live with her family in Staines. She died there in 1989.

Exhibitions

* The Boston Marriage of Judith Ackland and Mary Stella Edwards: watercolourists and diorama makers, 20th Annual Lesbian Lives Conference, 15–16 February 2013, Brighton

Legacy

Mary Stella Edwards donated a collection of her own and Ackland's work to Burton Art Gallery and Museum in Bideford, dating between 1913 and 1965. Works by Ackland and Edwards can be found at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, branded as simply Amgueddfa Cymru (formerly the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and legally National Museum of Wales), is a Welsh Government sponsored body that comprises seven museums in Wales: * N ...

and

Abbot Hall Art Gallery Abbot Hall Art Gallery is a museum and gallery in Kendal, England. Abbot Hall was built in 1759 by Colonel George Wilson, the second son of Daniel Wilson of Dallam Tower, a large house and country estate nearby. It was built on the site of the o ...

in Kendal, Westmorland. Bucks Mills Cabin, originally managed by the Ackland-Edwards Charitable Trust, passed to The National Trust in 2004. It is a Grade II listed building under the Planning Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest, a time box of life at Bucks Mills in the middle of the 20th century. As agreed with the Ackland-Edwards Charitable Trust, it is currently artist–in–residence summer home and occasionally open to public. Listed in 2017, the Cabin is one of the England's landmarks to be given listed status as part of a "queer histories" project.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Mary Stella 1893 births 1989 deaths 20th-century English women artists 20th-century British LGBT people Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the University of Westminster English LGBT painters Artists from Hampstead People from Staines-upon-Thames People from Torridge District