Regina Miriam Bloch (November 1888 – 1 March 1938) was a Jewish writer and poet.

Biography

She was born in Sondershausen, in the Principality of

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Schwarzburg-Sondershausen was a small principality in Germany, in the present day state of Thuringia, with its capital at Sondershausen. History Schwarzburg-Sondershausen was a county until 1697. In that year, it became a principality, which la ...

(present-day

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

), and educated in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. She was the third child of John (or Jacob) Bloch of Egbaston,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, editor of the German sporting journal ''Spiel und Sport'' (1891–1901). She settled in London after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and in 1919 launched a public appeal for the formation in England of a Jewish arts and crafts society. She contributed essays, stories and poems to a number of periodicals, and wrote articles and prose fiction for both Jewish and non-Jewish newspapers and publications in the United States, England and the British colonies. Some confusion was caused when it was wrongly claimed that Regina Miriam Bloch was the real name of

Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...

. She was noted for a compact treatise she wrote on the life of

Inayat Khan Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan ( ur, ) (5 July 1882 – 5 February 1927) was an Indian professor of musicology, singer, exponent of the saraswati vina, poet, philosopher, and pioneer of the transmission of Sufism to the West. At the urging of his ...

and his mission to the West. She was interested in

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

and contributed articles and book reviews to the ''

Occult Review ''The Occult Review'' was a British illustrated monthly magazine published between 1905 and 1951 containing articles and correspondence by many notable occultists and authors of the day, including Aleister Crowley, Meredith Starr, Walter Leslie ...

''. She died in London aged 49.''American Jewish Year Book'', Vol.40, 1938, p. 395

Selected works

* ''The Book of Strange Loves'' (1918) * ''The Confessions of Inayat Khan'' (1915) * ''The Swine-Gods and Other Visions'', With a foreword by

Israel Zangwill Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and ...

(1917) * ''The Vision of the King: a Coronation Souvenir'' (1911)

References

External links

* "Solomon's Song", in Joseph Friedlander, comp. ''The Standard Book of Jewish Verse'', 191

* "I Know a Ruined Garden" in ''The Second Book of the Poets' Club'' (1911) p. 4

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Regina Mirian 1888 births 1938 deaths People from Sondershausen 19th-century German Jews German emigrants to England Jewish poets Jewish women writers 20th-century British poets 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers English women poets