Stella Benson (6 January 1892 – 7 December 1933) was an English

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, novelist, poet, and

travel writer The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...

. She was a recipient of the

Benson Medal The Benson Medal is a medal awarded by the Royal Society of Literature in the UK."The Benson Medal"

Early life

Benson was born to Ralph Beaumont Benson (1862–1911), a member of the

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, th ...

, and Caroline Essex Cholmondeley in

Easthope Easthope is a small village and small civil parish in Shropshire, England. Wenlock Edge passes through the parish, to the northwest of the village, along which is Easthope Wood. A hamlet with the same name (or spelled Easthopewood) is on the oth ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

in 1892. Stella's aunt,

Mary Cholmondeley Mary Cholmondeley (usually pronounced /ˈtʃʌmli/, 8 June 1859 – 15 July 1925) was an English novelist. Her bestseller, '' Red Pottage'', satirised religious hypocrisy and the narrowness of country life. It was adapted as a silent film in 19 ...

, was a well-known novelist. Stella was often ill during her childhood and throughout her life. By her sixth birthday, she and her family, based in London, had moved frequently. She spent some of her childhood in schools in Germany and Switzerland. She began writing a diary at the age of 10 and kept it up for all of her life. By the time she was writing poetry, her parents separated; subsequently, she saw her father infrequently. When she did see him, he encouraged her to quit writing poetry for the time being, until she was older and more experienced. Instead, Stella increased her writing output, adding novel-writing to her repertoire. When her father died, Stella learned that he had been an alcoholic.

Writing

Benson spent the winter of 1913–14 in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, which provided material for her first novel, ''I Pose'' (1915). Living in London, she became involved in

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

, as had her older female relatives. During

World War I 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 ...

, she supported the troops by gardening and by helping poor women in London's East End at the

Charity Organisation Society The Charity Organisation Societies were founded in England in 1869 following the ' Goschen Minute' that sought to severely restrict outdoor relief distributed by the Poor Law Guardians. In the early 1870s a handful of local societies were formed w ...

. These efforts inspired Benson to write the novels ''This Is the End'' (1917) and ''Living Alone'' (1919). ''Living Alone'' is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

novel about a woman whose life is transformed by a

witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...

. She also published her first volume of poetry, ''Twenty'', in 1918. Benson then decided that she wanted to see the world, leaving England for the United States in June 1918. After stops in New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Chicago, where along the way she met various American writers including Bertha Pope and

Harriet Monroe Harriet Monroe (December 23, 1860 – September 26, 1936) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, and patron of the arts. She was the founding publisher and long-time editor of ''Poetry'' magazine, first published in 1912. As a ...

, she went to stay with Bertha Pope in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. In Berkeley and San Francisco from December 1918 through December 1919, she participated in a bohemian community that included Albert Bender, Anne Bremer,

Witter Bynner Harold Witter Bynner (August 10, 1881 – June 1, 1968), also known by the pen name Emanuel Morgan, was an American poet and translator. He was known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and association with other literary figures ther ...

Sara Bard Field Sara Bard Field (September 1, 1882 – June 15, 1974) was an American poet, suffragist, free love advocate, Georgist, and Christian socialist. She worked on successful campaigns for women's suffrage in Oregon and Nevada. Working with Alice Paul ...

Charles Erskine Scott Wood Charles Erskine Scott Wood or C.E.S. Wood (February 20, 1852January 22, 1944) was an American author, civil liberties advocate, artist, soldier, attorney, and Georgist. He is best known as the author of the 1927 satirical bestseller, ''Heavenly D ...

, and Marie de Laveaga Welch. She took on a job at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

as a tutor, then as an editorial reader for the university press. Her California experiences inspired her next novel, ''The Poor Man'' (1922). In 1920, she went to China, where she worked in a mission school and hospital, and met the man who would be her husband, James (Shaemas) O'Gorman Anderson, an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

officer in the

Chinese Maritime Customs Service The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was a Chinese governmental tax collection agency and information service from its founding in 1854 until it split in 1949 into services operating in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and in the People's Republ ...

(CMCS) and later father of

Benedict Anderson Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson (August 26, 1936 – December 13, 2015) was an Anglo-Irish political scientist and historian who lived and taught in the United States. Anderson is best known for his 1983 book '' Imagined Communities'', which e ...

and

Perry Anderson Francis Rory Peregrine "Perry" Anderson (born 11 September 1938) is a British intellectual, historian and essayist. His work ranges across historical sociology, intellectual history, and cultural analysis. What unites Anderson's work is a preoc ...

. They married in London the following year. This was a complex relationship, but a very firm one. Benson followed Anderson through various Customs postings including

Nanning Nanning (; ; za, Namzningz) is the capital and largest city by population of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. It is known as the "Green City" because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of ...

Pakhoi Beihai (; Postal romanization: Pakhoi) is a prefecture-level city in the south of Guangxi, People's Republic of China. Its status as a seaport on the north shore of the Gulf of Tonkin has granted it historical importance as a port of internation ...

, and Hong Kong] even though her writings on China sometimes put her at odds with the

HM Revenue and Customs HM Revenue and Customs (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, or HMRC) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial Departments of the United Kingdom Government, department of the His Majesty's Government, UK Government responsible fo ...

leadership. They had strong shared intellectual interests. Their honeymoon was spent crossing America in a Ford, and Benson wrote about this in ''The Little World'' (1925).

Later works

Benson's writing continued, although none of her works is well known today. ''Pipers and a Dancer'' (1924) and ''Goodbye, Stranger'' (1926) were followed by another book of travel essays, ''Worlds Within Worlds,'' and the story ''The Man Who Missed the 'Bus'' in 1928. Her most famous work, the novel ''The Far-Away Bride,'' was published in the United States first in 1930 and as ''Tobit Transplanted'' in Britain in 1931. It won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize for English writers in 1932. This was followed by two limited-edition collections of short stories, ''Hope Against Hope'' (1931) of which 670 were printed and signed, and ''Christmas Formula'' (1932). In 1931 she received the

Benson Medal The Benson Medal is a medal awarded by the Royal Society of Literature in the UK."The Benson Medal"

in recognition of her lifelong contributions to literature. Benson was a friend of

Winifred Holtby Winifred Holtby (23 June 1898 – 29 September 1935) was an English novelist and journalist, now best known for her novel '' South Riding'', which was posthumously published in 1936. Biography Holtby was born to a prosperous farming family in ...

and, through her, of

Vera Brittain Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir ''Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the First ...

. The effects of the news of Benson's death on both women is recalled in Brittain's second volume of autobiography, the first volume of which is the better known ''

Testament of Youth ''Testament of Youth'' is the first instalment, covering 1900–1925, in the memoir of Vera Brittain (1893–1970). It was published in 1933. Brittain's memoir continues with ''Testament of Experience'', published in 1957, and encompassing th ...

'' (1933).

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 ...

also knew Benson, and remarked in her diary after her death: 'A curious feeling: when a writer like Stella Benson dies, that one’s response is diminished; Here and Now won’t be lit up by her: its life lessened.' She was also a friend of

Naomi Mitchison Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness Mitchison (; 1 November 1897 – 11 January 1999) was a Scottish novelist and poet. Often called a doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote over 90 books of historical and science fiction, travel writin ...

, who devoted to Benson a chapter in her own autobiography ''You May Well Ask'', with extensive quotations from her correspondence with Benson in the 1920s and early 1930s. Benson's last unfinished novel ''Mundos'' and her personal selection of her best poetry ''Poems'' were published posthumously in 1935. Her ''Collected Stories'' were published in 1936.

Appraisal

According to George Malcolm Johnson, "Stella Benson had a unique ability to blend fantasy and reality, especially evident in her earlier novels and in her short stories. Her impish humour and wicked wit, frequently directed towards a satirical end, masked an underlying compassion. Benson's novels (especially her later more realistic ones) and stories often treat serious social issues and reflect her travails as a twentieth-century woman: supporting female suffrage, witnessing the tragedy of the First World War, and living in a hostile, volatile colonial setting. Despite her very modern, ironic treatment of the theme of individuals lost, isolated, and alienated in strange and frightening situations, she has not garnered much contemporary critical attention, and deserves reappraisal."

Death

She died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

on 7 December 1933, at

Hạ Long Hạ Long () is the capital city and first-class provincial city of Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. The name Hạ Long () means "descending dragon". The city was founded in 1993, when the old capital, Hòn Gai, was merged with Bãi Cháy – ...

in the Vietnamese province of

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain ''Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includi ...

. Immediately after her death, her husband deposited her diaries to the University Library in Cambridge. Almost 50 years later, they were made available and Joy Grant used them to write a biography of her.

Works

*''I Pose'' (London: Macmillan, 1915), novel *''This Is the End'' (London: Macmillan, 1917), novel *''Twenty'' (London: Macmillan, 1918), poems *''Living Alone'' (London: Macmillan, 1919), novel *''Kwan-yin'' (San Francisco: A. M. Bender, 1922), poem *''The Poor Man'' (London: Macmillan, 1922), novel *''Pipers and a Dancer'' (London: Macmillan, 1924), stories *''The Little World'' (London: Macmillan, 1925), travel *''The Awakening'' (San Francisco: The Lantern Press, 1925), story *''Goodbye, Stranger'' (London: Macmillan, 1926), novel *''The Man Who Missed the Bus'' (London: Elkin Matthews & Marrot, 1928), story *''Worlds Within Worlds'' (London: Macmillan, 1928), travel *''Tobit Transplanted'' (London: Macmillan, 1930; U.S. title ''The Far-Away Bride''), novel *''Hope Against Hope and Other Stories'' (London: Macmillan, 1931), stories *''Christmas Formula and Other Stories'' (London: William Jackson, 1932), stories *''Pull Devil, Pull Baker'' (London: Macmillan, 1933), novel *''Collected Stories'' (London: Macmillan, 1936), stories *''Mundos'' (London: Macmillan, 1935), novel (unfinished) *''Poems'' (London: Macmillan, 1935) *''The Desert Islander'' (Harcourt: New York, 1945), novella

References

External links

* * * * *
Stella Benson page
at literaryheritage.org.uk
Stella Benson in the Great War
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Stella 1892 births 1933 deaths 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English poets 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English women writers British women short story writers English fantasy writers English feminists English travel writers English women novelists English women poets Women science fiction and fantasy writers British women travel writers Deaths from pneumonia in Vietnam