Trekkie Ritchie Parsons ( Marjorie Tulip Ritchie; 15 June 1902 – 24 July 1995) was an English artist and

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

, perhaps best known as the (perhaps chaste) lover of

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 ...

after his wife

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

's death.

Background

Trekkie Ritchie Parsons was born Marjorie Tulip Ritchie, in 1902 in Durban,

Colony of Natal The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to ...

. She studied at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London. Her parents, Allan McGregor Ritchie (b. 1870, Edinburgh) and Sarah Maria Tulip (b. 1867, Stockton on Tees) married in Cumberland in 1894. When her sister Alice Ritchie (an author of children's books that Trekkie illustrated) was born in 1898, the family had moved to Durban where Allan was a practising architect until about 1914 when he enlisted for war service. In 1917, the family came to England, and Trekkie attended school at Tunbridge Wells before entering, in 1920, the

, to study with Philip Steer and

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a Caricature, caricaturist. He became an influentia ...

. In 1926, she married Peter (Percy Alfred) Brooker, a fellow student at the Slade School. The marriage was short-lived, and in 1934 she married Ian Parsons, an editor at

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she worked as part of the

Fire Service A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

, for a while as a Land Girl, and finally for

Intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

. Known professionally as T. Ritchie, she was the author and illustrator of ''Bells across the Sand—A Book of Rhymes with Pictures'' which was published by her husband's firm circa 1944, lithographed throughout, and printed by Chiswick Press in the same style and size as Puffin Picture Books. She also illustrated, and designed the cover for, ''The Three Rings'' by Barbara Baker (Hogarth Press, 1944), and designed the cover for the British edition of

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

winner ''

Johnny Tremain ''Johnny Tremain'' is a work of historical fiction written in 1943 by Esther Forbes that is set in Boston prior to and during the outbreak of the American Revolution. Intended for teen-aged readers, the novel's themes include apprenticeship, co ...

'' (Chatto & Windus, 1944). Her lithographic technique is in the style of

Barnett Freedman Barnett Freedman CBE RDI (19 May 1901 – 4 January 1958) was a British painter, commercial designer, book illustrator, typographer, and lithographer. Biography Early life and education Barnett Freedman was born in Stepney, in the east en ...

. Sometime between the world wars, Trekkie's sister Alice introduced her to Leonard and Virginia Woolf, leading figures in the

Bloomsbury group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

of writers, critics, and artists. Two months after Virginia Woolf's death in 1941, Leonard visited Alice, who was dying of cancer, at Trekkie's house. He fell in love with Trekkie, and they began an unconventional relationship that lasted until his death in 1969. She often spent the week with Leonard and the weekend with her husband. She had holidays and acted as hostess for them both separately. She was Leonard's companion on trips to France, Greece, Israel, and Ceylon. She wrote many letters to Leonard when they were apart, published in 1974 as ''Love Letters: Leonard Woolf and Trekkie Ritchie Parsons.'' Despite their declared love and companionship, Trekkie insisted that the two had not been lovers. During Trekkie and Leonard's relationship, Trekkie's husband Ian established a long liaison with his Chatto & Windus colleague

Norah Smallwood Norah Evelyn Smallwood OBE (30 December 1909 – 11 October 1984), née Walford, was an English publisher. Early life Smallwood was born in Little Kingshill, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. She was the fifth of eight children of the artist H ...

, whom Trekkie despised. Trekkie died in 1995, at age 93, in Lewes, England.

References

External links

''Love Letters: Leonard Woolf and Trekkie Ritchie Parsons, 1941–1968''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Trekkie 1902 births 1995 deaths Emigrants from the Colony of Natal to the United Kingdom 20th-century British women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British children's book illustrators British lithographers Women lithographers 20th-century lithographers