Helen Jane Waddell (31 May 1889 – 5 March 1965) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

poet, translator and playwright. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal.

Biography

She was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, the tenth and youngest child of Hugh Waddell, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

minister and missionary who was lecturing in the Imperial University. She spent the first eleven years of her life in Japan before her family returned to

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. Her mother died shortly afterwards, and her father remarried. Hugh Waddell himself died and left his younger children in the care of their stepmother. Following the marriage of her elder sister Meg, Helen was left at home to care for Mrs Waddell, whose health was deteriorating. Waddell was educated at Victoria College for Girls and

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

, where she studied under Professor Gregory Smith, graduating in 1911. She followed her BA with first class honours in English with a master's degree, and in 1919 enrolled in

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, I ...

, to study for her doctorate. A travelling scholarship from

Lady Margaret Hall Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more form ...

in 1923 allowed her to conduct research in Paris. It was at this time that she met her life-long friend,

Maude Clarke Maude Violet Clarke (7 May 1892 – 17 November 1935) was an Irish historian. Early life and education Maude Clarke was born in Belfast on 7 May 1892. She was the only daughter of Richard James Clarke, rector of Trinity church, Belfast, and Ann ...

. She is best known for bringing to light the history of the medieval

goliard The goliards were a group of generally young clergy in Europe who wrote satirical Latin poetry in the 12th and 13th centuries of the Middle Ages. They were chiefly clerics who served at or had studied at the universities of France, Germany, ...

s in her 1927 book ''

The Wandering Scholars ''The Wandering Scholars'' is a non-fiction book by Helen Waddell, first published in 1927 by Constable, London.Felicitas Corrigan, ''Helen Waddell: a Biography'' (Gollancz, 1986), p. 234-5 It deals primarily with medieval Latin lyric poetry and ...

'', and translating their Latin poetry in the companion volume ''Medieval Latin Lyrics''. A second anthology, ''More Latin Lyrics'', was compiled in the 1940s but not published until after her death. Her other works range widely in subject matter. For example, she also wrote plays. Her first play was ''The Spoiled Buddha'', which was performed at the Opera House, Belfast, by the Ulster Literary Society. Her ''The Abbe Prevost'' was staged in 1935. Her historical novel ''

Peter Abelard Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This source has a detailed des ...

'' was published in 1933. It was critically well received and became a bestseller. She also wrote many articles for the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

'' and ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'', and did lecturing and broadcasting. Waddell was the assistant editor of ''

The Nineteenth Century ''The Nineteenth Century'' was a British monthly literary magazine founded in 1877 by James Knowles. It is regarded by historians as 'one of the most important and distinguished monthlies of serious thought in the last quarter of the nineteent ...

'' magazine. Among her circle of friends in London, where she was vice-president of the

Irish Literary Society The Irish Literary Society was founded in London in 1892 by William Butler Yeats, T. W. Rolleston ,and Charles Gavan Duffy. Members of the Southwark Irish Literary Club met in Clapham Reform Club and changed the name early in the year. On 13 Febru ...

, were

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

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 ...

Rose Macaulay Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, (1 August 1881 – 30 October 1958) was an English writer, most noted for her award-winning novel '' The Towers of Trebizond'', about a small Anglo-Catholic group crossing Turkey by camel. The story is seen as a spiritu ...

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic ...

and

George William Russell George William Russell (10 April 1867 – 17 July 1935), who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (often written AE or A.E.), was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a centr ...

. Her personal and professional friendship with

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

apparently made the latter's wife suspicious. Although she never married, she had close relationships with several older men, including her publisher, Otto Kyllmann of Constable. Waddell received honorary degrees from Columbia, Belfast, Durham and St. Andrews and won the Benson Medal of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

.Helen Waddell biography
in the ''Dictionary of Ulster Biography'' A serious debilitating neurological disease put an end to her writing career in 1950. She died in London in 1965 and was buried in Magherally churchyard, County Down, Northern Ireland. A prize-winning biography of her by the Benedictine nun

Dame ''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several oth ...

Felicitas Corrigan was published in 1986.

Representative works

Novels

* ''Peter Abelard'' (1933)

Plays

*''The Spoiled Buddha'' (performed 1915; London: T. Fisher Unwin 1919) *''The Abbé Prévost'' (London: Constable 1933).

Other

''Lyrics from the Chinese''
(1913) * ''The Wandering Scholars'' (1927) * ''Medieval Latin Lyrics'' (1929) * ''Beasts and Saints'' (1934) * ''The Desert Fathers'' (1936) * ''For Better Factory Laws'' (1937) Pamphlet * ''Poetry in the Dark Ages'' (1947) "The eighth W.P.Ker Memorial Lecture delivered in the University of Glasgow, 28th October, 1947" (lecture published by Jackson, Son & Company, Publishers to the University, 1948) * ''Stories from Holy Writ'' (1949) * ''More Latin Lyrics: From Virgil to Milton'' (posthumous, edited by Dame Felicitas Corrigan, 1976) * ''Between Two Eternities'' (1993) (posthumous, edited by Dame Felicitas Corrigan.)

References

External links

* Helen Waddell at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biograph

Short biography and "blue plaque"
at the

Ulster History Circle The Ulster History Circle is a heritage organisation that administers Blue Plaques for the area that encompasses the province of Ulster on the island of Ireland. It is a voluntary, not-for-profit organisation, placing commemorative plaques in pub ...

(archived 2011-06-05)
Famous Faces from Belfast
at Belfast Safaris – short biographies of Waddell and others (archived 2006-10-11) * *

at Black Cat Poems
Helen Waddell entry
in the Banbridge District Online by

Banbridge District Council Banbridge District Council was the local authority of Banbridge in Northern Ireland. It was created in 1973 when the Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 came into force. In May 2015, it merged with Armagh City and District ...

Helen Waddell papers
at the Genesis Project in the UK *
Helen Waddell Papers
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Waddell, Helen 1889 births 1965 deaths British medievalists Women medievalists Irish medievalists Women poets from Northern Ireland 20th-century poets from Northern Ireland 20th-century British women writers Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford British women historians