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Edith Mary Oldham Ellis (née Lees; 9 March 1861 – 14 September 1916) was an English writer and
Ellis had a nervous breakdown in March 1916 and died of
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...
activist. She was married to the early sexologist Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, Progressivism, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on h ...
.
Biography
Ellis was born on 9 March 1861 in Newton,Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
. She was the only child of Samuel Oldham Lees, a landowner, and his wife Mary Laetitia, née Bancroft. She was born prematurely after her mother sustained a head injury during pregnancy and she died when Ellis was an infant. In December 1868, her father married Margaret Ann (Minnie) Faulkner and in time she had a younger half-brother. She did not get on well with her father or his new wife. She was educated at a convent school in 1873 until her father realised that she was taking a strong interest in the Catholic faith. She was removed from the school and sent to another.
She joined the Fellowship of the New Life and she briefly worked with Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...
when they both served as secretaries to the Fellowship. She met Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, Progressivism, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on h ...
at a meeting in 1887. The couple married in November 1891.
From the beginning, their marriage was unconventional; she was openly lesbian
A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
and at the end of the honeymoon
A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds after their wedding to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase in a couple ...
Ellis went back to his bachelor rooms. She had several affairs with women, which her husband was aware of. Their open marriage was the central subject in Havelock Ellis's autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...
, ''My Life'' (1939).
Her first novel, ''Seaweed: A Cornish Idyll'', was published in 1898. Around this time Edith began a relationship with Lily Kirkpatrick, an Irish artist based in St Ives; Kirkpatrick died in June 1903.
Ellis had a nervous breakdown in March 1916 and died of diabetes
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
that September. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and is one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £136,000 in 2021), ...
. ''James Hinton: a Sketch'', her biography of surgeon James Hinton, was published posthumously in 1918.
Works
* * ''My Cornish Neighbours'' (1906) * ''Kit's Woman'' (U.S. title: ''Steve's Woman'') (1907) * ''The Subjection of Kezia'' (1908) * ''Attainment'' (1909) * '' Three Modern Seers'' (1910) * ''The Imperishable Wing'' (1911) * ''The Lover's Calendar: An Anthology'' (ed) (1912) * ''Love-Acre'' (1914) * ''Love in Danger'' (1915) * '' The Mothers'' (1915) * * ''The New Horizon in Love and Life'' (1921)References
Further reading
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Edith 1861 births 1916 deaths 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English writers 19th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English novelists English women's rights activists English feminists English non-fiction writers English women novelists Lesbian feminists British lesbian writers Victorian novelists Members of the Women Writers' Suffrage League