West's World: The Extraordinary Life of Dame Rebecca West

by Lorna Gibb

Cicely Fairfield was born in 1892, but as a young woman - and a budding actress - she changed her name to that of the feminist heroine in Ibsen's play, Rosmersholm. A passionate suffragist, socialist (though in later life she was also a passionate supporter of Mrs Thatcher), fiercely intelligent, Rebecca West began her career as a writer with articles in The Freewoman and The Clarion, and published her first book, a biography of Henry James, when she was only twenty-four and her first novel two years later. She had a notorious affair with H.G. Wells, and their illegitimate son, Anthony, was born at the beginning of the First World War. The author of several novels, she is perhaps best remembered for her classic account of pre-war Yugoslavia, Black Lamb, Grey Falcon and for her coverage of the Nuremberg Trials. When she died in 1983, aged 90, William Shawn then editor in chief of The New Yorker said of her: ‘Rebecca West was one of the giants and will have a lasting place in English literature. No one in this century wrote more dazzling prose, or had more wit, or looked at the intricacies of human character and the ways of the world more intelligently.’ Formidably talented and indeed formidable, West was a towering figure in the British literary landscape Lorna Gibb's vivid and insightful biography affords a dazzling insight into her life and work.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, British Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2013

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

REBECCA WHO? WHY SHOULD WE GIVE A MONKEY’S ABOUT THIS DAME?

She wrote one of the great overlooked novels The Fountain Overflows. And she wrote a 1181-page travel/history book on Yugoslavia which inspired this fabulous review from Warwick.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That’s two reasons, but there are more. Her brain was a perpetual motion machine. And she had an interesting life.



AS FOR INSTANCE

Yeah, as for instance, within a couple of months in 1921 she met D H Lawrence AND Charlie Chaplin. Who wanted her to be his little tramp. Anais Nin became a friend and she wanted her to be her little tramp.

And she was in Warren Beattie’s film Reds as one of the talking heads. That was because she was a friend of Emma Goldman, the most famous anarchist before Johnny Rotten.


TAMLA MOTOWN

Everyone’s private life ends up as a Supremes song at some point and for a while hers was You Can’t Hurry Love (“no, you just have to wait”) but then at 19 she wrote a savage review of one of the great H G Wells’ novels (wait – she was a professional book reviewer at the age of 19? Yes!) and he invited her round for tea (this hardly ever happens on Goodreads but those were different times, it was 1912, this was before Elvis). So he was portly and old enough to be her father but suddenly it wasn’t the Supremes it was the Marvelettes:

He flirted every step of the way
I could hear every word he'd say
My resistance was getting low
And my feelings started to show
My heart started thumpin'
Blood pressure jumpin'
He was really saying something
Really saying something
Bop bop shoo be do-wah

So then they had this torrid affair but ain’t life funny, she got pregnant the second time they did it. So she was installed as HG’s second family, much to her mother’s anguish. HG’s wife, though, she didn’t care too much, she was used to it, and her and Rebecca even became sort of friends.

PAPA DON’T PREACH TYPE SITUATION

Rebecca brought up her son Anthony as a single mother with HG putting in an appearance from time to time. . But – well, I have to quote this bit – my jaw did somewhat droop open here.

Rebecca had never acknowledged Anthony, who was now three, as her son, either publically or to the child himself, and he was still calling her Auntie. Wells was adamant that this was wrong and that Rebecca should explain the situation to nurses and servants and allow Anthony to call her mother. The problem with this suggestion was that Wells himself still refused to admit publically that Anthony was his; Anthony was “expressly forbidden to call him father, papa or daddy”.

SUPREMES AGAIN

But HG would only visit Rebecca & son when he felt like it, and as the years rolled on it all got a bit

Why do ya keep a'comin' around playin' with my heart
Why doncha get out of my life and let me make a new start
Let me get over you the way you've gotten over me-hey
Set me free why doncha babe
Get out of my life why doncha babe
Cuz you don't really love me, you just keep me hangin' on

Thing was, like all successful rich guys, HG Wells wanted what he wanted when he wanted it, and didn’t understand why everyone didn’t understand that. It was simple enough, wasn’t it? That woman now, this woman for later on, maybe. But always two women on the go at any one time. But don’t beat up on old HG, they are all like that even when they make an effort to look like they’re not.

SO ANYWAY, WHAT ELSE?

She was born in 1892 and in her mid teens was a fierce suffragette, then a socialist, then an actress, then a journalist. She became one of the great globetrotting journalists, she went everywhere – Jonesboro, Cape Town, Palmyra, Cotton Club, Greenwich Village she churned out essays, reviews, litcrit, novels, stories. She became the writer editors wanted to cover a big trial.
She travelled all over for fun too:

The return trip to Mexico was hard work, unsurprisingly, given that she was now approaching her seventy-seventh birthday.

(But the next year she visited Lebanon. )


UNFORTUNATELY

It turns out this was the wrong biography to read, and there’s a much better one by Carl Rollyson. And as you read this one, you do get this impression that firstly RW was a woman who had a few disastrous affairs, a long semi-disastrous marriage, and the thing with HG Wells which resulted in a life-long psychodrama with her son. The work, according to Lorna Gibb, comes a distant second in interest, it gets a quick mention in passing before we're on to the next emotional calamity. But I wanted to hear about the work too.

LETTERS

It’s clear what people did before television : they wrote letters. If all mention of letters written and received were removed from this book it would be about 43 pages long. I don’t get it – did everyone keep every letter they got? And then lugged the sackfulls from house to house when they moved? Otherwise how do we have all these hundreds from the Rebecca Wests and Virginia Woolves and James Joyces?



And she wore insane hats, if that's what it is

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up a few years back on a whim. It was back when I was very enamored of those emails for Kindle deals, and not just from Amazon. Those whims have bloated my list of on hand but unread books, so that I just wish I wasn't such a slow reader and could get to all of those fabulous books sooner.

Rebecca West lived just a few months beyond her 90th birthday. I could have seen that on her Goodreads profile. This biography tells so much more about this author about whom I knew next to nothing except that I have enjoyed the few novels I've read. First of all, Rebecca West is a pseudonym. The name she chose was taken from Ibsen’s play Rosmersholm. In the play, Rebecca West is the mistress of a married man; it proved to be a prophetic choice. Prophetic, because Cicely Fairfield was not yet the mistress of H.G. Wells, by whom she would have a child in 1914.

When she was born [in 1892], Queen Victoria was on the throne, Einstein had not written the theory of relativity, Tolstoy, Brahms and Oscar Wilde were still alive. Rebecca was the contemporary of D.H. Lawrence, Bernard Shaw, Arnold Bennett, Virginia Woolf, Anais Nin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others. What people she knew and who knew her!

One of the things I learned was that she was as much a journalist and reviewer as a writer of fiction. I had already had on my wish list her A Train of Powder, which includes her reportage on the Nuremburg trials and other crimes, and have added her The New Meaning of Treason, an expanded edition of her work reporting on those who committed that heinous crime, mostly during the cold war.

Rebecca West was a feminist in the very early days when the term was applied mostly to suffragettes. I think she would be considered a feminist still today. Later in her life she railed against the dual standard. In reference to a less than well received report ...

Rebecca thought their criticism was simply because there were different expectations for female journalists. Increasingly she noticed that one thing was good for men, but another for women. She complained to Emanie, ‘If one is a woman writer there are certain things one must do – first, not be too good; second, die young, what an edge Katharine Mansfield has on all of us, third, commit suicide like Virginia Woolf. To go on writing and writing well just can’t be forgiven.’

I'm glad she went on just writing and writing. Maybe not immediately, but I hope over the next several years to indulge myself with more of Rebecca West. I might be feeling generous today, but I'm happy to give this biography 5-stars.

[Jeaninne Escallier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rebecca West was surely ahead of her time, when, in the 1920's, she wrote about and campaigned for women's rights. Her writing catapulted her into the public eye as a suffragist on the tails of Victorian England. Yet, it was her back story that found me totally "gob-smacked." Here was a woman who lived to break the glass ceiling for women over the globe; yet, she managed to have love affairs with married men who would never be her equals. That is to say, she picked men who were emotionally abusive and somewhat cruel. I was extremely saddened by her penchant to be masochistic when it came to love. For a woman who wanted the world to see women as strong, intelligent and capable, she gravitated toward unattainable, controlling and judgmental men who underscored her low self-esteem. Even further, she disrespected the women who were married to her lovers. Lastly, it was the story of her cursed son that affected me the most. Great reporting of a very complicated woman by the author, Lorna Gibb. I appreciate a writer whose prose ebbs and flows with the action of the story. In this age of #MeToo, this is a book not to skip.

[Noits · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather readable biography that allowed for a little more attention to be paid to the very early years, such as her time at The Freewoman, lacking in previous biographies. A few new quotes, some added juicy bits about Charles Fairfield (the revealing of which, at the Biannual 2009 West conference held at UCL, I actually heard first hand) make this a worthwhile read but for readers already familiar with the previous biographies it may seem a little too samey.

Gibbs' empathy with West's personal struggles is obvious in her generous renditioning of her numerous love affairs and her marriage. But I was really hoping for a more nuanced appreciation of West's actual work. Maybe this is am impossible task, given the breadth and scope of West's corpus?

Worth reading, nevertheless.

[Hester · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are wanting a biography that explores Rebecca West the Writing Genius this isn't it . Maybe we'll never know what West and others made of her precocious talent, given that most of the biography appears gleaned from what sounds to have been a mountain of correspondence and where self depreciating modesty would have been the norm . There may be other biographies that dig deeper .

Luckily West had a long life full of dissent , drama and expressed her bold , if sometimes unpopular , beliefs at every opportunity in newspapers and in letters to family and friends . A suffragette thrust into the literary and artistic world after the success of her first novel and into the arms of the womaniser HG Wells she found herself a single mother , juggling career and romance , in a world between the wars.

As a journalist she comes across as outspoken and intelligent , as an essay writer not afraid to say what she sees and to back it up . As a novelist she is a genius . Not a sensationalist she worked hard as a woman in a man's world to have a career against the odds but blighted by a dysfunctional relationship with her son , Anthony , who blamed her alone for all his failings .

She comes across as a hugely dynamic person with boundless curiosity and a sharp intelligence . She is complicated and impossible to categorise holding political views across the spectrum , but anyone who calls her secretary The Keeper of Spare Parts in her old age ( wig , hearing aid , spectacles) gets my vote .

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an author, I absolutely love Rebecca West. As an individual, I find her utterly fascinating. Thus, Lorna Gibb's biography, West's World The Extraordinary Life of Dame Rebecca West held great appeal for me. As Gibb writes, West was a 'towering figure in the British literary landscape', and I wanted to learn more about the woman behind books such as The Return of the Soldier and The Harsh Voice, which I adore.

Born Cicely Fairfield in 1892, the focus of this biography changed her name to Rebecca West after the heroine of a Henrik Ibsen play, Rosmersholm. She did so when she began to write for a suffrage newspaper, and did not want her mother to find out. West's writing career began when she was 'barely out of her teens, as did her notorious affair with H.G. Wells', with whom she had a son, Anthony Panther. The relationship between both West and Wells, and between mother and son, was tumultuous, filled with drama and heartache. Gibb comments that her 'troubles were universal and timeless. The conflicting demands of motherhood and career, the longing for love and companionship tempered by the need for independence, were spelled out in letters and diaries, articles and books, while the world changed, bringing new dilemmas and consequences. Her struggles are as pertinent now as they have always been.'

Perhaps the thing which West is most well-known for is her affair with Wells. She met him after she penned a 'blistering' review of his book, Marriage, in 1912. At this time, the married Wells - who was already involved in a menage á trois with author Elizabeth von Arnim - was 'one of the most successful and famous writers of the day'. The pair soon became firm friends, and their relationship evolved, until West became pregnant at the age of twenty, in 1914. West was sent away, at Wells' insistence, to a secluded seaside home, away from prying eyes, and was only allowed to inform her mother and sister of her pregnancy when Wells gave her 'permission to do so'.

As one might expect from this, Wells treated her awfully, bossing her around, and leaving her alone for large parts of her pregnancy, and for Anthony's childhood. Anthony was not allowed to refer to Wells as his father, and similar rules made by West - he was made to call her 'Auntie Panther' - confused him greatly. Gibb recognises that 'For Rebecca, part of Wells was better than nothing at all. In spite of their deteriorating relationship, and his increasingly bad behaviour, she did not end their almost ten-year affair' - this, despite her knowledge in 1923 that Wells was unfaithful to both herself and his wife.

West travelled extensively, and quickly formed intense relationships with others. She sent Anthony away to boarding school at the age of just five, and spent much of his childhood travelling around, never staying in one place for very long. She also moved in interesting, sometimes Bohemian circles, and boasted a host of famous names amongst her friends - Vera Brittain, Bertrand Russell, D.H. Lawrence, and Anaïs Nin, to name but four.

Gibbs has focused throughout on the way in which West 'engaged passionately with the events of almost a century'. She wrote extensively about periods which affected her, and of her extensive interests. She dealt, says Gibb in her prologue, 'with big topics, many of which still reverberate today, such as the integration of Eastern and Western religious faith, the contradictions of femininity and power, the causes and effects of war. Yet, in her consideration, she did not lose sight of the domestic concerns, those personal and intimate stories taking place against the backdrop of social change and unrest.' West's writing, she continues, 'was the thread that bound together West's public and personal worlds, her political judgements and her private tenderness.' Her politics boomeranged from identifying as a 'passionate suffragist, [and] an ardent socialist' in her earlier years, to a supporter of Margaret Thatcher.

Although her output is incredibly valuable, particularly from an historical perspective, West's real downfall, writes Gibb, was the way in which her work crossed so many different genres. It was this lack of categorisation - of the way in which West could not squeeze into 'those pigeon holes so beloved of the literati' - which 'made her status as author less secure than many of her contemporaries.'

West's World took Gibb eight years to research and write, and her incredible dedication to an author who is not well-known enough for her writing makes itself clear throughout. Gibb has been incredibly thorough here, using a wealth of different sources, but never does her biography feel overdone, or overloaded with information. Never does Gibb make West's life feel melodramatic, as it could so easily have been rendered, given some of the occurrences throughout her life. The chronological ordering has been painstakingly handled, but Gibb does not linger for too long on a single period. There is a definite brevity to be found within West's World.

Gibb's prose is highly compelling, and I liked the way in which she wove West's writing into her own. I also greatly admired Gibb's covering of historical and societal contexts, which she does with a great deal of knowledge. West's World is an excellent, and satisfying, biography, and I very much look forward to reading more of Gibb's work in future.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was horrible. I did not finish it. From the description of the book I expected more about other authors and artists that she was friend to.
It was boring and tedious

[Marianne Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book finished in 2015.... I love Rebecca West. She is one of my all-time favorite authors for her candor, her observation, her dry wit, her understanding of human nature, her sweetness of memory. I had no idea how her personal life was filled with struggle and constant draining of her talents. When I think of what she could have written if she had been surrounded by loving people and a supportive environment, it is painful for me. Her romantic life was a disaster, and not of her doing, men toying with her then chastising her then proclaiming true love. Oy. Just be single, for God's sake. This book didn't talk much about her incredible writing, how she wrote, how her books are viewed today. She was so ahead of her time in her written observations but sadly taxed in her personal relationships. Her relationship with her son was truly a disaster and she never had peace with it, so sad. To think she could have sent him off to be adopted and have been done with it. He comes across as pretty malicious and self-serving, taking out his anger on her in his writing. Oy. Don't have a child that is a writer!

[Lesley]

Curiously lacking in being much about her writing, and much more about the melodrama of her relationships - there's something ironic about the numerous mentions of West's annoyance at the constant reiteration about her that 'and she had a son by HG Wells', in the context of so much focus on her relationship with Wells, with Anthony Panther, and with her husband, not to mention the other affairs.

Also, did not really tell me much I did not know already from having read so much by and about Dame Rebecca. Perhaps that was my problem. I'm not sure I'd pick Rebecca West as my Mastermind special subject, but still.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

West's life was ok and this is an ok biography. It sounds like she was very committed to her work and did some fantastic reporting and wrote some decent novels. Her personal life was kind of petty like all of ours are, and the biographer didn't make much art of it, presenting squabbles and disappointments and love affairs and health problems pretty matter-of-factly. I enjoyed reading it because I am curious about women writers right now. To get a sense of her work am going to tackle one of her books next, "Train of Powder." It's already overdue as of tomorrow, but as The Bammer says "I don't borrow, I lease. I like there to be a public record of me stealing something."

[Luann Ritsema · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable, but so little about the writing. Ok, but lacked much depth of insight,

[Juliana · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 stars

[Mary Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A personal life

Felt like I truly experienced West's life joys and anguished as I read. The author's provides deep insights to her relationships and her works.

[Cathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping to learn more about her writing since I have never read her. Her love life took the spotlight instead. It was a slow and tedious read.

[Historygirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book, because I was entranced with West’s fiction trilogy The Saga of the Century: The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund and interested in her controversial role as a public intellectual.

The author, Lorna Gibb, makes extensive use of West’s letters and other documents, but the personality of her subject escapes her. West is buried in a wealth of detail. Gibbs does little to analyze the politics of the day, which is probably wise given the time frame and complexities of the 1910s through 1950s. The section on West’s suffragism in her early career is excellent. At the end of her career Gibbs notes when West’s anti-Communism becomes so virulent that it alienates even those who agree with her. On the other hand, Gibb makes an error describing Emma Goldman who had been an anarchist for decades when she was deported from the U.S. to the U.S.S.R. She did not become an anarchist when she became disillusioned with Communism.

West’s private life, so scandalous at the time, seems relatively mild in Gibb’s account. What strikes the reader is how consistently she accepted exploitative relationship with selfish or damaged men. Her relationship with her son, Anthony, is tragic.

The book is an easy read and can be a good starting place with a few cautions on the historical details.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" and thinking that the writer seemed like a real bitch. I was right! Still, this is a great overview of West's writing, and her letters provide a look into her emotional responses to people and events.

[Jeanette Jansons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Falls into the common trap of emphasizing a talented woman's personal relationships over her work. (And Rebecca was all about her work.)

I will be hunting up the Victoria Glendinning biography to offer greater perspective

[Christine Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost four stars for its readability. It ticks along nicely for a biography though I’m afraid I couldn’t warm to the subject as interesting and talented as she was.

[Dewayne Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

How she was able to write with all the turmoil in her life is amazing

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book by circuitous path. I ran across an article about the author online, was impressed and decided to read Black Lamb, Grey Falcon. I am still reading that book, love it, but halfway through realized that I might have a better understanding of I knew more about the author. At that point, I heard a radio show about Lorna Gibb's biography on NPR. I was not disappointed and a lot of my questions about the author were answered.
Dame Rebecca West led a life full of adventure, travel and great accomplishments both as a journalist and as a novelist but she did not have a very happy life and certainly not tranquil. I enjoy her work but I don't think I would have enjoyed taking tea or going to the theater with her.
Good book. Four stars because it was well written, informative and just what I needed.

[Alison Lauderdale · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book did not make me like Rebecca West. I would have liked to know more about her work rather than her love life, which frankly made me sorry for her son Anthony, despite the author treating him as a pestilent thorn in his mother's side. As they say, you can't do everything well...not sure what Ms. West did, besides being another woman born at the wrong time...

[False · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty sure I've read this before. One of the most interesting women of our time. She withstood the conventions of her time--the mistress (and virginal) of H.G. Wells. She bore him a son. She had a career. She dealt with weak-kneed lovers and an unfaithful husband, a hateful son and suicidal grandchildren. Her writing remains vital.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me want to reread "Black Lamb..."

[Anna Kraxner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book allows the reader to peer into the life and persona of Rebecca West, a writer, feminist and prolific correspondent. I was particularly struck by her prescience about the changing profile of women into the 20th Century; "People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." Rebecca's personal life is related in detail, including her affairs and, in particular, her life-long relationship with H.G. Wells who fathered her only child. The long list of celebrities she counted among her friends includes Charlie Chaplin, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, Oscar Wilde, and many of the preeminent writers and artists of the 1920s to 1950s. West was, indeed, extraordinary, and Lorna Gibb draws a fascinating and compelling portrait well worth reading for the story of a fiercely independent, very talented woman who chose to live outside the mores of society. My son introduced me to West's writing. When I discovered Lorna Gibbs account of West's life, I gave a copy to him on the condition that I would read it first. When I passed it along, he gave me a copy of West's most well-known work, "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon; A Journey Through Yugoslavia," a brilliant, insightful account of "the troubled history of the Balkans."