The Good Bohemian: The Letters of Ida John

by Michael Holroyd, Rebecca John

Captivatingly fresh and intimate letters from Augustus John's first wife, Ida, reveal the untold story of married life with one of the great artists of the last century.

Twelve days before her twenty-fourth birthday, on the foggy morning of Saturday 12 January 1901, Ida Nettleship married Augustus John in a private ceremony at St Pancras Registry Office. The union went against the wishes of Ida's parents, who aspired to an altogether more conventional match for their eldest daughter. But Ida was in love with Augustus, a man of exceptional magnetism also studying at the Slade, and who would become one of the most famous artists of his time.

Ida's letters to friends, to family and to Augustus reveal a young woman of passion, intensity and wit. They tell of the scandal she brought on the Nettleship family and its consquences; of hurt and betrayal as the marriage evolved into a three-way affair when Augustus fell in love with another woman, Dorelia; of Ida's remarkable acceptance of Dorelia, their pregnancies and shared domesticity; of self-doubt, happiness and despair; and of finding the strength and courage to compromise and navigate her unorthodox marriage.

Ida is a naturally gifted writer, and it is with a candour, intimacy and social intelligence extraordinary for a woman of her period that her correspondence opens up her world. Ida John died aged just thirty of puerperal fever following the birth of her fifth son, but in these vivid, funny and sometimes devastatingly sad letters she is startlingly alive on the page; a young woman ahead of her time almost of our own time living a complex and compelling drama here revealed for the first time by the woman at its very heart.

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Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

352 pages, Hardcover

Published November 7, 2017

About the author

Michael Holroyd is the author of acclaimed biographies of George Bernard Shaw, the painter Augustus John, Lytton Strachey, and Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, as well as two memoirs, Basil Street Blues and Mosaic. Knighted for his services to literature, he is the president emeritus of the Royal Society of Literature and the only nonfiction writer to have been awarded the David Cohen British Prize for Literature. His previous book, A Strange Eventful History, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 2009. He lives in London with his wife, the novelist Margaret Drabble.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/michae...

Reviews

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I thought, in that I was rushing to finish it, because I had bought a pile of new books I was dying to start, but as soon as I started a new book, I found myself missing Ida John's voice and world. Her life was short, as are most of her letters, dying at thirty after giving birth to her fifth son. No woman I know would have chosen her life no matter how stoutly Ida defended it and how loudly she declared herself to be happy. A hugely promising artist, she gave it all up for the love of painter August John, whom she married, and stood by when he took another lover, thereby setting themselves up as a ménage a trois household before Ida moves them all to Paris, herself and mistress, her children and her children all fathered by John. Ida worries about her husband's creativity and moves them away to give him space. He stays behind in England, making a visit every few weeks. Her later letters revolve heavily around babies, housework, servants and only infrequently does she admit to her struggles with jealously. I will admit I could have done without the early letters, her tone irritated me though I know it was just her youth. After her first baby, I couldn't understand how she never alluded to her own art or the need to do it ... though maybe that is what she kept private.

Her letters have prompted me to get Sue Roe's biography of Gwen John (painter's sister) and Michael Holroyd's biography of Augustus ... because right now I cheerfully hate him but would be interested in learning more about him, to see if that's fair.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been interested in the life & works of the John family (Augustus & his sister Gwen) ever since I saw a sketch by Augustus hanging in the corridor of my old Politics department at Swansea back in the early 90s.
This is a book of letters written by his wife Ida. Originally she was an artist in her own right (she studied at the Slade school of art) - and it seems such a shame that she became a housewife of a man that was often both absent & unfaithful.
Things come to a head when Augusta & Ida enter into a ménage a trois with one of his models, Dorelia. Now it might be easy to think that Ida was being emotionally bullied by her husband into accepting this arrangement. However from the letters it’s clear the two women did - for a time at least - share a bond. They even went off to live in France together.
Sadly Ida’s life was cut short when she died soon after giving birth to her fifth child...she was only in her early 30s. The book gave me an new perspective on this group of people. It’s also nice to see Ida commemorated in this way, not seen simply as the wife of Augustus John & the sister in law of Gwen.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began this book knowing very little about the artist Augustus John and virtually nothing about his wife, Ida. By the end of this book I knew a little bit more about Augustus, his wife, and others, through the words of Ida herself and her granddaughter who compiled the letters and provided some necessary supplemental information. I have to take Ida's letters with a grain of salt though, because even she may not have been speaking (or writing) the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, to her family and friends. That's just the way people are. They spin their stories as they see fit at the time. The only truth to come out of this whole thing is that a young mother of five sons died unexpectedly and the lives of everyone concerned were played out in her absence and without the influence of what appears to be a very good, kind, and caring person.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I didn’t enjoy this book but in the end I was sad about her life and experience and she felt so genuinely needy. The letter format was also less engaging than I expected but it has stayed with me and I think it provided an amazing insight to life as a woman at that time.

[Diana Ashworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad but well researched biography of Ida John (1877-1907), wife of Augustus John (1897-1961). Early hippy casualty -- no good came of it.