Dorothy Richardson (17 May, 1873 – 17 June 1957) was an English author. Ms. Richardson was an influential writer whose stream-of-consciousness style has influenced such luminaries as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Richardson’s work validated and focused the female experiences as subjects for literature.
- Even though she’s not popular today, during her lifetime Richardson was widely read and discussed.
- Richardson’s father was a grocer who went bankrupt, her mother was severely depressed and Richardson devoted herself to caring for her. One day in 1895, while Richardson was taking a walk, her mother committed suicide.
- Richardson was highly educated and held jobs as a teacher in Germany, London and as a governess.
- Insisting on being independent, Richardson worked as a dental assistant while writing essays and reviews.
- In the early 1900’s Richardson met a husband of an old friend, author H.G. Wells. The couple had an affair and Richardson was impregnated with Wells’ child. Richardson broke up her relationship with Wells so she could raise the child herself, however she miscarried.
- While writing a monthly column for The Dental Record, Richardson was working on her stream-of-consciousness novel, Pilgrimmage.
- Pilgrimmage, which followed the life of a young woman, was 12 volumes long.
- In 1917 Richardson married artist Alan Odle whom she supported until his death.
- Richardson never liked the term stream-of-consciousness and preferred internal-monologue.
- Virginia Woolf said that Richardson “has invented, or, if she has not invented, developed and applied to her own uses, a sentence which we might call the psychological sentence of the feminine gender”.
Zohar – Man of la Book
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