Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1931-33. (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
4 l.; 23 cm.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Henry Handel Richardson, pseudonym for Ethel Florence Lindesay Robertson, was born in Melbourne in 1870, the daughter of English migrants. In her major work, the trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, she draws heavily on autobiographical family experience and her childhood environment. From 1883 to 1887 she attended the Presbyterian Ladies College, Melbourne, and used aspects of this experience in her novel The Getting of Wisdom (1910). In 1888 her mother took her to Europe where she trained as a concert pianist, discovered European literature and thought, and met her future husband, J.G. Robertson, a doctoral student of German literature. They were married in 1895 and after some years in Strasbourg, moved to England where Robertson was appointed to the Chair of German Literature at the University of London. Richardson's most significant supporter was her husband who made it possible for her to devote her life almost entirely to writing. After the 'Mahony' trilogy followed The Young Cosima and a collection of stories. She also kept up an extensive correspondence with friends and other literati, but did not disclose her gender to some of her correspondents. After her husband's death in 1933, she moved to Sussex with her secretary and companion Olga Roncoroni. She died in 1946, and her unfinished autobiography Myself When Young was published posthumously.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Letter 1 Apr 1931 to Mr. [R.J.] Foster thanking him for a copy of an article by his sister published in 'Desiderata.' Letters (2): 27 Apr 1931 to Irene Foster thanking her for her article on 'The fortunes of Richard Mahony', with some discussion of it and 2 Sep 1933 acknowledging a letter of condolence on the death of her husband.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
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Notes area
Note
Handwritten.
Photocopies of originals.
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Richardson, Henry Handel, 1870-1946 (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Migrated
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.