339
away leaflets on Proportional Representation. In spite of these
distractions I have been working quite hard.
West became famous both for her writing and for the iconoclastic
way she led her life. First, there was her witty, trenchant take on femi–
nism that also had an admirable sensible side; next came her love affair
with fellow author H. G. Wells that produced her only child, Anthony
West, who himself became a writer. Added
to
these was her ability to
work in a number of different genres-fiction, reportage, travel writing
(in the widest sense), criticism, and political journalism-some of
which, especially at the start of her career, were more generally associ–
ated with male sensibilities.
She had early struck a blow for iconoclasm with her choice of nom
de plume. Born Cicely Isabel Fairchild in London in
I892,
she changed
her name to Rebecca West after the rebellious heroine of Henrik Ibsen's
play
Rosmersholm.
As for the iconoclastic nature of her personal life, it pretty much
rested on her relationship with Wells. They met in a characteristically
unconventional manner. Wells had been a favorite target of West's crit–
ical writing, and in a
I9II
review of his novel
Marriage,
she wrote that
his mannerisms were "more infuriating than ever," adding: "Of course,
he is the old maid among novelists."
Wells so enjoyed the review that he invited West to lunch with him
and his wife. Several years later, the two writers became lovers and their
clandestine relationship lasted for ten years. West's unplanned preg–
nancy produced Anthony, who would go on years later
to
caricature his
famous parents in a novel titled
Heritage.
Its publication whipped West
into a frenzy of anger and hurt feelings, duly captured in a number of
longer letters here.
Which brings us
to
the other side of West's life that the letters reveal,
one that may come as a surprise
to
those who know the writer only
through her work or via descriptions of her imperious manner. (Not for
nothing was she made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British
Empire.)
In spite of all the evidence here of a masterly literary style and a com–
mand of multiple genres, West's personal life appears
to
have been a
mess-she herself admitted she had never been successful in her choice
of lovers . Her strength seems everywhere to have been matched by an
extreme sensitivity to slights, both social and literary, which is particu–
larly odd in someone so bent on fiercely stating her opinions.
