Edith Somerville

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Edith Œnone Somerville
Somerville atop her horse Tarbush
Somerville atop her horse Tarbush
Born(1858-05-02)2 May 1858
Corfu, United States of the Ionian Islands
(part of modern Greece)
Died8 October 1949(1949-10-08) (aged 91)
Castletownshend, County Cork, Republic of Ireland
Pen nameGeilles Herring
Occupationwriter
LanguageEnglish
Alma materSouth Kensington School of Art
Royal Westminster School of Art
Period1889–1949
Notable worksThe Real Charlotte, The Irish R.M.
RelativesHenry Boyle Townshend Somerville (brother)
Violet Florence Martin (cousin)
Signature
File:Somerville Signature.jpg

Edith Anna Œnone Somerville[needs IPA] (2 May 1858 – 8 October 1949) was an Irish novelist who habitually signed herself as "E. Œ. Somerville". She wrote in collaboration with her cousin "Martin Ross" (Violet Martin) under the pseudonym "Somerville and Ross". Together they published a series of fourteen stories and novels, the most popular of which were The Real Charlotte, published in 1894, and Some Experiences of an Irish R. M., published in 1899.

Early life and education

File:All on the Irish shore - Irish sketches (1910) (14776964144).jpg
An illustration by Somerville in All on the Irish Shore

The eldest of eight children, Somerville was born on the island of Corfu, then part of the United States of the Ionian Islands, a British protectorate where her father was stationed.[1] A year later, her father retired to Drishane, Castletownshend, County Cork, where Somerville grew up. Somerville is said to have dominated her sister and brothers in a family where women were encouraged to be bold.[2] She received her primary education at home, and then attended Alexandra College in Dublin. In 1884 she went to Paris for the first of several trips to study art at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Delécluse,[3] and then spent a term at the Westminster School of Art in Dean's Yard, Westminster. At home, riding and painting were her absorbing interests.[1]

Career

Somerville was a devoted sportswoman who, in 1903, had become master of the West Carbery Foxhounds. She was also active in the suffragist movement, corresponding with Dame Ethel Smyth.[4] She was in London still recovering from the shock of Violet's death when the Easter Rising of 1916 broke out. On 9 May, she wrote a letter to The Times, blaming the British government for the state of affairs in Ireland.[5] After that, she tended towards Nationalism, and as an adept musician at parties, she specialised in Irish tunes and Nationalist songs.[6] She had exhibitions of her pictures in Dublin and in London between 1920 and 1938, and was active as an illustrator of sporting picture books and children's picture books, including that of Ethel Penrose, another cousin.[7] In 1936, her brother Henry Boyle Townsend Somerville, a retired Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy, was killed by the IRA at the family home in Castletownshend. She finished his book "Will Mariner" after his death.[8]

Death and legacy

She died at Castletownshend in October 1949, aged 91, and is buried alongside Violet Florence Martin at Saint Barrahane's Church, Castletownsend with a joint memorial to them both.[2][9][10] A considerable archival legacy remains both at Castletownsend and in Trinity College Library. The Irish RM books were made into a TV series in 1983.[11] Edith-a novel, based on her life in the period 1921–22, by Martina Devlin, was published in 2022.[12]

Bibliography

Collaborative novels

  • An Irish Cousin (1889)
  • Naboth's Vineyard (1891)
  • In the Vine Country (1893) nonfiction
  • Through Connemara in a Governess Cart (1893)
  • The Real Charlotte (1894)
  • Beggars on Horseback (1895)
  • The Silver Fox (1897)
  • Some Experiences of an Irish R. M. (1899)
  • A Patrick's Day Hunt (1902)
  • All on the Irish Shore (1903)
  • Some Irish Yesterdays (1906)
  • Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1908)
  • Dan Russell the Fox (1911)
  • In Mr Knox's Country (1915)

Solo novels

  • Irish Memories (1917)
  • Mount Music (1919)
  • An Enthusiast (1921)
  • The Big House of Inver (1925)
  • The States through Irish Eyes (1930)
  • An Incorruptible Irishman (1932)
  • The Smile and the Tear (1933)
  • The Sweet Cry of Hounds (1936)
  • Sarah's Youth (1938)
  • Maria and Some Other Dogs (1949)

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Boylan (1998)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gifford Lewis, ‘Somerville, Edith Anna Œnone (1858–1949)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 accessed 21 Aug 2017
  3. ↑ O'Sullivan, Keith, and Pádraic Whyte, eds. Children's Literature Collections: Approaches to Research, p. 187.
  4. ↑ Gifford (1887)
  5. ↑ Gifford (1887) p. 160
  6. ↑ Gifford (1887) p. 165
  7. ↑ Lewis, Gifford (2005). Edith Somerville a biography. Dublin: Four Courts Press. p. 154. ISBN 1-85182-863-X.
  8. ↑ "Henry Boyle Townshend Somerville". www.dib.ie. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  9. ↑ Hutchison, Sam. The Light of Other Days: a selection of monuments, mausoleums and memorials in Church of Ireland churches and graveyards and those whom they commemorate. pp. 87–89.
  10. ↑ Ellis, Jacky. "Edith Somerville memorial plaque in the Church of Saint Barrahane at Castletownshend Stock Photo - Alamy". Alamy. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  11. ↑ "The Irish RM". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  12. ↑ "Edith by Martina Devlin: Somerville and loss". www.irishtimes.com. Retrieved 9 June 2022.

Sources

  • Lewis, Gifford (1987). Somerville and Ross: The World of the Irish RM. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-008262-X.
  • Boylan, Henry (1998). A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan. p. 406. ISBN 0-7171-2945-4.

External links

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