Ethel Sidgwick (20 December 1877 – 29 April 1970) was a British novelist, poet, playwright, translator, biographer and peace activist. Sidgwick wrote over twenty plays, novels, stories, and nonfiction books during her lifetime.
Personal life Sidgwick was born on 20 December 1877 in Rugby to Arthur Sidgwick and Charlotte Sophia Wilson. Arthur Sidgwick was an educational reformer and suffragist who worked for Oxford's Association for the Education of Women.
She was the second oldest of five siblings: Rose Sidgwick (1877-1918), a professor; Frank Sidgwick (1879-1939), a publisher and poet; Margaret Sidgwick (1881-1948); and Hugh Sidgwick (1882-1917), scholar and Royal Garrison Artillery captain.Tom Patterson. Arthur Hugh Sidgwick: A biography (2017) Ethel Sidgwick was born 11 months after Rose Sidgwick.
Sidgwick was also the niece of physics and psychical researcher and principal of Newnham College Eleanor Sidgwick, and feminist philosopher and co-founder of Newnham College Henry Sidgwick.
Sidgwick completed her education at Oxford High School.
Writing career Sidgwick worked as teacher and writer.
In 1909, Sidgwick published "Thackeray's Rose and the Ring, Dramatised in two acts" in the play anthology Plays for Schools. The play was her first of many for a child audience. Sidgwick published this play and many of her other works through her brother Frank Sidgwick's publishing house Sidgwick & Jackson.
In 1910, Sidgwick wrote her first novel Promise. Promise is about Antoine, a "young musical genius, half English, half French" who is considered a 'child of promise,' and his older brother, Philip. Sidgwick followed up the novel with a sequel, Succession: A Comedy of the Generations in 1913.
Sidgwick also worked as a translator, translating A History of the French People in 1923.
Her last book was a biography of Eleanor Sidgwick, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick: A Memoir, in 1938. Sidgwick died on April 29, 1970. She never married.
Reception Reginald Brimley Johnson in his Some Contemporary Novelists (Women) described Sidgwick's writing style.
Dr. Sarah Londsdale wrote for The Neglected Books Page that "Ethel Sidgwick makes great demands of her readers. Her meaning is like a will o’ the wisp, darting in the darkness of her elliptical prose. She is always several paces ahead of the reader, who feels as if they are dully plodding behind, in danger of losing their way completely."
Selected works
Thackeray's Rose and the Ring, Dramatised in two acts (1909) Promise (1910). Le Gentleman: An Idyll of the Quarter (1911). Herself (1912). Succession; a comedy of the generations (1913). Four Plays for Children: The Rose and the Ring, the Goody-Witch, the Goosegirl, Boots and the North Wind (1913). A Lady of Leisure (1914). Duke Jones (1914). The Accolade (1915). Hatchways (1916). Jamesie (1918). Madam (1921). Two plays for schools: The three golden hairs, The robber bridegroom (1922). The three golden hairs: (more plays for children) (1922). Restoration: the fairy-tale of a farm (1923). Laura, a cautionary story (1924). When I grow rich (1928). The bells of Shoreditch (1928). A tale of two villages (1931). Dorothy's wedding: a tale of two villages (1931). Mrs. Henry Sidgwick: a memoir (1938).
Further reading
References
External links Library of Congress: Sidgwick, Ethel, 1877-1970 (no00093744) ORLANDO Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present: Ethel Sidgwick