West, Dame Rebecca

West, Dame Rebecca
orig. Cicily Isabel Fairfield

born Dec. 21, 1892, London, Eng.
died March 15, 1983, London

British journalist, novelist, and critic.

Trained as an actress, from 1911 West contributed to the left-wing press and made a name as a fighter for woman suffrage. She had a 10-year love affair (1913–23) with the novelist H.G. Wells. Her novels, including The Judge (1922), The Thinking Reed (1936), and The Birds Fall Down (1966), attracted less attention than her social and cultural writings. Her admired reports on the Nürnberg trials were collected in A Train of Powder (1955). Her history of Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1942), is regarded as one of the century's finest nonfiction works. In 1946 she reported on the trial for treason of William Joyce, articles that were later published as The Meaning of Treason (1949).

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▪ British writer
pseudonym of  Cicily Isabel Andrews , née  Fairfield 
born Dec. 21, 1892, London, Eng.
died March 15, 1983, London
 British journalist, novelist, and critic, who was perhaps best known for her reports on the Nürnberg trials of war criminals (1945–46).

      West was the daughter of an army officer and was educated in Edinburgh after her father's death in 1902. She later trained in London as an actress (taking her pseudonym from a role that she had played in Henrik Ibsen's play Rosmersholm).

      From 1911 West became involved in journalism, contributing frequently to the left-wing press and making a name for herself as a fighter for woman suffrage. In 1916 she published a critical biography of Henry James that revealed something of her lively intellectual curiosity, and she then embarked on a career as a novelist with an outstanding—and Jamesian—novel, The Return of the Soldier (1918). Describing the return of a shell-shocked soldier from World War I, the novel subtly explores questions of gender and class, identity and memory. Her other novels include The Judge (1922), Harriet Hume (1929), The Thinking Reed (1936), The Fountain Overflows (1957), and The Birds Fall Down (1966). In 1937 West visited Yugoslavia and later wrote Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, 2 vol. (1942), an examination of Balkan politics, culture, and history. In 1946 she reported on the trial for treason of William Joyce (Joyce, William) (“Lord Haw-Haw”) for The New Yorker magazine. Published as The Meaning of Treason (1949; rev. ed., 1965), it examined not only the traitor's role in modern society but also that of the intellectual and of the scientist. Later she published a similar collection, The New Meaning of Treason (1964). Her brilliant reports on the Nürnberg trials were collected in A Train of Powder (1955). West was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1959. During West's lifetime, her novels attracted much less attention than did her social and cultural writings, but, at the end of the 20th century, feminist critics argued persuasively that her fiction was formally as inventive as that of her female modernist contemporaries.

      Rebecca West: A Celebration, a selection of her works, was published in 1977, and her personal reflection on the turn of the 20th century, 1900, was published in 1982. Selected Letters of Rebecca West, edited by Bonnie Kime Scott, was published in 2000. The critic and author Anthony West was the son of Dame Rebecca and the English novelist H.G. Wells (Wells, H.G.).

Additional Reading
Victoria Glendinning, Rebecca West: A Life (1987, reissued 1998); and Carl E. Rollyson, Rebecca West: A Saga of the Century (1995, reissued 2000), are biographies. West is placed alongside other female modernist writers in Bonnie Kime Scott, Refiguring Modernism, 2 vol. (1995). Bernard Schweizer (ed.), Rebecca West Today (2006), considers the author in a contemporary light.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • West,Dame Rebecca — West, Dame Rebecca. Pen name of Cicily Isabel Fairfield Andrews. 1892 1983. British writer and critic whose works include psychological novels, such as The Judge (1922), critical studies, as of Henry James (1916), a historical study of Yugoslavia …   Universalium

  • West, Dame Rebecca — orig. Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 dic. 1892, Londres, Inglaterra–15 mar. 1983, Londres). Periodista, novelista y crítica británica. Formada como actriz, West contribuyó a partir de 1911 en la prensa de izquierda y alcanzó notoriedad como… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Dame Rebecca West — noun British writer (born in Ireland) (1892 1983) • Syn: ↑West, ↑Rebecca West, ↑Cicily Isabel Fairfield • Instance Hypernyms: ↑writer, ↑author …   Useful english dictionary

  • West — /west/, n. 1. Benjamin, 1738 1820, U.S. painter, in England after 1763. 2. Mae, 1892? 1980, U.S. actress. 3. Nathanael (Nathan Wallenstein Weinstein), 1902? 40, U.S. novelist. 4. Paul, born 1930, U.S. poet, essayist, and novelist, born in England …   Universalium

  • west — /west/, n. 1. a cardinal point of the compass, 90° to the left when facing north, corresponding to the point where the sun is seen to set. Abbr.: W 2. the direction in which this point lies. 3. (usually cap.) a region or territory situated in… …   Universalium

  • West — West, Morris * * * (as used in expressions) West Point Bandaranaike, S(olomon) W(est) R(idgeway) D(ias) De La Warr, Thomas West, 12° barón Key West North West Co. Sackville West, Vita Victoria Mary Sackville West SWAPO sigla de South West Africa… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Rebecca West — Pour les articles homonymes, voir West. Rebecca West. Dame Rebecca West, DBE (21 décembre, 1892–15 mars, 1983), dont …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Rebecca West — noun British writer (born in Ireland) (1892 1983) • Syn: ↑West, ↑Dame Rebecca West, ↑Cicily Isabel Fairfield • Instance Hypernyms: ↑writer, ↑author * * * Rebecca …   Useful english dictionary

  • dame — /daym/, n. 1. (cap.) (in Britain) a. the official title of a female member of the Order of the British Empire, equivalent to that of a knight. b. the official title of the wife of a knight or baronet. 2. (formerly) a form of address to any woman… …   Universalium

  • Dame — (as used in expressions) Andrews, Dame Julie Ashcroft, Dame Peggy Christie, Dame Agatha (Mary Clarissa) Compton Burnett, Dame Ivy Cooper, Dame Gladys De Valois, Dame Ninette Dench, Dame Judi(th Olivia) Evans, Dame Edith (Mary) Fields, Dame Gracie …   Enciclopedia Universal

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