Estate of Radclyffe Hall

Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall was born in Hampshire in 1883 and was educated at King's College Cambridge, and Germany. She began her literary career by writing verses which were collected into five volumes of poetry. In 1907 she met Mabel Batten, the society hostess, under whose influence she became a devout Catholic. Through her she met Una, Lady Troubridge, who was to become her lifelong companion after Mabel's death in 1916. Radclyffe Hall had seven novels published. The Well of Loneliness, describing the lesbian 'invert' Stephen, was banned on publication in 1928. Two years later she received the Eichelbergher Humane Award. Her other novels were The Forge, The Unlit Lamp, A Saturday Life, Adam's Breed, The Master of the House, and the Sixth Beatitude. Radclyffe Hall died in London in 1943.