What’s in a name?

What’s in a name?

I began writing letters to Mary Stella Edwards two months into my research at the Ackland and Edwards archive. It felt awkward to be reading her letters and journals and I wanted to assure her that I respect her work and want to present it as she would wish. These...
Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

St Brannock’s church in Braunton, North Devon, was once a place of pilgrimage, rather like Canterbury Cathedral though obviously on a much smaller scale. It was a place of pilgrimage too for Mary Stella Edwards and Judith Ackland in June 1922 – but they were...
But would I were the sea…

But would I were the sea…

In the previous blogpost I mentioned that Mary Stella Edwards carried a copy of Edward Carpenter’s book Towards Democracy in her pocket for most of 1920. This is also the year that she wrote more published poems than in any other year of her life. “What a...
Reading, freedom and democracy 

Reading, freedom and democracy 

Every year, Mary Stella Edwards listed all the books she had read in the last 12 months in her journal. For example, in 1918 alone Mary Stella Edwards read at least 84 books. I write ‘at least’ because Edwards only included the books that she read from...
The Dancing Star

The Dancing Star

Mary Stella Edwards’ poetry changed in the mid to late 1920s – just at the time her first book of poetry was published by The Hogarth Press. The other-worldly connection to the natural world remained (see previous blogpost) but her focus was different. On the face of...