Valentine Ackland

Valentine Ackland, around 1930

Valentine Ackland (born May 20, 1906 in London as Mary Kathleen Valentine Ackland , † November 9, 1969 in Dorset ) was a British poet .

Life

Valentine Ackland, called within the Molly family , came from a wealthy background and discovered her inclination towards her own gender as a teenager. Valentine received extensive training in a convent school and married her childhood friend Richard Turpin. In 1924 she met Bo Foster, the former spokeswoman for the Tory party, who introduced Ackland to the world of modern poetry and became their first steadfast relationship. At the end of 1930, Ackland met the writer Sylvia Townsend Warner at an event by Nancy Cunard and entered into a lesbian love affair , but not monogamous . In 1935, Ackland and Townsend Warner joined the British Communist Party , attended meetings, raised funds and published in left-wing newspapers. The two women traveled to Madrid and Valencia and reported on the Spanish Civil War . In 1952 she opened her own antique shop , which brought her far more success than her other lyrical works, which were only published posthumously - Ackland succumbed to cancer .

Primary literature

1934 Whether a Dove or a Seagull 1957 Twenty-Eight Poems 1970 Later Poems by Valentine Ackland

1973 The Nature of the Moment 1978 Further Poems of Valentine Ackland 1985 For Sylvia: An Honest Account

Secondary literature

• Wendy Mulford: This Narrow Place. Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland: Life, Letter and Politics, 1930–1951. Pandora Press, London et al. 1988, ISBN 0-86358-262-1 .
• Susanna Pinney: I'll stand by you. Selected letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland, with narrative by Sylvia Townsend. Pimlico et al., London 1998, ISBN 0-7126-7371-7 .

Web links

• The Sylvia Townsend Warner Archive - Valentine Ackland (English)
• Valentine Ackland (English)