May Sinclair | |
|---|---|
 May Sinclair c. 1912 | |
| Born | Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863-08-24)24 August 1863 Rock Ferry,Cheshire, England |
| Died | 14 November 1946(1946-11-14) (aged 83) Bierton,Buckinghamshire, England |
| Occupation | Novelist and poet |
| Nationality | British |
May Sinclair was thepseudonym ofMary Amelia St. Clair (24 August 1863 – 14 November 1946), a British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry.[1] She was an activesuffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. She once dressed up as a demure, rebelJane Austen for a suffrage fundraising event.[2] Sinclair was also a significant critic in the area ofmodernist poetry andprose, and she is attributed with first using the term'stream of consciousness' in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes ofDorothy Richardson'snovel sequencePilgrimage (1915–1967), inThe Egoist, April 1918.
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Sinclair was born inRock Ferry,Cheshire.[3] Her mother, Amelia Sinclair, was strict and religious; her father, William Sinclair, was aLiverpool shipowner, who went bankrupt when Sinclair was seven years old and became an alcoholic.[3] Her parents separated and Sinclair lived with her mother, moving around and relying on the help of relatives.[3] At 18 years old, Sinclair was enrolled atCheltenham Ladies College, but her mother took her out after one year.[3] She became obliged to look after her brothers, as four of the five, all older than she, were suffering from fatal congenital heart disease.[4]
From 1896 Sinclair wrote professionally to support herself and her mother, who died in 1901. An active feminist, Sinclair treated a number of themes relating to the position of women and marriage.[5] Her works sold well in theUnited States.
Sinclair's suffrage activities were remembered bySylvia Pankhurst. Photographs (as "Mary Sinclair" show her around the WSPU offices inKensington. In 1912 theWomen Writers' Suffrage League published her ideas on feminism. Here she de-bunked theories put forward by SirAlmroth Wright that the suffragists were powered by their sexual frustration because of the shortage of men. She said that suffrage and the class struggle were similar aspirations and the working woman should not be in competition with the ambitions of the male working class.[6]
Around 1913, she was a founding supporter of the Medico-Psychological Clinic in London which was run by DrJessie Murray.[6] Sinclair became interested inpsychoanalytic thought, and introduced matter related toSigmund Freud's teaching in her novels.[5] In 1914, she volunteered to join theMunro Ambulance Corps, a charitable organization (which includedLady Dorothie Feilding,Elsie Knocker andMairi Chisholm) that aided woundedBelgian soldiers on theWestern Front inFlanders. She was sent home after only a few weeks at the front; she wrote about the experience in both prose and poetry.
Her 1913 novelThe Combined Maze, the story of a London clerk and the two women he loves, was highly praised by critics, includingGeorge Orwell, whileAgatha Christie considered it one of the greatest English novels of its time.
She wrote early criticism onImagism and the poetH. D. (1915 inThe Egoist); she was on social terms with H. D. (Hilda Doolittle),Richard Aldington andEzra Pound at the time. She also reviewed in a positive light the poetry ofT. S. Eliot (1917 in theLittle Review) and the fiction ofDorothy Richardson (1918 inThe Egoist). Some aspects of Sinclair's subsequent novels have been traced as influenced by modernist techniques, particularly in the autobiographicalMary Olivier: A Life (1919). She was included in the 1925Contact Collection of Contemporary Writers.
Sinclair wrote two volumes ofsupernatural fiction,Uncanny Stories (1923) andThe Intercessor and Other Stories (1931).[5]E. F. Bleiler called Sinclair "an underrated writer" and describedUncanny Stories as "excellent".[7]Gary Crawford has stated Sinclair's contribution to the supernatural fiction genre, "small as it is, is notable".[5]Jacques Barzun included Sinclair among a list of supernatural fiction writers that "one should make a point of seeking out".[8]Brian Stableford has stated that Sinclair's "supernatural tales are written with uncommon delicacy and precision, and they are among the most effective examples of their fugitive kind".[9] Andrew Smith has describedUncanny Stories as "an important contribution to the ghost story".[10]
American criticDorothy Parker chastised Sinclair for producing books "with one hand tied behind her and a butteredcrumpet in the other.'[11]
From the late 1920s, she was suffering from the early signs ofParkinson's disease, and ceased writing. She settled with a companion inBuckinghamshire in 1932. She died on 14 November 1946.
She is buried atSt John-at-Hampstead's churchyard, London.[12]
Sinclair also wrote non-fiction based on studies of philosophy, particularlyidealism. She defended a form of idealisticmonism in her bookA Defence of Idealism (1917).[13]
Sinclair was interested inparapsychology andspiritualism, she was a member of theSociety for Psychical Research from 1914.[5][14]
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