Michael Field was apseudonym used for thepoetry andverse drama of the English authorsKatherine Harris Bradley (27 October 1846 – 26 September 1914) and her niece and wardEdith Emma Cooper (12 January 1862 – 13 December 1913). As Field, they wrote around 40 works together, and a long journalWorks and Days. Their intention was to keep the pen-name secret, but it became public knowledge, not long after they had confided in their friendRobert Browning.
Katherine Bradley was born on 27 October 1846 inBirmingham, England, the daughter of Charles Bradley, a tobacco manufacturer, and Emma (née Harris). Her grandfather, also Charles Bradley, was a prominent follower and financial backer of prophetessJoanna Southcott and her self-styled successorJohn "Zion" Ward.[1] She attended lectures at theCollège de France in 1868, and in 1874 she attended a course atNewnham College, Cambridge specially designed for women; however, she did not receive a degree for it.
Bradley's elder sister, Emma, married James Robert Cooper in 1860 and went to live inKenilworth, where their daughter, Edith Emma Cooper, was born on 12 January 1862. Emma Cooper became an invalid for life after the birth of her second daughter, Amy, and Katharine Bradley, being her sister, stepped in to become the legal guardian of her niece Edith Cooper.[2]
Bradley was for a time involved withRuskin's utopian project. She published first under the pseudonymArran Leigh, a nod toElizabeth Barrett. Cooper adopted the nameIsla Leigh for their first joint publication,Bellerophôn.
In the late 1870s, when Cooper was atUniversity College, Bristol, they agreed to live together and were, over the next 40 years,lesbian lovers[3] and co-authors. Their first joint publication as Michael Field was "Callirhöe and Fair Rosamund" in 1884.The Athenaeum noted that 'the famous Faun song in 'Callirrhoé,' which has found its way into many anthologies, the Fairy songs in 'Fair Rosamund,' and the whole of the poignant drama of 'The Father's Tragedy' were the work of the younger writer while still a girl.'[4]
Bradley and Cooper were Aestheticists, strongly influenced by the thoughts of Walter Pater. They developed a large circle of literary friends and contacts; in particular, painters and life partnersCharles Ricketts andCharles Shannon, near whom they settled inRichmond, London.[5] Robert Browning was a close friend of theirs — if also the source of their leaked identity — as well asRudyard Kipling. They also knew and admiredOscar Wilde, whose death they bitterly mourned.
While Bradley and Cooper were always well connected and financially independent, their early critical success was not sustained. (This is often attributed to the joint identity of Field becoming known). They knew many of theaesthetic movement of the 1890s, includingWalter Pater,Vernon Lee,J. A. Symonds and alsoBernard Berenson.William Rothenstein was a friend. In 1899, the death of Cooper's father enabled them to buy their own house as evidence of their "close marriage" although Cooper saw her father's death as retribution for their lifestyle. She later led the way in establishing the couple as active Catholics.[6]
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Bradley and Cooper wrote a number of passionate love poems to each other, and their name, Michael Field, was their way of declaring their inseparable oneness. Friends referred to them as the Fields, the Michaels, or the Michael Fields while they themselves had a range of pet names for each other. They also were passionately devoted to their pets, particularly their dog, Whym Chow, for whom they wrote a book of elegiac poems entitledWhym Chow: Flame of Love. Their joint journal starts with an account of Bradley's passion forAlfred Gérente, an artist instained glass and brother ofHenri Gérente, who was of an English background but worked mostly in France. It goes on to document Michael Field as a figure amongst 'his' literary counterparts and their lives together. When Whym Chow died in 1906, the emotional pattern of the relationship was disturbed; both women becameRoman Catholic converts in 1907. Their religious inclinations are reflected in their later works while their earlier writing was influenced by classical and Renaissance culture in its pagan aspects, particularlySappho as understood by the late Victorians and perhapsWalter Savage Landor.
Bradley found that she had breast cancer in June 1913 and told only her confessor,Vincent McNabb; she never told Cooper, who had been diagnosed withcancer in 1911. Cooper died 13 December 1913 at their home, The Paragon,Richmond.[7][8] Bradley died 26 September 1914, having moved to a cottage near McNabb atHawkesyard Priory,Rugeley.[9][10] They are buried together in the cemetery of St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church in Mortlake.[11] Bradley left most of her property[clarification needed] to Charles Ricketts with a bequest of letters to the poet Frederick Gurney Salter and jewels and manuscripts to the University of Cambridge.[12][13]
In 1923, saddened at the lack of a memorial for Bradley and Cooper,Charles Ricketts designed one for them of black stone, for whichJohn Gray wrote the epitaph: 'United in blood, united in Christ'. However, this tombstone atSt Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake cracked irreparably in 1926, the year in which it was installed, and is now lost.[14]
Their extensive diaries are stored in the British Library,[6] and have been digitized and made available by the Victorian Lives and Letters Consortium.[15] Carolyn Dever argues that the diaries contain many novelistic qualities — at least up until the time of Whym Chow's death.[16]
A much-edited selection from the journals, which consists of two dozen annual volumes inledgers with aspects ofscrapbooks combined with a self-conscious literary style of composition, was prepared byT. Sturge Moore, a friend through his mother Marie.
A review of their poems in 1908 noted that "One of the London weeklies, announcing the new volume, comments on the strange anomaly that a poet of 'Michael Field’s' distinction should have had such slight recognition in this country." A writer in theAcademy was quoted as saying that "he is perhaps the greatest of our living lyric poets who are actually writing at this time, and it is claimed that those who are acquainted with the poet's work must agree with this appreciation." "Without entering into the question of comparative merit," said theYorkshire Observer, "it may be readily admitted that the poems have had a genuine note of distinction".[17]The Athenaeum noted that "Seven years ago both poets were received into the Roman Church, and their definitely Catholic work is represented by two volumes of devotional verse: 'Poems of Adoration,' by the younger, and 'Mystic Trees,' by the elder writer."[4]
Media related toMichael Field (author) at Wikimedia Commons
Works related toKatharine Harris Bradley at Wikisource Works related toEdith Emma Cooper at Wikisource
