Laurence Alma-Tadema
Encyclopedia
Laurence Alma-Tadema was an English novelist and poet of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked in many genres. Eldest daughter of the Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA was a Dutch painter.Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there...

 (1836–1912) and his first wife Marie-Pauline Gressin Dumoulin, she was born in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

.

Her stepmother, Lady Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema
Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema
Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema was from 1871 the second wife of the painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema and a painter in her own right.-Life:...

 (1852–1909) and sister Anna Alma-Tadema
Anna Alma-Tadema
Anna Alma-Tadema was a British artist, the second daughter and pupil of the well-known Anglo-Dutch painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, born Laurens Tadema. Her mother Marie-Pauline Gressin Dumoulin, Laurens' first wife, died when she was two years old. She grew up in London, where her father had...

 (1867–1943) were also noted artists. Laurence Alma-Tadema lived in "The Fair Haven", Wittersham, Kent, and she involved herself with music and plays with the villagers and their children, going on to construct a building to seat a hundred people, used for musical concerts and plays, which she named "Hall of Happy Hours". She never married and died in a nursing home in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1940.

Literary work

Her first novel, Love's Martyr, was published in 1886. In addition to her own collections of stories and poems, which she often published herself, Alma-Tadema wrote two novels, songs and works on drama; she also made translations. The Orlando Project says about Alma-Tadema's writing that the "characteristic tone is one of intense emotion, but in prose and verse she has the gift of compression". She contributed widely to periodicals, notably The Yellow Book, and also edited one herself. Some of Alma-Tadema's plays were successfully produced in Germany.

Political activities

Alma Tadema had a close association with Poland. She was secretary of the "Poland and the Polish Victims Relief Fund" from 1915 to 1939. She was an admirer and long-term associate of Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE was a Polish pianist, composer, diplomat, politician, and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.-Biography:...

 both as far as his music and political activities were concerned, notably on Polish independence. Alma-Tadema maintained a long-correspondence from him from 1915 to the end of her life. Some of her papers are deposited with the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

, University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

.

American Tour

Alma-Tadema, who had socialist leanings, travelled to America in 1907–08 to tour the country widely. She gave a series of readings on the "Meaning of Happiness," which proved exceedingly popular. She also spoke on the plight of the divided Poland and asked her audience to express their feelings for this cause.

If No One Ever Marries Me

Alma-Tadema's poem "If No One Ever Marries Me", written in 1897 and published in Realms of Unknown Kings, saw performances as a song in the 21st century by Natalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant
Natalie Anne Merchant is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She joined the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993.-Early life:...

 on her double album Leave Your Sleep
Leave Your Sleep
-Inspiration:The sleeve notes credit inspiration for the songs of this album as follows:* Adventures of Isabel - Ogden Nash* Autumn Lullaby - Anonymous* Bleezer's Ice-Cream - Jack Prelutsky* Calico Pie - Edward Lear...

. In 1900 it had been included in the musical score, The daisy chain, cycle of twelve songs of childhood by Liza Lehmann
Liza Lehmann
Liza Lehmann was an English operatic soprano and composer, known for her vocal compositions.-Biography:She was born Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica Lehmann in London. Her father was the German painter Rudolf Lehmann and her mother was Amelia Chambers, a music teacher, composer and arranger...

, and in 1922 in the musical score Little girls composed by Louise Sington.

Works

  • Love's Martyr, Longmans, London, Green, and Co., {1886}, hardcover, 208 pages; New York, D. Appleton (1886)
  • One Way of Love: A Play (1893), 54 pages
  • The Crucifix, A Venetian Phantasy, and Other Tales, London, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. (1895), 172 pages
  • Songs of womanhood, London: Grant Richards, 1903, hardcover, 117 pages
  • Realms of unknown kings
  • The wings of Icarus: being the life of one Emilia Fletcher, revealed by herself in I. Thirty-five letters, written to Constance Norris between July 18th, 188–, and March 26th of the following year; II. A fragmentary journal; III. A postscript
  • Four plays
  • Maurice Maeterlinck
    Maurice Maeterlinck
    Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...

    , translation by Laurence Alma-Tadema, Pelleas and Melisanda and the Sightless Two Plays By Maurice Maeterlinck, Walter Scott Ltd., London, hardcover and G. Allen and Unwin, London {1914}
  • Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes : Proverbs and Rhyme Games, illustrated by Charles Robinson, forward by Laurence Alma-Tadema, Collins Clear-Type Press, London, circa 1910, hardcover, 208 pages
  • Robert Louis Stevenson
    Robert Louis Stevenson
    Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....

    , introduction by Laurence Alma-Tadema, illustrations by Kate Elizabeth Olver, A Child's Garden of Verses, London, Collins, hardcover
  • Laurence Alma-Tadema, John Lea
    John Lea
    John Lea is a left realist criminologist based at the Crime and Conflict Research Centre, Middlesex University in the United Kingdom.He graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London with a BSc in Economics in 1967, before gaining MSc's in Economics and...

    , and others, Little bo Peep's Story Book, Childrens Press, London, hardcover
  • Poland, Russia and the war, St. Catherine press (1915)
  • A Gleaner's Sheaf. Verses., London: St. Martin's Press (1927)

External links

  • Works by or about Laurence Alma-Tadema at Internet Archive
    Internet Archive
    The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...

     (scanned books original editions)
  • If No One Ever Marries Me ArtMagick Illustrated Poetry Collection


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