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Queen Mary, University of London

BENSON, Stella (1892-1933)

IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0370 SB

Held at: Queen Mary, University of London

Title: BENSON, Stella (1892-1933)

Date(s): [1930]-1947

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 4 documents

Name of creator(s): Benson | Stella | 1892-1933 | afterwards Anderson | novelist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, Shropshire, 1892; suffered poor health and as a child travelled to Switzerland and the West Indies; worked briefly with the suffragette movement, 1914; during the war involved in social work for eighteen months in Hoxton, London, later on the land; went to California, 1918; sailed for England via the Far East, 1920; married James Carew Gorman Anderson of the Chinese customs service, 1921; based in Hong Kong after her marriage and campaigned against licensed prostitution; published novels, short stories and articles, 1915-1931, including Tobit Transplanted (1931) awarded Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, 1932; died, 1933.
Publications: include: I Pose (Macmillan and Co, London, 1915); This is the End (Macmillan and Co, London, 1917); Twenty [Poems] (Macmillan and Co, London, 1918); Living Alone (Macmillan and Co, London, 1919); The Poor Man (Macmillan and Co, London, 1922); The Awakening. A fantasy (Printed by Edwin and Robert Grabhorn for the Lantern Press, San Francisco, 1925); The Little World (Macmillan and Co, London, 1925); Goodbye, Stranger (Macmillan and Co, London, 1926); The Man who Missed the 'Bus (Mathews and Marrot, London, 1928); Worlds within Worlds [Sketches of travel] (Macmillan and Co, London, 1928); The Far-away Bride [With an appendix containing the Book of Tobit, from the Apocrypha] (Harper and Bros, New York and London, 1930); Tobit Transplanted (Macmillan and Co, London, 1931); Christmas Formula, and other stories (William Jackson [Joiner and Steele], London, 1932); Collected Short Stories (Macmillan and Co, London, 1936.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of and relating to Stella Benson, [1930]-1947, comprising 2 letters to Mrs Forster, 1932, concerning a model for a painter, a missionary and the purchase of a clock for a Chinese neighbour who nursed her illness; report of the Sub-committee of the League of Nations Society, Hong Kong, on an investigation into the traffic in women and children and prostitution in Hong Kong, with covering letter presenting the report to the Colonial Secretary, [1930]; article entitled 'Stella Benson goes to a Chinese Wedding' from the Radio Times by Stella Benson, 1932; letter from Mrs G H Forster to Miss White (later Professor Beatrice White), enclosing the papers and containing reminscences about Stella Benson, 1947.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

The papers are arranged chronologically.

Conditions governing access:

The Archives are available for access in the Archives Reading Room located on the 2nd Floor of the Mile End Library. The Archives Reading Room is open Mondays to Fridays 9am-4pm by appointment only. Contact the Archives for more information: Archives, Main Library QMUL, 328 Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, telephone: 020 7882 3873, email: archives@qmul.ac.uk. For more information about the Archives see the website: www.library.qmul.ac.uk/archives.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopying at the discretion of the Archivist.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

A draft list is available at the Library.

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated by Professor Beatrice White to Westfield College Library.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Diaries and papers, 1902-1933, held by Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archive (reference: Add 6762-6803); correspondence (reference: Add MSS 59659-60), additional papers (see Annual return 1999), correspondence with Macmillans, 1915-1932 (reference: Add MS 54972) and letters to Sydney and Violet Schiff, 1924-1932 (reference: Add MS 52916), held by the British Library, Manuscript Collections; letters, 1926-1933, mainly to Donald B Clark, held at New York Public Library (reference: see NUC MS 79-1833).

Publication note:

Stella Benson Phyllis Bottome (printed for Albert M. Bender, San Francisco, 1934); Portrait of Stella Benson Richard Ellis Roberts (Macmillan and Co, London, 1939); Some letters of Stella Benson, 1928-1933 edited by Cecil Clarabut (Hong Kong, [Libra Press], 1978).

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Sources: Who's Who 1897-1996 CD-ROM (A and C Black); Historical Manuscripts Commission On-line National Register of Archives; British Library Public on-line catalogue. Compiled by Julie Tancell as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.