Collected Letters of Ellen Terry Volume 5 1905-1913
- Submitting institution
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The University of Essex
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 2805
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
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10.4324/9781315477695
- Publisher
- Pickering and Chatto
- ISBN
- 9781851961498
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- April
- Year of publication
- 2014
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This volume is the fifth in an eight-volume set that collects for the first time the letters of Ellen Terry (1847-1928). Terry was the leading actor of her generation and internationally known for her Shakespearean performances as well as for her unconventional life off-stage.
The British Academy-funded research underpinning this project, carried out by the editor over a decade, has involved the identification, collection, dating, transcription (without silent correction and attentive to Terry’s meaningful and idiosyncratic punctuation system) and interpretation of over 3,000 extant letters held in archives, libraries and private collections in the UK and US. Each volume provides for the first time original biographical and contextual notes for each letter, a chronology of Terry’s theatre activities for the period and a concise introductory essay that contextualises and highlights the original findings arising from the collection.
Research in Volume Five (344 letters written in the period 1905-13) provides new insights about Terry as an exceptional woman and that contribute to wider knowledge and understanding of women’s roles as cultural innovators more generally in UK and US. The letters reveal the difficulties facing women in theatre as well as the rising status of the actor and theatre practitioner in the volatile period of women’s suffrage activism. New insights include Terry’s opinions—on women’s suffrage, the royal family, the potentially career-damaging effects of ill-health—as revealed in confidential letters to close friends and colleagues including Bernard Shaw. This research establishes that although Terry reached the peak of her career, celebrated her stage jubilee (1906), published her autobiography (1907) and became president of the newly formed Pioneer Players theatre society (1911), it was the circumstances surrounding her unexpected and controversial marriage (1907) and carefully concealed financial difficulties that prompted her Shakespeare lecture tours (US and UK) and publications.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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