Amabel Williams-Ellis (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Mary Annabel Nassau Strachey; 10 May 1894 – 27 August 1984) was an English writer, critic, and an early member of the Bloomsbury Group. As well as publishing her own writings, Williams-Ellis was a prolific editor, translator, and anthologist, compiling collections of fairy stories, folk tales, and science fiction.

Life

Amabel Nassau Strachey was born at Newlands Corner, near

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, to journalist and newspaper proprietor John Strachey and Amy (née Simpson). Her cousin was

Lytton Strachey Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychology, psychologic ...

, and her childhood described as 'glittering and comfortable'. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Amabel served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, which partly inspired an increasing interest in science and anatomy. This led in turn to her scientific writings for children, particularly on notable discoveries and responses to the typical inquiries of children. On 31 July 1915, Amabel married Clough Williams-Ellis, an architect, with whom she collaborated on a history of the Tank Corps. The couple also worked together on ''The Pleasures of Architecture'' (1924), and other works. They had three children: a son and two daughters. Their daughter, Susan Caroline Williams-Ellis (1918–2007) was a successful ceramics designer and manufacturer. Their son was killed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Between 1922 and 1923, she was literary editor of '' The Spectator''. Attracted to socialism, Williams-Ellis described herself as a "class traitor".

Works

Over the course of her life, Williams-Ellis wrote more than 40 books. These included novels, books for children, and histories. She wrote regularly for periodicals, and edited multiple volumes of folk legends, fairy tales, and science fiction. She was significantly inspired by the writer and explorer Mary Kingsley, whom Williams-Ellis had met in childhood, and whom she described as "an anthropologist before anthropology". ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' described Williams-Ellis as someone who "wrote books to find things out, and seemed prepared to take on anything."

Death

Amabel Williams-Ellis died on 27 August 1984, at the age of 90. Shortly before her death, she published a memoir: ''All Stracheys Are Cousins''. This showed, wrote ''The Times'', that she was "an undiminished optimist who had lived a busy and a happy life, and enjoyed her second living of it on the page."

Publications

* ''The Tank Corps'' (1919) with Clough Williams-Ellis * ''An anatomy of poetry'' (1922) * ''The pleasures of architecture'' (1924) with Clough Williams-Ellis * ''Men who found out: stories of great scientific discoverers'' (1929) * ''The exquisite tragedy; an intimate life of John Ruskin'' (1929) * ''The voyage of the Beagle; adapted from the narratives and letters of Charles Darwin and Capt. Fitz Roy'' (1931) * ''The art of being a woman'' (1951) * ''Fairy tales from the British Isles'' (1960) * ''Darwin's moon: a biography of Alfred Russel Wallace'' (1966) * ''Old World & New World fairy tales'' (1966)

References

External links

Works by Amabel Williams-Ellis
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Works by Amabel Williams-Ellis
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams-Ellis, Amabel 1894 births 1984 deaths 20th-century English women Bloomsbury Group British anthologists English women writers Strachey family British women anthologists Writers from Guildford Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses