The Pianist Brigit Patmore London 1923 by Clara Klinghoffer

Brigit Patmore (née Ethel Elizabeth Morrison-Scott; 1888–1965) was an English author and London

society hostess A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

Life

Born in 1888, her mother's family landowners in Ulster, Ethel Elizabeth Morrison-Scott married John Deighton Patmore, a successful insurance executive, the grandson of Victorian poet

Coventry Patmore Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore (23 July 1823 – 26 November 1896) was an English poet and critic, literary critic. He is best known for his book of poetry ''The Angel in the House'', a narrative poem about the Victorian era, Victorian ideal of ...

. They lived in a large house near

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that lies within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and largely surrounds its namesake park, Holland Park. Colloquially referred to as 'Millionaire's Row', ...

; the marriage long but not close or confidential. Through the family's literary connections, and through her friendship with novelist and suffragist

Violet Hunt Isobel Violet Hunt (28 September 1862 – 16 January 1942) was a British author and literary hostess. She wrote feminist novels. She was a member of the Women Writers' Suffrage League. She also participated in the founding of International PE ...

, she had built a solid reputation as an influential literary hostess by the end of 1911. Biographers describe her as "an indefatigable sponsor of unknown talent".E. H. Mikhail (1977) ''W-B-Yeats: Interviews and Recollections, Volume 2'', Macmillan, p363 Patmore's son Derek describes her as a beautiful, slightly melancholy young woman who craved attention and affection.Michael T. Davis, Cameron McWhirter, eds (2015) ''Ezra Pound and ''Globe'' Magazine: The Complete Correspondence'', Bloomsbury Publishing, p306 Hunt wrote: "She was very beautiful with a queer, large, tortured mouth that said the wittiest things, eyes that tore your soul out of your body for pity and yet danced". Hunt introduced Patmore to such writers as

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

(1909),

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

, and

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

. In 1911, at 23, bored, distressed and dissatisfied with her husband's open philandering, she had a brief affair with the young poet

Richard Aldington Richard Aldington (born Edward Godfree Aldington; 8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962) was an English writer and poet. He was an early associate of the Imagist movement. His 50-year writing career covered poetry, novels, criticism and biography. He ed ...

, 18. Patmore introduced her lover to Pound and between them the new

Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...

poetry movement was born. Patmore, Pound and Aldington became inseparable, the heart of their bed-swapping London literary circle. She remained good friends with Pound until her death in 1965. Patmore went on to introduce Aldington to the new American émigré poet

H.D. Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886 – September 27, 1961) was an American modernist poet, novelist, and memoirist who wrote under the name H.D. throughout her life. Her career began in 1911 after she moved to London and co-founded th ...

and the two became soon lovers, later marrying. The three remained close, writing "We three were bound together, but lightly, gaily. We liked being together. We laughed and read, walked about London, looked at pictures, had meals in tea-rooms."Vivien Whelpton Richard Aldington: Poet, Soldier and Lover: 1911-1929 (2014) pp26-33 Following the breakup of Aldington and H.D's marriage, Patmore and he had a ten-year relationship, living together and travelling across Europe. He was in recovery from his time serving in the First World War, writing his best known works, and she wrote ''This Impassioned Onlooker'' (1926) and ''No Tomorrow'' (1929).

Works

*''This Impassioned Onlooker'' (1926) *''No Tomorrow'' (1929) *''My friends when young: the memoirs of Brigit Patmore'', Heinemann, 1968

Further resources

Archival material
at Yale
Patmore literary archive
at Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patmore, Brigit 1888 births 20th-century English novelists English women novelists 1965 deaths 20th-century English women 20th-century English people