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Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters, by Linda K. Hughes; pp. xxv + 397. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005, $46.95.
Linda K. Hughes's work on Graham R. Tomson began with a literary treasure hunt. Hughes spotted a tantalizing glimpse of an obscure poet in the pages of the Universal Review, but further enquiries revealed that this poet had since attracted no more than passing comments from literary critics. From these slender leads Hughes has built a compelling and readable biography of an intriguing woman and unfairly neglected writer.
Hughes traces her subject's life through four phases, each initiated by a change in name and a sloughing-off of a previous self. The protagonist was born Rose Ball in 1860, becoming Mrs G. F. Armytage at the age of 19 at the start of a short-lived marriage which culminated in (and according to Hughes, may have been terminated by) the publication of her first poetry collection, Tares, in 1884. On eloping with Arthur Tomson in 1886, she took on the name Graham R. Tomson, giving birth to her best-known literary persona and entering into a Bohemian literary society in London to begin a career as a poet, journalist, editor of Sylvia's Journal and Art Weekly, translator, critic, and story-writer. On leaving Tomson for H. B. Marriott Watson in 1894, she became Rosamund Marriott Watson, taking her partner's name though they never married. As Hughes shows, the move ended her career: her second elopement created a scandal and the reading public were confused by the change of name.
This story...