Person    | Female  Born 17/5/1873  Died 17/6/1957

Dorothy Richardson

Categories: Gender Issues, Literature

Author and journalist. Born Abingdon and brought up in Putney. Her father was bankrupt and her mother had died by suicide by the time Dorothy was 22. Moved to Bloomsbury in 1896 and while working as a dental secretary in Harley Street started her literary career. Most of her novels were part of the 13-volume semi-autobiographical series Pilgrimage. The first in this series, Pointed Roofs, was the first novel to be described as 'stream of conciousness'. For this reason her name is often linked with James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf. Richardson called for equal rights for women and wrote from a feminist perspective.

Married an artist in 1917 and from then until 1939 they spent the summer in London and the winter in Cornwall. This out of season existence was probably dictated by their lack of funds, her writings being the main source of income. While in London she enjoyed exploring the streets and has been called an early flaneuse - see London Fiction.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Dorothy Richardson

Commemorated ati

Dorothy Richardson

The idea of this plaque may have originated in the 2015 journal article "Doro...

Read More

Other Subjects

Mary Elizabeth Sumner

Mary Elizabeth Sumner

Founded the Mothers’ Union in 1876.  Born as Mary Elizabeth Heywood in Lancashire. 1848 she married George Henry Sumner, son of C. R. Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, and a second cousin of William Wi...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Minnie Lansbury

Minnie Lansbury

Suffragette and Poplar alderman. Daughter-in-law to George Lansbury. Her early death was brought about by being imprisoned, with other councillors, for refusing to levy a full rate, and catching pn...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

5 memorials
Jessie Craigen

Jessie Craigen

Jessie Hannah Craigen was a working-class suffrage speaker. She was also a freelance (or 'paid agent') speaker in the campaigns for Irish Home Rule and the cooperative movement and against vivisect...

Person, Animals, Gender Issues, Medicine, Ireland

1 memorial
Maud Palmer, Countess of Selborne

Maud Palmer, Countess of Selborne

Political and women's rights activist. Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association. Born Marylebone as Beatrix Maud Gascoyne-Cecil. 1883 married the Liberal politician William Palmer, ...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration, South Africa

1 memorial
Mark Ashton

Mark Ashton

Irish political, community and gay rights activist. Born Oldham but grew up in Northern Ireland. With his friend Mike Jackson he formed and raised funds for the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners...

Person, Community / Clubs, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration, Social Welfare, Ireland

1 memorial