Mary Butts

"British modernist writer Mary Butts (1890-1937), now recognized as one of the most important and original authors of the inter-war years, led an unconventional life. She encountered many of the most famous figures in early twentieth-century literature, music, and art and came to know some of them intimately. These luminaries figure prominently in journals in which Butts chronicled the development of her craft between 1916 and her untimely death in 1937. This volume is the first substantial edition of her journals. Introduced and annotated by Nathalie Blondel, the leading authority on Butts's life and works, the book reveals the workings of a complex and distinctive mind while offering insights into her fascinating era."--BOOK JACKET.

This Excellent historical novel by British-born writer Mary Butts is the story one of the world's most legendary women. Butts presents Cleopatra and her story in a completely new light. Eschewing the popular notions of Cleopatra as presented by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Shaw, in which Cleopatra is presented either as a tender martyr or a mindless hussy, Butts presents the reader with a figure of a great ruler, who had to choose her lovers in order that her kingdom could survive, but who recognized throughout the danger and potential of those choices.

Mary Butts was a contemporary of Jean Rhys, H.D., Djuna Barnes, Laura Riding, Marianne Moore and others. Reprinted here for the first time since their original publications, both novels occur in England in the period between the two World Wars. The first novel centers around a group of friends who retrieve a chalice which may be the Holy Grail; the second novel centers around the attempt to uncover the truth behind the death of its namesake, Felicity Taverner, who may have died a suicide, a murder, or an accidental victim.

Poetry and prose contributed by people in response to a newspaper competition. The competition was held by National Magazine edited by Joe Mitchell Chapple.

Short stories embodying the Lost Generation during the '20s and '30s and featuring the power of hidden things and things of hidden power.