The Yellow Book of Evelyn Sharp

Evelyn Jane Sharp, the ninth of eleven children, was born on 4th August 1869. In 1894 despite parental objections she moved to London to begin a literary career supported by tutoring children and an occasional lecture. She initially wrote and published several novels including 'The Making of a Prig' (1897), 'All the Way to Fairyland' (1898) and 'The Other Side of the Sun' (1900). In 1903 Sharp, with the help of her married lover, Henry Nevinson, added journalism to her talents. She wrote for the Daily Chronicle, the Pall Mall Gazette and the Manchester Guardian. The social situations she found began to reinforce her own views that life was unequal. She was sent to cover a speech by actress and novelist Elizabeth Robins and a call for militant action. Sharp immediately joined the Women's Social and Political Union identifying with a sudden clarity why she had previously avoided causes. She was both committed, active and resourceful, using her talents to publish 'Rebel Women', in 1910, a series of vignettes of lives of suffragette women. Sharp now began to help popularise and make aware the various campaigns especially for Women's Rights which were a hot topic in Pre-War Britain. She was an active member of the Women Writers' Suffrage League and in August 1913 was asked to represent the WWSL in a delegation to meet with Home Secretary McKenna but he was unwilling to talk to them and when the women refused to leave the House of Commons some of her colleagues were physically ejected but Sharp, who had broken several windows, was arrested and sent to Holloway Prison. Unlike most members of the women's movement Sharp, a pacifist, was unwilling to end the campaign for the vote during the Great War. She continued to refuse to pay income tax and was again arrested and all of her property confiscated, including her typewriter. During the Great War the Votes for Women newspaper continued but with a much-reduced circulation, and struggled to remain financially viable. Sharp positioned the paper to more middle-class women, with the slogan "The War Paper for Women". Although she opposed the war, she ensured that the paper maintained a neutral stance on it. Her writing had taken a back seat but after the war as well as being a journalist for the Daily Herald she wrote two studies of working-class life, 'The London Child' (1927) and 'The Child Grows Up' (1929). In 1933 Sharp's friend Margaret Nevinson died. Soon afterwards, at 63, she married Margaret's husband, Henry, then aged 77. Their love affair had lasted many years withstanding complications of friendship and marriage. Evelyn Sharp died in a nursing home in Ealing on 17th June 1955 at the age of 85. During the Victorian era the publishing of magazines and periodicals accelerated at a phenomenal rate. This really was mass market publishing to a hungry audience eager for literary sustenance. Many of our greatest authors contributed and expanded their reach whilst many fledging authors also found a ready source for their nascent works and careers. Amongst the very many was 'The Yellow Book'. Although titled as 'An Illustrated Quarterly' it was sold as a cloth-bound hardback and within were short stories, essays, poetry, illustrations and portraits. It was edited by the American author Henry Harland, who also contributed, and its art editor was no less that the formidable Aubrey Beardsley, the enfant terrible of illustration. Its yellow cover and name gave it an association with the risqué and erotic yellow covered works published in France. It was a visual shorthand for ideas that would push many boundaries of Society to more open interpretations. Being complete in each volume and slightly aloof it stayed away from serialised fiction and advertisements. Within each lavishly illustrated edition were literary offerings that included works by such luminaries as Henry James, H G Wells, W