author
May Kendall
b. 1861
A sharp, witty late-Victorian writer, this English poet and novelist mixed fantasy, satire, and social observation in work that still feels lively today. She is especially remembered for her collaborations with Andrew Lang and for poems that play cleverly with science, modern life, and literary fashion.
1 Audiobook
'That Very Mab'
by May Kendall, Andrew Lang
About the author
May Kendall was the pen name of Emma Goldworth Kendall (1861–1943), an English poet, novelist, and satirist. Born in Bridlington, Yorkshire, she studied at Somerville College, Oxford, and went on to build a varied literary career that included poetry, fiction, and collaborative work with Andrew Lang.
She is best known for the novel That Very Mab, written with Lang, and for poetry collections including Dreams to Sell and Songs from Dreamland. Her writing often blended humor with big ideas, touching on evolution, the "New Woman," and the contradictions of British society. One of her best-known poems, Lay of the Trilobite, is remembered for its playful take on popular reactions to Darwinian thought.
Later in life, Kendall turned much of her energy toward social reform and worked in York with the Rowntree circle. Accounts of her final years suggest they were difficult, and she died in York in 1943. No suitable confirmed portrait image was available from the page material I could verify.