author
Olivia Shakespear
1863–1938
A novelist, playwright, and arts patron, this overlooked figure moved through some of the most lively literary circles of her time. Her fiction often explored marriage, inner conflict, and the quiet pressures placed on women in late Victorian and early modern life.
1 Audiobook
The beloved of Hathor, and The shrine of the Golden Hawk
by Florence Farr, Olivia Shakespear
About the author
Born Olivia Tucker on March 17, 1863, on the Isle of Wight, she became known as Olivia Shakespear after her marriage to barrister Henry Hope Shakespear. She wrote six novels, along with plays created in collaboration with Florence Farr, and built a reputation as a thoughtful observer of social and emotional life. Although her books were never major commercial successes, she remained closely connected to the literary world around her.
She is often remembered not only for her writing but also for her place in important artistic networks. She had a well-known relationship with W. B. Yeats, remained part of his circle for many years, and later became linked to another major modernist poet through family: her daughter Dorothy Shakespear married Ezra Pound. Her London home became a meeting place for writers, artists, and new ideas.
Olivia Shakespear died on October 3, 1938. Today she is valued as both a writer in her own right and a vivid presence in the cultural life of her era, with work that offers a sharp, humane view of love, marriage, and independence.