HUNGERHEART (1915) is a pioneering, semi-autobiographical lesbian novel written by British author Christabel Marshall under the masculine pseudonym Christopher St. John. The novel is a first-person narrative of Joanna “John” Montolivet that follows her on her quest for love.
Far more explicit than the more famous novel The Well of Loneliness (1928), by Radclyffe Hall, Hungerheart managed to escape the censor’s notice. The book was erroneously cataloged as a work about “Catholic spirituality,” which may have limited its appeal, but it was read by a number of important writers at the time, including Hall herself, Virginia Woolf, and Vita Sackville-West. More recently, Hungerheart has been rediscovered by scholars, and its importance in the history of gay literature is discussed in such works as Billie Melman’s Borderlines (1998), Elizabeth Wilson’s Bohemians (2000), and my own British Culture and the First World War (2002). Unfortunately, Hungerheart is unavailable to most modern readers. It has been out of print since 1915, and only a handful of copies survive in research centers like the British Library.
The author of Hungerheart, Christabel Marshall (1875–1960), was a writer and editor. She attended Somerville College, Oxford, and served as secretary to Lady Randolph Churchill and the novelist Augusta Ward. She later became interested in the theater, working as an actress, dramatist, and secretary to the legendary actress Ellen Terry. Marshall became romantically involved with Terry’s daughter, the director Edith Craig (1869-1947), and the two women began living together in 1899. In 1916, they were joined by the artist Clare Atwood (1866–1962), and the three women formed a romantic triad that would last for the rest of their lives. They frequently collaborated on theatrical productions and were also active in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1909, Marshall wrote the popular suffragette play, How the Vote Was Won. Marshall’s own work as a playwright and novelist has been overshadowed by her devotion to Ellen Terry. After Terry’s death in 1928, Marshall edited her memoirs and correspondence with George Bernard Shaw, works for which she is best remembered.
George Robb, prof. of history at William Paterson Univ. (NJ), is the author of Ladies of the Ticker: Women and Wall Street from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression (2017).
