Writers and Their Mothers

Ian McEwan, Margaret Drabble, Martin Amis, Rita Dove, Andrew Motion  and Anthony Thwaite are among the twenty-two distinguished contributors of original essays to this landmark volume on the profound and frequently perplexing bond between writer and mother. In compelling detail they bring to life the thoughts, work, loves, friendships, passions and, above all, the influence of mothers upon their literary offspring from Shakespeare to the present.

Many of the contributors evoke the ideal with fond and loving memories: understanding, selfless, spiritual, tender, protective, reassuring and self-assured mothers who created environments favorable to the development of their children’s gifts.

At the opposite end of the parenting spectrum, however, we also see tortured mothers who ignored, interfered with, smothered or abandoned their children.  Their early years were times of traumatic loss, unhappily dominated by death and human frailty.

Elegantly assembled and presented, Writers and Their Mothers will appeal to everyone interested in biography, literature, and creativity in general.

1. Shakespeare’s Mother(s) - Hugh M. Richmond.- 2. John Ruskin and Margaret - Anthony Daniels, M.D..- 3. Ambitious Daughter: Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother - Gardner McFall.- 4. Walt Whitman and His Mother - Kenneth Silverman.- 5. The Maternal Embrace: Samuel Beckett and His Mother May - Margaret Drabble.- 6. William Golding’s Mother - Judy Carver.- 7. Voice Rehearsals & Personas in Sylvia’s Letters to Aurelia - Adrianne Kalfopoulou.- 8. No Villainous Mother: The Life of Eva Larkin - Philip Pullen.- 9. Robert Lowell: Trapped in Charlotte’s Web - Jeffrey Meyers.- 10. Mother Tongue: A Memoir - Ian McEwan.- 11. “Persistent Ghost” - Anthony Thwaite.- 12. Living with Mother - Catherine Aird.- 13. “Bring her again to me . . . “ - Ann Thwaite.- 14. My Mother, and Friends - Reeve Lindbergh.- 15. My Mother’s Desk - Martha Oliver-Smith.- 16. Mater Sagax - Rachel Hadas.- 17. My Wicked Stepmother - Martin Amis.- 18. About “My Mother Enters the Work Force” - Rita Dove.- 19. A Shadow in the Grass - Andrew Motion.- 20. Mrs. Gabbet’s Desk - David Updike.- 21. Dreams of a Mother and Daughter - Lyndall Gordon.- 22. Her Programme -Tim Parks.