Helen Waddell facts for kids

Helen Jane Waddell (born May 31, 1889 – died March 5, 1965) was an Irish poet, scholar, writer of religious stories, translator, and playwright. She also worked as a reader for a publishing company. She won the Benson Medal for her work. An award-winning book about her life was written by a nun named Dame Felicitas Corrigan in 1986. This book also won the James Tait Black Award.

Helen Waddell's Life Story

Helen Waddell was born in Tokyo, Japan. She was the tenth and youngest child of Hugh Waddell, a Presbyterian minister and missionary. She lived in Japan for her first eleven years. After that, she moved back to Belfast, Ireland, with her father and stepmother. Her birth mother, Jane Martin, had passed away when Helen was a baby.

When Helen's father died, his youngest children were cared for by their stepmother. Helen stayed at home with Mrs. Waddell. Her stepmother wanted Helen to have a quiet social life, which was common in their religious community. This meant Helen didn't go out much or join in university social events. Helen's older brothers and friends tried to help her have enough money for clothes. Later, Helen became her stepmother's carer as her health declined.

Early Studies and First Book

Even with a quiet life, Helen became a very smart student of literature. In 1913, the same year she graduated from university, she published a book of translated Chinese poems called Lyrics from the Chinese. Her main teachers at Queen's University Belfast were Professor George Saintsbury and Professor Gregory Smith. She also studied at Victoria College for Girls. During this time, she met her best friend, Maude Clarke.

Moving to Oxford and Famous Works

After her stepmother passed away, Helen was free to choose her own path. In 1920, at age 31, she moved to Oxford. She joined Somerville College, Oxford, to study for her PhD. In 1923, a special grant from Lady Margaret Hall allowed her to travel and do research in Paris.

Helen didn't finish her PhD. Instead, she published her research as a book called The Wandering Scholars. This book was very popular and praised by critics right away. She then started working for Constable, her publisher, first as a reader. Later, they paid her to have the first chance to publish any new books she wrote.

Helen Waddell is most famous for her 1927 book The Wandering Scholars. This book explored the history of medieval goliards, who were wandering scholars and poets. She also translated their Latin poems in a book called Medieval Latin Lyrics. She put together another collection, More Latin Lyrics, in the 1940s, but it was published after she died.

Other Writings and Achievements

Helen wrote many other things. She wrote plays, including The Spoiled Buddha, which was performed in Belfast. Her play The Abbe Prevost was staged in 1935. Her historical novel Peter Abelard came out in 1933. It was very popular and sold many copies.

She also wrote articles for newspapers like the Evening Standard, the Manchester Guardian, and The Nation. She gave lectures and did radio broadcasts too.

During the Second World War, Waddell was an assistant editor for The Nineteenth Century magazine. In London, she was vice-president of the Irish Literary Society. She had many famous friends, including W. B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, Rose Macaulay, Max Beerbohm, and George William Russell.

Helen Waddell received special honorary degrees from several universities, including Columbia, Belfast, Durham, and St. Andrews. She also won the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature.

Helen Waddell had a deep religious faith, which came from her father being a minister. She used her skills in translating old Latin religious writings with great care and belief. The book about her life by Felicitas Corrigan highlights how important her faith was in guiding her life choices.

Sadly, a serious illness stopped her from writing in 1950. She passed away in London in 1965 and was buried in Magherally churchyard, Northern Ireland.

Main Works

Novels

• Peter Abelard (1933)

Plays

• The Spoiled Buddha (performed 1915; published 1919)
• The Abbé Prévost (1933)

Other Books

• Lyrics from the Chinese (1913)
• The Wandering Scholars (1927)
• Medieval Latin Lyrics (1929)
• Beasts and Saints (1934)
• The Desert Fathers (1936)
• For Better Factory Laws (1937) (a short pamphlet)
• Poetry in the Dark Ages (1947) (a lecture published in 1948)
• Stories from Holy Writ (1949)
• More Latin Lyrics: From Virgil to Milton (published after her death in 1976)
• Between Two Eternities (published after her death in 1993)