60 Facts About Olivia Shakespear

Olivia Shakespear was a British novelist, playwright, and patron of the arts.

Olivia Shakespear wrote six books that are described as "marriage problem" novels.

Olivia Shakespear's works sold poorly, sometimes only a few hundred copies.

Olivia Shakespear wrote two plays in collaboration with Florence Farr.

Olivia Shakespear was well-read however, and developed a love of literature.

Olivia Shakespear declared that they "had many days of happiness" to come, but the affair ended in 1897.

Olivia Shakespear began hosting weekly salons frequented by Ezra Pound and other modernist writers and artists in 1909, and became influential in London literary society.

Olivia's daughter Dorothy Shakespear married Pound in 1914, despite the less than enthusiastic blessing of her parents.

When Dorothy gave birth to a son, Omar Pound, in France in 1926, Olivia Shakespear assumed guardianship of the boy.

Olivia Shakespear lived with Olivia until her death twelve years later, in 1938.

Olivia Shakespear's father, Henry Tod Tucker, was born in Edinburgh and joined the British Indian Army as an ensign at age 16.

Olivia Shakespear rose to the rank of Adjutant General in Bengal, but retired in 1856 at age 48 owing to ill health.

Olivia Shakespear's father endowed them with a comfortable income in the form of a trust.

Nine months after the wedding their only child, Dorothy, was born on 14 September 1886; Olivia Shakespear realised soon that the marriage was devoid of passion.

On 16 April 1894, accompanied by Pearl Craigie, Olivia attended a literary dinner to launch The Yellow Book, and was seated opposite W B Yeats.

Olivia Shakespear wanted to meet the "tall and black haired" poet and asked Johnson to invite Yeats to tea on 10 May 1894, adding in her handwriting to the invitation, "I shall be so glad to see you".

Olivia Shakespear constructed a plan to reconcile his desire with what he believed to be her wickedness: he would ask that she leave her husband to live with him.

Unsure of himself, he took another absence, during which he decided that if Maud was unattainable, or unavailable due to circumstances, he would have Olivia Shakespear, writing "but after all if I could not get the woman I loved it would be a comfort for a little while to devote myself to another".

For Yeats, Olivia Shakespear was willing to lose her daughter, financial security, social standing, and the goodwill of her family.

On 15 July 1895, Yeats and Olivia Shakespear travelled to Kent to visit Valentine Fox; the trip Harwood says "would have been, emotionally speaking a highly charged outing".

Olivia Shakespear arrived in London a few weeks later for a brief visit.

Ezra Pound's biographer Jay Wilhelm suggests Shakespear knew that Olivia loved Yeats but seemed more concerned about the loss of social status in the event of divorce, causing Yeats and Olivia to decide that "it was kinder to simply deceive him than totally abandon him".

Yeats' happiness is apparent in the poems he wrote at that period, and for the duration of their affair, Olivia Shakespear appears to have acted as a muse to the poet.

Olivia Shakespear did not visit him again at Woburn Place for many years, according to Yeats biographer Richard Ellmann.

Olivia Shakespear's life is not well documented between 1897 and 1908.

Olivia Shakespear visited her cousin Lionel for the last time in 1897 before he was isolated by his alcoholism.

Olivia Shakespear died alone of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1902.

Records of Olivia Shakespear's life resume through Dorothy's letters and diaries surrounding the arrival of the American poet Ezra Pound in London in 1909.

When Yeats returned to London that year, Olivia Shakespear became the centre of a blossoming literary movement.

Olivia Shakespear hosted, and became a nexus for, much of the pre-war literary activity in London.

Olivia Shakespear was by now a well-known occultist and hosted seances in her drawing room.

Olivia Shakespear became well-versed in astrology and palmistry, passing on what she knew to Dorothy who shared her interest.

Olivia Shakespear met Pound in January 1909 at a Kensington salon hosted by a friend; she invited him for tea on 16 February 1909, and, at his insistence, introduced Pound to Yeats in May 1909.

Olivia Shakespear took the young American poet to Yeats' rooms at Woburn Place, fostering their relationship.

For reasons unclear to biographers Olivia Shakespear forbade the two from writing to each other during his extended visit to New York from 1910 to 1911.

In 1910 Yeats thought his horoscope suggested a return to Olivia Shakespear; he distanced himself from Maud and in June began to see Olivia Shakespear more frequently.

Olivia Shakespear became concerned about her daughter after Hilda Doolittle, who believed she was engaged to Pound, arrived in London in 1911.

In September 1912 Olivia Shakespear wrote a stern letter to Pound, in which she pointedly told him to break off his friendship with Dorothy:.

In 1913, Olivia Shakespear introduced Pound to vorticist sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska at an art exhibition at the Albert Hall.

Olivia Shakespear's translation was serialised in the literary magazine The Egoist later that year.

Hope Olivia Shakespear relented when the couple agreed to a church wedding rather than a civil ceremony, which took place on 20 April 1914.

Olivia Shakespear gave them two early circus drawings by Pablo Picasso.

Olivia Shakespear moved out of Brunswick Gardens in 1924, throwing away personal correspondence and giving away hundreds of books.

Hope Shakespear died on 5 July 1923; within months Olivia moved to an apartment in West Kensington, taking with her two maids who had been with the family for decades.

Olivia Shakespear became his guardian and Dorothy spent summers with her mother and son.

Olivia Shakespear continued to socialise and had many friends, one of whom, Wyndham Lewis, painted her portrait; he enjoyed her company despite finding it difficult to relate to others.

Olivia Shakespear stopped writing but remained an avid reader, turning to detective stories for light relief although she kept up with literary authors.

McGreevy told Yeats that Olivia Shakespear was "always a symbol of elegance, a kind of gold and ivory image".

Harwood writes of her, "Olivia Shakespear was avant-garde in literature, agnostic in religion, and conservative in politics, at least later in life".

Olivia Shakespear was uninterested in Pound's politics and economic views and particularly disliked his later Cantos.

Olivia Shakespear died of complications brought on by gall bladder disease on 3 October 1938.

Olivia Shakespear died the following day of a heart attack.

John Unterecker believes Olivia Shakespear's death shattered Yeats, who died only months later, because she added warmth to his life.

Olivia Shakespear came of a long line of soldiers and during the last war thought it her duty to stay in London through all the air raids.

Olivia Shakespear sent Pound to organise the funeral and to clear out the house.

Olivia Shakespear had six novels published between 1894 and 1910, which as described by Foster are about women unhappy in love, with insipid and uninspiring male characters.

Harwood describes the early work such as Love on a Mortal Lease as showing stylistic similarities to contemporary women novelists such as Craighie and Rhonda Broughton, with witty dialogue in Craighie's style, although he thinks Olivia Shakespear brought a more serious voice to her work.

Olivia Shakespear describes Love on a Mortal Lease as a work in which the heroine is well-characterised but the background is weak.

Olivia Shakespear dedicated The False Laurel, published in 1896, to Lionel Johnson.

Olivia Shakespear becomes bored, writes a successful play, and then goes mad.