Laurence Alma-Tadema (born Laurense Tadema, 1865–1940), was an English novelist and poet of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked in many genres.[1] Eldest daughter of the Dutch painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912) and his first wife Marie-Pauline Gressin Dumoulin, she was born in Brussels. [2] Her stepmother, Lady Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema (1852–1909) and sister Anna Alma-Tadema (1867–1943) were also noted artists.[3] Laurence Alma-Tadema lived in "The Fair Haven", Wittersham, Kent, and she involved herself with music and plays with the villagers and their children, going on to construct a building to seat a hundred people, used for musical concerts and plays, which she named "Hall of Happy Hours".[4] She never married and died in a nursing home in London in 1940.[1][5]
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Her first novel, Love's Martyr, was published in 1886. In addition to her own collections of stories and poems, which she often published herself, Alma-Tadema wrote two novels, songs and works on drama; she also made translations. The Orlando Project says about Alma-Tadema's writing that the "characteristic tone is one of intense emotion, but in prose and verse she has the gift of compression".[1] She contributed widely to periodicals, notably The Yellow Book, and also edited one herself.[1] Some of Alma-Tadema's plays were successfully produced in Germany.[4]
Alma Tadema had a close association with Poland. She was secretary of the "Poland and the Polish Victims Relief Fund" from 1915 to 1939. She was an admirer and long-term associate of Ignacy Jan Paderewski both as far as his music and political activities were concerned, notably on Polish independence.[5] Alma-Tadema maintained a long-correspondence from him from 1915 to the end of her life. Some of her papers are deposited with the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.[6]
Alma-Tadema, who had socialist leanings, travelled to America in 1907–08 to tour the country widely.[4] She gave a series of readings on the "Meaning of Happiness," which proved exceedingly popular.[4] She also spoke on the plight of the divided Poland and asked her audience to express their feelings for this cause.[7][8]
Alma-Tadema's poem "If No One Ever Marries Me", written in 1897 and published in Realms of Unknown Kings,[9] saw performances as a song in the 21st century by Natalie Merchant on her double album Leave Your Sleep.[10][11] In 1900 it had been included in the musical score, The daisy chain, cycle of twelve songs of childhood by Liza Lehmann,[12] and in 1922 in the musical score Little girls composed by Louise Sington.
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