Video transcript: Radclyffe Hall
Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall, also known as simply Radclyffe Hall, sat in her study at her typewriter as she wrote a story called ‘The Well of Loneliness’, which concerned an English woman from an upper class family who discovers she is a lesbian during World War One, or what was commonly known at the time as ‘invert’, as in inverted sexuality.
Radclyffe was determined that in this novel she would shout to the gods and howl at the moon that being a lesbian was a natural God-given right to all women who felt different than their straight counterparts. Little did she know that she would be facing quite the stir.
The book was a sensation and it became a cult hit among the many unseen lesbians in England. The hatred for the book from close-minded men was never far away. A man by the name of James Douglas, editor of the Sunday Express made it his mission
to write hateful things about the book and it became the subject of great scandal and gossip in the English newspapers of the time.
Many other institutions, such as the Metropolitan Police, also disapproved of its theme and subject matter, and managed to take it all the way to a London court. A splashy court case ensued over the subsequent months and the book was eventually banned, with the judge citing that its content was obscene because it defends the unnatural practices between women.
The book was banned as existing copies shredded and the title all but disappeared from bookshops and libraries. It would not be published for another three decades until 1959.