Jad Adams’s Decadent Women: Yellow Book Lives is a thorough and well-researched monograph that uncovers the lives of several women authors who contributed to The Yellow Book, a fin-de-siècle literary and artistic periodical edited by American-born Henry Harland. The Yellow Book was published between 1894 and 1897 across thirteen quarterly issues.
In Decadent Women, Adams offers biographical studies of eleven of the forty-seven women writers who contributed to The Yellow Book. These include Mary Chavelita Dunne (writing as George Egerton), Ethel Colburn Mayne, Leila Crackanthorpe, Olive Custance, Ella D’Arcy, Mabel Dearmer, Ménie Muriel Dowie, Gabriela Cunninghame Graham, Charlotte Mew, Evelyn Sharp, and Netta Syrett. At the back of the book, Adams clarifies that his inclusion criteria for his subjects were that they must have been accomplished writers in their own right, there must be sufficient relevant archival material for an in-depth analysis of each writer, and, at the time he began the project, there was not an existing biography of anyone included in the book. One of the subjects, Mew, did not meet all of these criteria; Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1984 biography of the author almost prevented her from being included in the text. Thankfully, Adams included her anyway, and the chapter, “Charlotte Mew: Love Rebuffed,” offers readers a detailed consideration of her unique, albeit anxious, character and experiences after The Yellow Book finished its publication run. Crackanthrope’s section, “A Paris Mystery,” was another particularly enjoyable chapter that aptly showcased Adams’ exemplary archival research skills. It read almost like a detective story, and I was gripping the book by the end of the chapter.
The text is divided into two sections. The first, “Fin de Siècle,” contains eleven chapters; two broadly discuss The Yellow Book, and the remaining nine offer accounts of the lives of some of the above women writers in the time leading up to the turn of the century. The second section, “Commence de Siècle,” is made up of nine chapters and regales readers with accounts of some of the group’s adventures in the period between the early part of the twentieth century and their eventual deaths.
The chapters spend the majority of the time uncovering the little-known lives of this group, offering crucial biographical information that had previously been buried in the archives. It is apparent that, in preparation for this manuscript, Adams conducted an impressive review of a mountain of archival material related to his subjects, some of which is included in the text. This includes samples of correspondence, like D’Arcy’s letter to Yellow Book publisher John Lane; some relevant newspaper clippings, like the missing notice for Leila Crackanthrope’s husband, Hubert, that was published in The Graphic in December 1896; and photographs or drawings of the authors. Adams includes such intimate details of each of his subjects that it feels like he had a personal relationship with each one of them.
I am grateful that Adams discusses the complex working relationships of the publisher, John Lane, Harland, and the two women sub-editors, D’Arcy and Mayne. In “Hast Thou Slain the Yallerback?,” Adams offers crucial insights into the dynamic of the Yellow Book offices and shows that, at times, the personal lives of the editorial staff crossed over into their business. The chapter also offers a comprehensive overview of a defining incident of The Yellow Book, when Beardsley was ousted from the publication, causing D’Arcy to step up as temporary Art Director for volume five. The chapter “Office Wars” opens with Harland inviting Mayne to serve as sub-editor while D’Arcy went to stay in France. In this section, Adams unpacks the rivalry between the two sub-editors that led to D’Arcy secretly removing Mayne’s story “The Only Way” and name from the proofs for volume nine. These actions shortly led to D’Arcy being relieved of her sub-editorial duties at The Yellow Book.
Decadent Women also effectively demonstrates how important socialization was for women authors of the Victorian periodical press to form and hone professional relationships, since they were not granted access to male-only spaces where literary works were often commissioned and celebrated. As Adams describes, the many at-homes hosted by various members of the very social Yellow Book circle, like the Harlands’ Saturday evening gatherings, Lane’s tea parties, or “Mabel’s Lurid Mondays” hosted by the Dearmers, were essential occasions for women contributors of The Yellow Book to market themselves and their work.
I do wish that Decadent Women had a conclusion where Adams could draw clear connections among the incredible group of women writers profiled in this book. As Adams makes apparent in the text, these women challenged conventions of Victorian womanhood in their real lives just as much as they did in their writing. While Adams does offer points of analysis scattered throughout, including in the introduction for each section, there were other connections that could have been quickly highlighted at the end of the book. For instance, at least seven of these women, including Syrett, Custance, and Dowie, were known to have had extra-marital affairs and possess unconventional approaches to marriage and relationships. As well, this was a rather globe-trotting group of women; they travelled beyond the United Kingdom to places like Mexico, the United States, and several countries in Europe, sometimes quite early in their lives. These women pushed social and literary boundaries, and a few sentences highlighting these similarities would have rounded out this exciting and informative book.
This is an impressive study of an important but understudied group of women writers who contributed to The Yellow Book. Recovery work like this is vital as it helps scholars of British history and periodical studies gain a stronger understanding of the culture of the late-Victorian press. I hope that, in time, someone can produce a similar monograph with a focus on the women artists of The Yellow Book.
