Rosamund Marriott Watson
Encyclopedia
Victorian literature
Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria . It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century....
and critic who wrote under the pseudonym of Graham R. Tomson. Her poems, which presaged modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, are informed by aestheticism
Aestheticism
Aestheticism was a 19th century European art movement that emphasized aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design...
and occasionally avant-garde sensibilities. Watson's personal life was fraught with scandal, she left first husband George Armytage and wed the artist Arthur Graham Tomson. She later left him for H.B. Marriott Watson, a journalist, in both of these early marriages she lost custody of her children. She remained with Watson for the reminder of her life, though they were never officially married, causing much speculation as to the existence of a possible illicit lesbian affair. Several of her poems were published in the Yellow Book. Her volumes of poetry included Tares (1884), A Summer Night (1891) and After Sunset (1903). A novel, An Island Rose, was published in 1900. Watson also wrote prolifically on gardening, and her essays on the subject were published in the Heart of a Garden (1906). She wrote several columns on interior design and fashion, some of which were collected in the Art of the House (1897) before forsaking her writing career for a brief bout with religious fanaticism which resulted in her death at the age of 51. Her collected poems were published in 1912 with an introduction by H.B. Marriott Watson. A biography of Watson, entitled Graham R., was published in 2005.