Helen Waddell
Born in Tokyo, the tenth and youngest child of Hugh Waddell, a Presbyterian minister and missionary who was lecturing in the Imperial University. She spent the first eleven years of her life in Japan before her family returned to Belfast.
Waddell was educated at Victoria College for Girls and Queen's University Belfast, where she studied under Professor Gregory Smith, graduating in 1911. She followed her BA with first class honours in English with a master's degree, and in 1919 enrolled in Somerville College, Oxford, to study for her doctorate. A travelling scholarship from Lady Margaret Hall in 1923 allowed her to conduct research in Paris.
She is best known for bringing to light the history of the medieval goliards in her 1927 book The Wandering Scholars, and translating their Latin poetry in the companion volume Medieval Latin Lyrics. A second anthology, More Latin Lyrics, was compiled in the 1940s but not published until after her death. Her other works range widely in subject matter. Her historical novel Peter Abelard was published in 1933 and was critically well received and became a bestseller.
She also wrote many articles for the Evening Standard, the Manchester Guardian and The Nation, and did lecturing and broadcasting.
Waddell received honorary degrees from Columbia, Belfast, Durham and St. Andrews and won the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature.
A serious debilitating neurological disease put an end to her writing career in 1950. She died in London in 1965 and was buried in Magherally churchyard, County Down, Northern Ireland. A prize-winning biography of her by the Benedictine nun Dame Felicitas Corrigan was published in 1986.
Books
OpenLibrary works by this author.
Helen Waddell's writings from Japan
The wandering scholars of the Middle Ages
Between two eternities
Peter Abelard
The Desert Fathers
Thew andering scholars
More Latin Lyrics
Songs of the wandering scholars
The Princess Splendour, and other stories
The Princess Splendour and Other Stories
Medieval Latin lyrics
Medi©Œval Latin lyrics
The story of Saul the king
Peter Abelard, a novel
The Desert Fahers
The Desert Fathers
Stories from Holy Writ
Mediaeval Latin lyrics / by Helen Waddell. --
Poetry in the Dark Ages
New York City
Beasts and saints
A Book of Medieval Latin for Schools (Education) (Education)
Medieval Latin lyrics
Peter Abelard
Peter Abelard
Peter Abelard
The Abbe Pre vost
The Abbé Prévost
A book of medieval Latin for schools
Mediaeval latin lyrics
Mediaeval Latin lyrics
John of Salisbury
The wandering scholars
The spoiled Buddha
Lyrics from the Chinese
A book of medieval Latin for schools
Beasts and saints
Beasts and saints
Beasts and saints
Beasts and saints
Book of Mediaeval Latin for Schools
G.S
Lament for Damon
Lyrics from the Chinese
Lyrics from the Chinese
Lyrics from the Chinese
Lyrics from the Chinese
Mediaeval Latin lyrics
Mediaeval Latin lyrics
Mediaeval Latin lyrics
Mediaeval Latin lyrics
Mediaeval Latin lyrics
More Latin lyrics from Virgil to Milton
More Latin lyrics, from Virgil to Milton
New York City
Peter Abelard
Peter Abelard
Peter Abelard
Peter Abelard
Poetry in the dark Ages
Poetry in the Dark Ages
Poetry in the Dark Ages
The desert fathers
The desert fathers
The desert fathers
The desert fathers
The desert fathers
The desert fathers
The desert Fathers
The Desert fathers
The Desert Fathers
The Desert Fathers
The Desert Fathers - Translations from the Latin
The Spoiled Buddha
The universal recorder album
The uttermost isles
The wandering scholars
The wandering scholars
The wandering scholars
The wandering scholars
The wandering scholars
The wandering scholars
The Wandering Scholars
Fetched from OpenLibrary. Some translations may appear as separate works.