Partner Patricia Allan-Burns
Queer Places:
6 Hawthorns, Parkside, Vicerons Place, Bishop’s Stortford CM23 4QT
Bishop's Stortford Old Cemetery
Bishops Stortford, East Hertfordshire District, Hertfordshire, England
Eliot Bliss (12 June 1903 – 10 December 1990)[1][2] was a Jamaican-born English novelist and poet of Anglo-Irish descent, whose literary friendships encompassed
Anna Wickham,
Dorothy Richardson,
Jean Rhys,
Romer Wilson and
Vita Sackville-West.[3]
Born Eileen Norah Lees Bliss at a Jamaican army garrison, she was the daughter of Captain John Plomer Bliss and his wife Eva Lees.[4] Bliss was educated at a number of British convent schools. Her brother John was sent to school in England at the same time.[4] She returned in 1923 to Jamaica for two years, a period that would provide inspiration for her second and last novel. She then settled permanently in England and gained a diploma in journalism from University College, London. In 1925 she renamed herself Eliot as a mark of her respect for George Eliot and T. S. Eliot.[4] Over subsequent years Bliss held various jobs in publishing and made friends with other women writers, notably fellow novelists Romer Wilson, who gave her financial support while she wrote her first novel, and Vita Sackville-West.[3] Her relations with the Australian-born poet Anna Wickham are said to have been intimate.[5] She lived for over half a century with her companion, Patricia Allan-Burns (died October 2, 2011), an artist, in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, where she died in 1990. Allan-Burns disposed of her literary estate, the Bliss Collections, in three stages to the McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa.[5] Bliss left daily diaries in 19 volumes covering January 1959 – December 1960 and January 1963 – August 1980. Prominent authors in her personal library, also held at the McFarlin Library, include Jean Rhys, Radclyffe Hall and Emily Dickinson.[5]
My published books:
