Laurence Alma-Tadema (August 1865 – 12 March 1940), born Laurense Tadema, was a British writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked in many genres.[1]
Alma-Tadema was born in Brussels in 1865. She was the eldest daughter of the Dutch painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912) and his first wife Marie-Pauline Gressin-Dumoulin de Boisgirard.[2] Laurence lived in the cottage "The Fair Haven", Wittersham, Kent, and she involved herself with music and plays with the villagers and their children, going on to construct a building to seat a hundred people, used for musical concerts and plays, which she named "Hall of Happy Hours".[3] She mostly divided her time between a flat in Paris and her cottage in Wittersham.[4] She never married, and died in a nursing home in London on 12 March 1940.[1][5] Her stepmother, Lady Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema (1852–1909) and younger sister Anna Alma-Tadema (1867–1943) were noted visual artists.[6]
Alma-Tadema's first novel, Love's Martyr, was published in 1886. In addition to her own collections of stories and poems, which she often published herself, Alma-Tadema wrote two novels, songs and works on drama; she also made translations. The Orlando Project says about Alma-Tadema's writing that the "characteristic tone is one of intense emotion, but in prose and verse she has the gift of compression".[1] She contributed widely to periodicals, notably The Yellow Book, and also edited one herself.[1] Some of Alma-Tadema's plays were successfully produced in Germany.[3]
Alma-Tadema's poem "If No One Ever Marries Me", written in 1897 and published in Realms of Unknown Kings,[7] saw performances as a song in the 21st century by Natalie Merchant on her double album Leave Your Sleep.[8][9] In 1900 it had been included in the musical score, The daisy chain, cycle of twelve songs of childhood by Liza Lehmann,[10] and in 1922 in the musical score Little girls composed by Louise Sington.[citation needed]
Alma-Tadema had a close association with Poland. She was secretary of the "Poland and the Polish Victims Relief Fund" from 1915 to 1939. She was an admirer and long-term associate of Ignacy Jan Paderewski both as far as his music and political activities were concerned, notably on Polish independence.[5] Alma-Tadema maintained a correspondence with him from 1915 to the end of her life. Some of her papers are deposited with the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.[11]
Alma-Tadema, who had socialist leanings, travelled to America in 1907 to tour the country widely.[3] She gave a series of readings on the "Meaning of Happiness", which proved exceedingly popular.[3] She also spoke on the plight of the divided Poland and asked her audience to express their feelings for this cause.[12][13]
