Janet Hobhouse
Janet Hobhouse was an American author and art critic, born on March 27, 1948, in New York City. She spent her early years in a tumultuous family environment that influenced her later writing. After completing her education at Spence School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Hobhouse began her career as a freelance art critic, contributing to notable publications on both sides of the Atlantic. She transitioned into fiction writing, garnering critical acclaim for her novels such as *Nellie Without Hugo*, *Dancing in the Dark*, and *November*. Hobhouse's work often drew from her personal experiences, including her complex relationship with her mother and her struggles with cancer. Her biography of Gertrude Stein earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination, showcasing her ability to blend art criticism with literary biography. In her later years, she continued to write while battling ovarian cancer, producing her final novel, *The Furies*, which reflects her poignant thoughts on life and mortality. Despite her premature death at the age of forty-two, Hobhouse left a lasting impact on literature and art criticism with her confessional style and insightful explorations of human relationships.
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Subject Terms
Janet Hobhouse
- Born: March 27, 1948
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: February 1, 1991
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Janet Hobhouse was born Janet Konradin Hobhouse on March 27, 1948, in New York City, the daughter of Henry and Frances Hobhouse. Her parents’ marriage was tumultuous and eventually they divorced, with her father, a British citizen, returning to England. Hobhouse remained in the care of her American mother until 1964, when she graduated from Spence School and traveled overseas to live with her father. In 1969, she received her B.A. from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, graduating with honors.
Hobhouse emerged on the writing scene as a freelance art critic on both sides of the Atlantic before finding her literary niche in the novel. At Arts Magazine in New York City, she held the position of art reviewer for two years in the early 1970’s. Returning to England, she worked as an editor at the publishing house of Barrie and Jenkins (1972) before taking a position at Secker and Warburg. During her London years, she wrote art reviews in Studio International and completed Everybody Who Was Anybody: A Biography of Gertrude Stein, published to critical acclaim in 1975. She met and fell in love with fellow journalist Nicholas Fraser, but their 1974 marriage ended in divorce in 1983.
In 1976, Hobhouse returned to her birth city and commenced writing novels. Nellie Without Hugo (1982), Dancing in the Dark (1983), and November (1986) received critical accolades. In 1987, she reprised her journalistic skills for a two-year stint as Newsweek magazine’s primary art critic. Hobhouse’s expertise in critiquing the visual arts culminated in the 1988 publication of her nonfiction The Bride Stripped Bare: The Artist and the Female Nude in the Twentieth Century (1988).
In her last year she wrote The Furies, fully cognizant of her terminal illness. Hobhouse succumbed to ovarian cancer in New York City in January, 1991, her nearly complete novel published posthumously in 1993. The mother-daughter conflict at the heart of the story is based on Hobhouse’s own erratic relationship with her mother, which, like the bond depicted in the novel, was variously nurturing and destructive. In a very real sense, The Furies is Hobhouse’s last testament as it unfolds her final thoughts about life, relationships, and dying.
Hobhouse’s biography of Gertrude Stein received a Pulitzer Prize nomination. November was recommended for the British Booker Prize. The recipient of numerous foundation awards, Hobhouse’s final years were spent as a writer-in-residence at various arts colonies.
A highly commended art critic, biographer, and novelist, Janet Hobhouse’s significant contributions to literature ended prematurely with her death at age forty-two. Critics laud Hobhouse’s personal writing style; her confessional novels are based on intimate life experiences, whether her turbulent childhood, her failed marriage, her explorations of alternative lifestyles, or her journey with cancer. Clearly her skills as an art critic and biographer enhanced her scope and style as a novelist. Hobhouse began her writing career focusing the critical lens on other artists and their creations, then pointed it back more revealingly toward her self.