Rebecca West, 1892-1983, was a British writer and journalist. She was born on December 21, 1892 in Westbourne Park, London, the youngest of three children, all girls. Christened Cicely (subsequently spelled Cicily) Isabel Fairfield, she demonstrated an early aptitude for writing but was determined to be an actress. After studying at the Royal Academy of Arts she worked on stage for about a year, and in 1911 began writing for the feminist magazine The Freewoman. In order to save her family embarrassment regarding this latter employment she adopted as a pseudonym the name of one of the roles she portrayed on stage, that of the rebellious heroine in Henrik Ibsen's Rosmersholm: Rebecca West. West met H.G. Wells in 1912 and bore his son, Anthony Panther West in August 1914. She remained one of Wells' mistresses for ten years. She continued to write both fiction and non-fiction: short stories, novels, feminist and socialist essays, biography and literary criticism. West married a banker, Henry Maxwell Andrews in 1930, was made Commander of the British Empire in 1949, and Dame Commander in 1959. She died in London on the morning of March 15, 1983.