Rebecca West was born Cicily Isabel Fairfield on December 21, 1892, in London, England. Her father was Charles Fairfield, a former army officer, and her mother, Isabella MacKenzie Fairfield, was a pianist. Cicily Fairfield spent her early years in London, England, and was then educated at George Watson's Ladies' College in Edinburgh, Scotland. She also studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In 1911 she joined the suffragist movement and became a book reviewer for the Freewoman, a feminist magazine. In the same year she adopted the name Rebecca West. In 1913 West became a political writer for the socialist magazine, the Clarion. She was ready to embark on her distinguished career as novelist, literary critic, journalist, and biographer.

In 1916, West's study of the writer Henry James was published. Two years later her first novel, The Return of the Soldier, appeared, followed in 1922 by a second novel, The...