Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall (12 August 1880 – 7 October 1943) was an English poet and author, best known for the novel The Well of Loneliness, a groundbreaking work in lesbian literature. In adulthood, Hall often went by the name John, rather than Marguerite. Early life Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall was born in 1880 at "Sunny Lawn", Durley Road, Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset), to Radclyffe ("Rat") Radclyffe-Hall (1846-1898) and Mary Jane Sager (née Diehl). Hall's father was a wealthy philanderer, educated at Eton and Oxford but seldom working, since he inherited a large amount of money from his father, an eminent physician who was head of the British Medical Association; her mother was an unstable American widow from Philadelphia. Radclyffe's father left in 1882, abandoning young Radclyffe and her mother. However, he did leave behind a considerable inheritance for Radclyffe. Radclyffe's mother subsequently married Albert Visetti, a professor of singing, whom Radclyffe did not like and who had a tempestuous relationship with her mother. Radclyffe also despised her mother. Throughout her childhood, Mary made it clear that Radclyffe was unwanted after failing to get an abortion during pregnancy. She frequently dipped into Radclyffe's inheritance money for herself. As Hall grew older and gained more autonomy, she realized that she had enough inheritance money from her father to live without working or marrying. She began to do as she pleased, dressing in typical men's fashion of the times, such as trousers, monocles and hats. Hall was a lesbian but described herself as a "congenital invert", a term taken from the writings of Havelock Ellis and other turn-of-the-century sexologists. Having reached adulthood without a vocation, she spent much of her twenties pursuing women she eventually lost to marriage. In 1907 at the Bad Homburg spa in Germany, Hall met Mabel Batten, a well-known amateur singer of . Batten (nicknamed "Ladye") was 51 years old to Hall's 27, and was married with an adult daughter and grandchildren. They fell in love and, after Batten's husband died, they set up residence together. Batten introduced Hall to a circle of artistic and intellectual women, many of them lesbians. She also was the first to call Hall "John", after noting her resemblance to one of Hall's male ancestors, and Hall used this name for the rest of her life. Batten encouraged Hall to begin seeking publishing for her poetry. In 1915, Hall fell in love with