Harriet Shaw Weaver

Life Harriet Shaw Weaver was born in Frodsham, Cheshire, the sixth of eight children of Frederic Poynton Weaver, a doctor, and Mary (née Wright) Weaver, a wealthy heiress. She was educated privately by a governess, Miss Marion Spooner, until 1894, initially in Cheshire and later in Hampstead. Her parents denied her wish to go to university. She decided to become a social worker. After attending a course on the economic basis of social relations at the London School of Economics she became involved in women's suffrage and joined the Women's Social and Political Union. ), but following her reservations about his work that was to become Finnegans Wake, their relationship became strained and then virtually broken. However, on Joyce's death, Weaver paid for his funeral and acted as his executor.

In 1931, Weaver joined the Labour Party; however, having been influenced by reading Marx's Das Kapital, she joined the Communist Party in 1938. She was active in this organisation, taking part in demonstrations and selling copies of the Daily Worker. She also continued her allegiance to the memory of Joyce, acting as his literary executor and helping to compile The Letters of James Joyce. She died at her home near Saffron Walden in 1961, aged 85, leaving her collection of literary material to the British Library and to the National Book League.