ABSTRACT
Edith Thomas was brought to the attention of a new generation of readers in 1995 when Dorothy Kaufmann published Thomas's memoirs and extracts from her journal. An archivist and historian by profession, as well as a novelist, Thomas became a communist fellow traveller between the wars. Edith Thomas's story is that of a middle-class intellectual woman's attempt to achieve left-wing commitment. The chapter explores four different types of agency. It focuses on agency as declassement, as writing, as action, and as participation. The chapter illustrates how Thomas attempted to contribute to the project of shaping both history and the historical narrative. For Thomas, writing, whether in the form of a novel, history, or a personal memoir, was a testimony to the truth; the truth must be articulated even if it languishes in a dusty archive, unpublished and unread. Thomas's simultaneous need for and rejection of solitude perhaps explains why her relationships with collective organizations were constantly problematic.
