Amy Judith Levy (10 November 1861 – 9 September 1889) was an English essayist, poet, and novelist. One of the first Jewish students at both Cambridge University and Newnham College, she wrote on the situation of Jews in Europe and the challenges facing women who sought independence in male-dominated society. She maintained close relationships with other women living what would be called a "New Woman" life, some of whom were lesbians.
Early life and education
Levy was born in Clapham, an affluent district of London, on 10 November 1861, to Lewis and Isobel Levy. She was the second of seven children born into a Jewish family with a "casual attitude toward religious observance", who sometimes attended a Reform synagogue in Upper Berkeley Street, the West London Synagogue. As an adult, Levy continued to identify herself as Jewish and wrote for The Jewish Chronicle.
Levy showed an interest in literature from an early age. At 13, she wrote a criticism of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's feminist work Aurora Leigh; at 14, Levy's first poem, "Ida Grey: A Story of Woman's Sacrifice", was published in the journal Pelican. Her family was supportive of women's education and encouraged Amy's literary interests; in 1876, she was sent to Brighton and Hove High School and later studied at Newnham College, Cambridge. Levy was the first Jewish student at Newnham when she arrived in 1879 but left before her final year.
Her circle of friends included Clementina Black, Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, Dollie Radford, Eleanor Marx (daughter of Karl Marx), and Olive Schreiner. While travelling in Florence in 1886, Levy met Vernon Lee, a fiction writer and literary theorist six years her senior, and fell in love with her. Both women went on to explore the themes of sapphic love in their works. Lee inspired Levy's poem "To Vernon Lee".
