Benson, Stella: - Stella Benson was an English feminist, novelist, poet, and travel writer. She was the recipient of the Benson Medal. In 1892, Benson was born in Easthope, Shropshire, to landed gentry member Ralph Beaumont Benson (1862-1911) and Caroline Essex Cholmondeley. Stella's aunt, Mary Cholmondeley, was a renowned novelist. Stella was frequently ill during her youth and adulthood. By her sixth birthday, she and her family, who lived in London, had moved repeatedly. She spent a portion of her childhood in schools in Germany and Switzerland. She began writing a diary when she was 10 years old and continued to do so throughout her life. Her parents had separated by the time she began composing poems, and she visited her father only seldom after that. When she saw him, he advised her to stop writing poetry for the time being, until she was older and more experienced. Stella, on the other hand, enhanced her writing production by branching out into book writing. Stella discovered her father's alcoholism after he died.