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Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Roger Seymour-Smith (24 April 1928 – 1 July 1998) was a British poet, literary critic, and biographer. Biography Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Highgate School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was editor of ''Isis'' and '' Oxford Poetry''. His father Frank was a chief librarian who supplied books to Robert Graves, and who published the survey ''An English Library, an Annotated List of 1300 Classics'' in 1943, followed by ''What Shall I Read Next: a Personal Selection of Twentieth Century English Books'' in 1953. His mother Marjorie wrote poetry and published under the name of Elena Fearn. He began as one of the most promising Anglophone post-war poets, but became better known as a critic, writing biographies of Robert Graves (whom he met first at age 14 and maintained close ties with), Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy, and producing numerous critical studies. The poet and critic Robert Nye stated that Seymour-Smith was "one of the finest British ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literary Critic
A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's goals and methods. Although the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists. Whether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry from literary theory is a matter of some controversy. For example, ''The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism'' draws no distinction between literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract. Literary criticism is often published in essay or boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial parents, he was sent to England at the age of 11 for his education. He did not like formal education, and started writing poetry at the age of 15. His first book was published in 1935, when he was 23 years old. In March 1935 he and his mother and younger siblings moved to the island of Corfu. Durrell spent many years thereafter living around the world. His most famous work is '' The Alexandria Quartet'', published between 1957 and 1960. The best-known novel in the series is the first, '' Justine''. Beginning in 1974, Durrell published '' The Avignon Quintet'', using many of the same techniques. The first of these novels, '' Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness'', won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1974. The middle novel, '' Constance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' (1916–17) and ''The Human Age'' trilogy, comprising ''The Childermass'' (1928), ''Monstre Gai'' (1955) and ''Malign Fiesta'' (1955). A fourth volume, ''The Trial of Man'', remained unfinished upon his death. He wrote two autobiographical volumes: ''Blasting and Bombardiering'' (1937) and ''Rude Assignment: A Narrative of my Career Up-to-Date'' (1950). Life and career Early life Percy Wyndham Lewis was born on 18 November 1882, reputedly on his father's yacht off the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.Richard Cork"Lewis, (Percy) Wyndham (1882–1957)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. His English mother, Anne Stuart Lewis (née Prickett), and American father, Charles Edwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laura Riding
Laura Riding Jackson (born Laura Reichenthal; January 16, 1901 – September 2, 1991), best known as Laura Riding, was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer. Early life and education She was born in New York City to Nathaniel Reichenthal, a Jewish immigrant from Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia, and Sadie (née Edersheim), and educated at Cornell University. She met historian Louis R. Gottschalk, then a graduate assistant at Cornell, and they married in 1920. Career She began to write poetry, publishing first (1923–26) under the name Laura Riding Gottschalk. She became associated with the Fugitives (poets), Fugitives through Allen Tate, and they published her poems in ''The Fugitive'' magazine. They awarded her the Nashville Prize in 1924. Her marriage with Gottschalk ended in divorce in 1925, at the end of which year she went to England at the invitation of Robert Graves and his wife Nancy Nicholson. She would remain in Europe for nearly 14 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Hanley (novelist)
James (Joseph) Hanley (3 September 1897 – 11 November 1985) was a British novelist, short story writer, and playwright from Kirkdale, Liverpool, Lancashire, of Irish descent. Hanley came from a seafaring family and spent two years at sea himself, during World War I. He published his first novel ''Drift'' in 1930. In the 1930s and 1940s his novels and short stories focussed on seamen and their families, and included '' Boy'' (1931), the subject of an obscenity trial. After World War II there was less emphasis on the sea in his works. While frequently praised by critics, Hanley's novels did not sell well. In the late 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s he wrote plays, mainly for the BBC, for radio and then for television, and also for the theatre. He returned to the novel in the 1970s. His last novel, ''A Kingdom'', was published in 1978, when he was eighty. His brother Gerald was also a novelist. Biography Born in Kirkdale, Liverpool, Lancashire, in 1897 (not Dublin, nor 1901 as he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyglot (person)
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one language other than their mother tongue; but many read and write in one language. Being multilingual is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness. Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible. People who speak several languages are also called ''polyglots''. Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is usually acquired without formal edu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Quartets
''Four Quartets'' is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published over a six-year period. The first poem, ''Burnt Norton'', was published with a collection of his early works (1936's ''Collected Poems 1909–1935''). After a few years, Eliot composed the other three poems, ''East Coker (poem), East Coker'', ''The Dry Salvages'', and ''Little Gidding (poem), Little Gidding'', which were written during World War II and the The Blitz, air-raids on Great Britain. They were first published as a series by Faber and Faber in Great Britain between 1940 and 1942 towards the end of Eliot's poetic career (''East Coker'' in September 1940, ''Burnt Norton'' in February 1941, ''The Dry Salvages'' in September 1941 and ''Little Gidding'' in 1942). The poems were not collected until Eliot's New York publisher printed them together in 1943. ''Four Quartets'' are four interlinked Meditation (writing), meditations with the common theme being man's relationship with time, the unive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilary Spurling
Susan Hilary Spurling ( Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer. Early life and education Born in Stockport, Cheshire, to circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest (1912–1977) and teacher Emily Maureen, daughter of Joseph Armstrong, of Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, Spurling was educated at Clifton High School, an independent school in Bristol, South-West England, and then at Somerville College, Oxford.''International Who's Who of Writers and Authors'', 23rd edition, Europa Publications, Taylor & Francis Group, 2008, p. 685. Career Spurling won the Whitbread Prize for the second volume of her biography of Henri Matisse in January 2006.''Burying The Bones: Pearl Buck in China'' was published in March 2010. Personal life In 1961, she married playwright John Spurling. The couple have three children (Amy, Nathaniel, and Gilbert). Works *''Ivy When Young: The Early Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884–1919'' (1974) *''M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social criticism, social and literary criticism. He is best known for satirical comedies such as ''Lucky Jim'' (1954), ''One Fat Englishman'' (1963), ''Ending Up'' (1974), ''Jake's Thing'' (1978) and ''The Old Devils'' (1986). His biographer Zachary Leader called Amis "the finest English comic novelist of the second half of the twentieth century." In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked him ninth on a list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. He was the father of the novelist Martin Amis. Life and career Kingsley Amis was born on 16 April 1922 in Clapham, south London, the only child of William Robert Amis (1889–1963), a clerk—"quite an important one, fluent in Spanish and responsible for exporting mustard to South America"—for the mustard man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Dance To The Music Of Time
''A Dance to the Music of Time'' is a 12-volume ''Book series#History, roman-fleuve'' by English writer Anthony Powell, published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in English political, cultural and military life in the mid-20th century. The books were inspired by the A Dance to the Music of Time (painting), painting of the same name by French artist Nicolas Poussin. The sequence is narrated by Nicholas Jenkins. At the beginning of the first volume, Jenkins falls into a reverie while watching snow descending on a coal brazier. This reminds him of "the ancient world—legionaries ... mountain altars ... centaurs ..." These classical projections introduce the account of his schooldays, which opens ''A Question of Upbringing''. Over the course of the following volumes, he recalls the people he met over the previous half a century and the events, often small, that reveal the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work '' A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English. Powell's major work has remained in print continuously and has been the subject of television and radio dramatisations. In 2008, ''The Times'' newspaper named Powell among their list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945." Life Powell was born in Westminster, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Lionel William Powell (1882–1959), of the Welch Regiment, and Maud Mary (died 1954), daughter of Edmund Lionel Wells-Dymoke, of The Grange, East Molesey, Surrey. Wells-Dymoke was a descendant of a land-owning family in Lincolnshire, hereditary Champions to monarchs since the reign of Richard II of England. They had married into the family of the Barons Marmion, who first held the position. The Powell family descended from ancient Welsh ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Hughes
Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008, ''The Times'' ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British literature, British writers since 1945". He married fellow poet Sylvia Plath, an American, in 1956. They lived together in the United States and then in England, in what was known to be a tumultuous relationship. They had two children before separating in 1962. Plath ended her own life in 1963. Biography Early life Hughes was born at 1 Aspinall Street, in Mytholmroyd in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to William Henry (1894–1981) and Edith (née Farrar) Hughes (1898–1969). He was raised among the local farms of the Calderdale, Calder Valley and o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
