Forrest Reid (24 June 1875,

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, Ireland; 4 January 1947,

Warrenpoint Warrenpoint () is a small port town and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits at the head of Carlingford Lough, south of Newry, and is separated from the Republic of Ireland by a narrow strait. The town is beside the village ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland) was an Irish novelist, literary critic and translator. He was a leading pre-war novelist of boyhood and is still acclaimed as a noted

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

novelist, being awarded the 1944

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...

for his novel ''Young Tom''.

Early life and education

Born in Belfast, he was the youngest son of a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

family of twelve, six of whom survived. He was educated at the

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today ...

. His father, Robert Reid (1825–1881), was the manager of a felt works, having failed as a shipowner at

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, and came from a well-established upper-middle-class Ulster family; his mother, Frances Matilda, was his father's second wife. She was the daughter of Captain Robert Parr, of the

54th Regiment of Foot The 54th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1755. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1881. History Early history Th ...

, of the landed gentry Parr family of

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

, related to

Catherine Parr Catherine Parr ( – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until Henry's death on 28 January 1547. Catherine was the final queen consort o ...

, last wife of

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement w ...

. Reid entered

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, in 1905, graduating BA in medieval and modern languages in 1908. He returned to Belfast, and met

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910) and '' A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous shor ...

, who remained a lifelong friend, in February 1912. After graduation Forster continued to visit Reid, who was then settled back in Belfast. In 1952, Forster traveled to Belfast to unveil a plaque commemorating Forrest Reid's life (at 13 Ormiston Crescent).

Works and influences

As well as his fiction, Reid also translated poems from the ''

Greek Anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' () is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical Greece, Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Palatine ...

'' (''Greek Authors'' (Faber, 1943)). His study of the work of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

(''W. B. Yeats: A Critical Study'' (1915)) has been acclaimed as one of the best critical studies of that poet. He also wrote the definitive work on the English woodcut artists of the 1860s (''Illustrators of the Sixties'' (1928)); his collection of original illustrations from that time is housed in the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. He was a close friend of

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fi ...

, whom he first met in 1913, and about whose fiction he published a perceptive book in 1929. Reid was also an influence on novelist Stephen Gilbert, and had good connections to the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group was a group of associated British writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the early 20th century. Among the people involved in the group were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, Vanessa Bell, a ...

of writers. Reid was a founding member of the

Imperial Art League Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Impe ...

(later the

Artists League of Great Britain An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

). Reid was also a close friend of

Arthur Greeves Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

, the artist known to be

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

's best friend. Greeves painted several portraits of Reid, now all in the possession of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.

Critical standing

A "Forrest Reid Collection" is held at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

, consisting of first editions of all his works and books about Reid. Many of his original manuscripts are in the archives of the

Belfast Central Library Belfast Central Library is a public library in Royal Avenue, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opened in 1888, it was one of the first major public library buildings in Ireland. A competition for the design of the building was won by architect Will ...

. In 2008, Queen's University Belfast catalogued a large collection of Forrest Reid documentary material it had recently acquired, including many letters from E.M. Forster.Detailed listing of Forrest Reid Manuscripts held at Queen's University Belfast

Works

Fiction

''The Kingdom of Twilight''
(1904)
''The Garden God – A Tale of Two Boys''
(1905)
''The Bracknels – A Family Chronicle''
(1911), revised as ''Denis Bracknel'' (1947)
''Following Darkness''
(1912)
''The Gentle Lover – A Comedy of Middle Age''
(1913)
''At the Door of the Gate''
(1915)
''The Spring Song''
(1916)
''A Garden by the Sea''
(1918)(stories) * ''Pirates of the Spring'' (1919)
''Pender among the Residents''
(1922) * ''Demophon – a Traveller's Tale'' (1927) * ''Uncle Stephen'' (1931) * ''Brian Westby'' (1934) * ''The Retreat'' (1936) * ''Peter Waring'' (1937) * ''Young Tom'' (1944) Out-of-copyright works (pre-1930s) may be available at https://www.gutenberg.org Search for the author and/or the title.

Autobiography

* ''Apostate'' (1926) * ''Private Road'' (1940)

Reissue editions

Beginning in 2007,

Valancourt Books Valancourt Books is an independent American publishing house founded by James Jenkins and Ryan Cagle in 2005. The company specializes in "the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction", in particular gay titles, Gothic novels a ...

began releasing editions of Reid's works, all containing new introductions by authors and scholars: * ''The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys'' (2007), edited with a foreword, introduction and notes by Michael Matthew Kaylor * ''The Tom Barber Trilogy'' (2011) hardcover two-volume set * ''The Spring Song'' (2013) * ''Following Darkness'' (2013) * ''Brian Westby'' (2013) * ''Denis Bracknel'' (2014) * ''Pender among the Residents'' (2014) * ''Uncle Stephen'' (2014) * ''The Retreat'' (2015) * ''Young Tom'' (2015)

References

* Paul Goldman and Brian Taylor, ''Retrospective Adventures: Forrest Reid, Author and Collector'' (Scholar Press, 1998) * Colin Cruise, "Error &

Eros Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...

: The Fiction of Forrest Reid", ''Sex, Nation & Dissent'' (

Cork University University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Colleges located in ...

Press, 1997) * Brian Taylor, ''The Green Avenue: The Life and Writings of Forrest Reid'', (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1980) * Russell Burlingham, ''Forrest Reid: A Portrait & A Study'' (Faber, 1953) * John Wilson Foster, critical readings of Forrest Reid in ''Forces and Themes in Ulster Fiction'' (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield; Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1974), pp. 139–48, 197–211 * Eamonn Hughes, "Ulster of the Senses", ''Fortnight'' #306 (May 1992) – essay about Reid's autobiography

External links

* * * * Forrest Rei
website
including biography, photographs and links
Catalogue from the Forrest Reid/Stephen Gilbert exhibition
(Queen's University Belfast, 2008)

at Valancourt Books * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Forrest 1875 births 1947 deaths Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Irish literary critics James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Gay writers from Northern Ireland Male writers from Northern Ireland Writers from Belfast