Wrey Gardiner

Charles Wrey Gardiner (1901 – 1981) was an English writer and poet, editor and publisher, born in Plymouth.

Gardiner was a noted and well-connected literary figure, particularly in London in the years around World War II, though very much in the tradition of the literary amateur. His importance in publishing was through editorial work for the little magazine "Poetry Quarterly" from 1939, continuing to 1953, and the establishment of the "Grey Walls Press", in Billericay, Essex in 1940. "Lyra: An anthology of new lyric" (1942), edited by Alex Comfort and Robert Greacen, was a representative poetry anthology published by Grey Walls, containing new writing of the time. He is also notable as a supporter of Kenneth Patchen, whose "Outlaw of the Lowest Planet" he published in 1946, with an introduction by David Gascoyne and a preface by Alex Comfort.

His many works include "Laid in Sharp Scorpions: Poems" (1941), "The Gates of Silence" (1944, poems), "The Dark Thorn" (1946, autobiography), "A Season of Olives" (1948, first novel). He left a great deal of autobiography in manuscript.

"New Road. New Directions In Art & Writing" was a series of anthologies published by Grey Walls Press. These are:

* Volume 1 (1943) - Edited by Alex Comfort and John Bayliss - including a special 50-page "surrealist section"
* Volume 2 (1944) - Edited by Alex Comfort and John Bayliss
* Volume 3 (1945) - Edited by Fred Murnau
* Volume 4 (1946) - Edited by Fred Murnau
* Volume 5 (1949) - Edited by Charles Wrey Gardiner

External links

* [http://marbl.library.emory.edu/FindingAids/content.php?id=gardiner641_10210 Emory Library page]