- Hugh Sykes Davies
Hugh Sykes Davies (1909-1984) was an English
poet ,novelist andcommunist who was one of a small group of 1930s Britishsurrealist s.Davies was born in
Yorkshire to a Methodist minister and his wife. He went toKingswood School , Bath and studied at Cambridge University, where he co-edited a student magazine called "Experiment" withWilliam Empson . He spent some time inParis during the 1930s. He was to stand as a communist candidate in the 1940 general election, but the vote was cancelled because ofWorld War II . He was one of the organisers of theLondon International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936.He had a talent for friendship, and as well as Empson, he numbered
T. S. Eliot ,I. A. Richards ,Anthony Blunt ,Wittgenstein andSalvador Dalí amongst his circle. At one stage he hadMalcolm Lowry declared his ward in an attempt to stop Lowry's drinking.Davies' poems were mostly published in "avant garde" magazines and were not collected during his lifetime. His novels include "Full Fathom Five" (1956) and "The Papers of Andrew Melmoth" (1960).
He was a University Lecturer and Fellow of
St. John's College, Cambridge .External links
* [http://www.jacketmagazine.com/20/index.html#hsd Biography, poems, prose and checklist of publications]
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