Geoffrey Grigson

Geoffrey Grigson

Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson (2 March 1905 – 25 November 1985) was a British writer. He was born in Pelynt, a village near Looe in Cornwall.

Life

He first came to prominence in the 1930s as a poet, then as editor from 1933 of the influential poetry magazine "New Verse". Fiercely combative, he made many literary enemies.

At various times he was involved in teaching, journalism and broadcasting. During World War II he worked in the editorial department of the BBC Monitoring Service at Wood Norton near Evesham.

Later in life he was a noted critic, reviewer (for the "New York Review of Books" in particular), and compiler of numerous poetry anthologies. He published 13 collections of poetry, and wrote on travel, on art (notably works on Samuel Palmer, Wyndham Lewis and Henry Moore), on the English countryside, and on botany amongst other subjects.

Family

Geoffrey Grigson was born in 1905, the youngest of seven sons of the Rev. William Grigson (1845-1930), the Vicar of Pelynt.

His first wife was Frances Galt (who died in 1937 of tuberculosis). With her, he founded "New Verse.". His second marriage was to Berta Emma Kunert. Following his divorce, his third and last marriage was to Jane Grigson, née McIntyre (1928-90), the writer on food. He had three daughters, including the cookery writer Sophie Grigson, and one son, the jazz pianist and educator, Lionel Grigson.

Geoffrey Grigson in his later life lived between Wiltshire, England and Trôo, a village in the Loir-et-Cher département in France which features in his poetry.

Works

*"The Arts To-day" (1935) editor
*"Several Observations" (1939) poems
*"Samuel Palmer: The Visionary Years" (1947)
*"Wild Flowers in Britain" (Collins, 1947)
*"Essays From the Air: 29 Broadcast Talks" (1951)
*"Collected Poems 1924-1962" (1963)
*"An Ingestion of Ice Cream" (1969)
*"The Concise Encyclopedia of Modern World Literature" (1970) editor
*"The Faber Book of Popular Verse" (1971) editor
*"The Shell Country Book" (1972)
*"The Contrary View: Glimpses of Fudge and Gold" (1974)
*"A Dictionary of English Plant Names (and some products of plants)" (1974)
*"The Faber Book of Love Poems"
*"Angles and Circles and Other Poems" (1974)
*"Britain Observed: The Landscape Through Artists' Eyes" (1975)
*"The Englishman's Flora" (1975)
*"The Penguin Book of Ballads" (1975) editor
*"The Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs" (1977) editor
*"The Faber Book of Nonsense Verse: With a Sprinkling of nonsense Prose" (1979) editor
*"The Faber Book of Poems and Places" (1980) editor
*"Blessings, Kicks and Curses: a critical collection" (1982)
*"Collected Poems 1963-1980" (1982)
*"The Private Art: A Poetry Notebook" (1982)
*"The Faber Book of Reflective Verse" (1984)
*"Country Writings" (1984)
*"Persephone's Flowers" (poems)
*"The Oxford Book of Satirical Verse" (1987) editor

"New Verse: An Anthology" (1942 edition)

Compiled by Grigson. Poets included were:

C. Day Lewis - E. V. Swart - Bernard Spencer - Philip O'Connor - Louis MacNeice - George Barker - Kathleen Raine - Frederic Prokosch - A. J. Young - Archibald MacLeish - Norman Cameron - Stephen Spender - Geoffrey Taylor - Dylan Thomas - A. J. M. Smith - W. H. Auden - Pablo Neruda - Geoffrey Grigson - Hugh Chisholm - Kenneth Allott - Alberto Giacometti - Paul Eluard - Bernard Gutteridge - Ruthven Todd - Gavin Ewart - Charles Madge

"Poetry of the Present" (1949)

Drummond Allison - Kenneth Allott - W. H. Auden - George Barker - John Bayliss - John Betjeman - Norman Cameron - Cecil Day Lewis - William Empson - G. S. Fraser - Christopher Fry - David Gascoyne - Geoffrey Grigson - John Hewitt - Esmé Hooton - Glyn Jones - Sidney Keyes - James Kirkup - Laurie Lee - Louis MacNeice - Charles Madge - Hubert Nicholson - Norman Nicholson - Clere Parsons - Kathleen Raine - W. R. Rodgers - E. J. Scovell - John Short - Bernard Spencer - Stephen Spender - Derek Stanford - Dylan Thomas - Evan Thomas - Ruthven Todd - Rex Warner - Vernon Watkins

References

* Barfoot, C.C. and R.M. Healey (Eds.) "My Rebellious and Imperfect Eye": Observing Geoffrey Grigson". 'DQR Studies in Literature', 33. Amsterdam/New York, 2002. (Contains a comprehensive Geoffrey Grigson bibliography).

External links

* [http://www.colander.org/gallimaufry/Grigson.html Biography]


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