Geoffrey Grigson
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Geoffrey Grigson (2 March 1905 – 25 November 1985) was a Cornish writer. He first came to prominence in the 1930s as a poet, then as editor from 1933 of New Verse. Fiercely combative, he made many literary enemies. Later in life he was a noted critic, reviewer (for the New York Review of Books in particular), and compiler of numerous anthologies. He published 13 collections of poetry, and wrote on travel, the English countryside, and botany amongst other subjects. His third wife was Jane Grigson, the writer on food; their daughter Sophie Grigson is also a writer on food. His son from his second marriage was the jazz pianist Lionel Grigson.
Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson was born in Pelynt, a village near Looe in Cornwall, Britain. At various times he was involved in teaching, journalism and broadcasting. During World War II he worked on radio monitoring as part of the BBC listening service at Wood Norton near Evesham.
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[edit] Works
- The arts to-day (1935) editor
- Several Observations (1939) poems
- Samuel Palmer: The Visionary Years (1947)
- Essays From the Air: 29 Broadcast Talks (1951)
- Collected Poems 1924-1962 (1963)
- 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 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 Faber book of reflective verse (1984)
- Country Writings (1984)
- Persephone's Flowers (poems)
- The Oxford book of satirical verse (1987) editor
[edit] 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
[edit] 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
[edit] Reference
- 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).
