Angus Calder

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Angus Calder (1942- June 2008) was an academic writer, historian, and literary editor with a background in English literature, politics and cultural studies. In 1967 he won the Eric Gregory Award for his poetry and the 1970 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.

He read English literature at the University of Cambridge, and wrote a doctorate at the University of Sussex, on politics in the United Kingdom during World War II. His book The People's War: Britain 1939-1945 was published in 1969.

Revolutionary Empire (1981) studied three centuries of imperial development by English speakers, to the end of the eighteenth century. The Myth of The Blitz (1991) argued that received ideas of the civilian population's reaction to the bombing of London still reflected wartime propaganda.

He resided in Scotland since 1971 until his death, working for 14 years there for the Open University. Revolving Culture: Notes from the Scottish Republic is a collection of essays on Scottish topics; he has also worked as an editor of the prose of Hugh MacDiarmid. In 1997 he edited Time to Kill — the Soldier's Experience of War in the West 1939-1945 with Paul Addison.

He wrote four volumes of poetry, and helped set up the Scottish Poetry Library in 1984; he became its first convenor.

Angus Calder was son of Peter Ritchie Calder (1906-1982), a noted science writer, Humanist and pacifist. He was formerly married to Jenni Calder, daughter of David Daiches.

Contents

[edit] Selected bibliography

[edit] History and Literary Criticism

  • The People’s War: Britain, 1939-45. London: Jonathan Cape, 1969.
  • Scott, with Jenni Calder. London: Evans, 1969.
  • Russia Discovered: Nineteenth Century Fiction from Pushkin to Chekhov. London: Heinemann, 1976.
  • Revolutionary Empire: The Rise of the English-Speaking Empires from the Fifteenth Century to the 1780s. London: Jonathan Cape, 1981.
  • T. S. Eliot. Brighton: Harvester, 1987.
  • Byron. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1987.
  • The Myth of the Blitz. London: Jonathan Cape, 1990.
  • Revolving Culture. London: I. B. Tauris, 1994.
  • Scotlands of the Mind. Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2002.
  • Disasters and Heroes: On War, Memory and Representation. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2004.
  • Gods, Mongrels and Demons: 101 Brief but Essential Lives. London: Bloomsbury, 2004.

[edit] Poetry

  • Waking in Waikato. Edinburgh: diehard, 1997.
  • Horace in Tollcross: Eftir some odes of Q. H. Flaccus. Newtyle: Kettilonia, 2000.
  • Colours of Grief. Nottingham: Shoestring, 2002.
  • Dipa’s Bowl. London: Aark Arts, 2004.
  • Sun Behind the Castle: Edinburgh Poems. Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2004.

[edit] Edited Collections: Poetry and Prose

  • Britain at War, 1942. London: Jonathan Cape, 1973.
  • Writers in East Africa', with Andrew Gurr. Nairobi: East African Literature, 1974.
  • Summer Fires: New Poetry of Africa, with Jack Mapanje and Cosmo Pieterse. London: Heinemann, 1983.
  • Englische Lyrik 1900-1980, with Gabriele Bok. Leipzig: Reclam, 1983.
  • Speak for Yourself: A Mass Observation Anthology, with Dorothy Sheridan. London: Jonathan Cape, 1984.
  • Byron and Scotland: Radical or Dandy? London: Edinburgh University Press, 1989.
  • Selected Poetry by Robert Burns, with William Donnelly. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991.
  • David Livingstone and the Victorian Encounter with Africa, with John M. Mackenzie and Jeanne Cannizzo. London: National Portrait Gallery, 1996.
  • Time to Kill: The Soldier’s Experience of War in the West, 1939-45, with Paul Addison. London: Pimlico, 1997.
  • The Rauchle Tongue: Selected Essays, Journalism and Interviews by Hugh MacDiarmid, with Glen Murray and Alan Riach (3 vols). Manchester: Carcanet, 1997-8.
  • Wars. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.
  • Selected Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.
  • The Souls of the Dead are Taking the Best Seats: 50 World Poets on War, with Beth Junor. Edinburgh: Luath Press, Edinburgh, 2005.

[edit] Introductions

  • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.
  • Faces at the Crossroads ed. Chris Wanjala. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1971.
  • Old Mortality by Walter Scott. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
  • The Twelve Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence. Ware: Wordsworth, 1999.
  • The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell. Ware: Wordsworth, 1999.
  • Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001.
  • The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, illustrated by Ralph Steadman. London: Bloomsbury, 2003.
  • The Thrie Estaitis by David Lindsay, ed. Alan Spence. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003.
  • Sugar-Coated Pill: Selected Poems by Mahmood Jamal. Edinburgh: Word Power, 2007.

[edit] External links


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