Douglas Cleverdon

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(Thomas) Douglas James Cleverdon (17 January 1903 – 1 October 1987)[1] was an English bookseller and radio producer, in both fields associated with numerous leading cultural figures in the UK.

Contents

[edit] Early life

He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Jesus College, Oxford. He then set up a bookshop in Bristol.[2] From there he also published.

His first book published was a collection of engravings by Eric Gill, who later made a Book of Alphabets for Douglas Cleverdon. In 1927 he commissioned David Jones to make a set of copper engravings for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.[3].

[edit] Radio work

In 1939 he joined the BBC, where he co-created The Brains Trust with fellow producer Howard Thomas.[4] From 1945 he was in the department headed by Laurence Gilliam.[5] Later, in 1948, Cleverdon would adapt and produce David Jones's major poem In Parenthesis for radio, with Richard Burton and Dylan Thomas,[6] for BBC Radio's Third Programme. In 1954 Cleverdon produced Under Milk Wood, the premier of the Dylan Thomas dramatic poem; according to Jenny Abramsky it had taken seven years to persuade Thomas to write it.[7]

He produced programmes for them featuring Max Beerbohm, Ted Hughes, Stevie Smith and many other poets.[8] Sylvia Plath wrote Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices for Cleverdon, in March 1962.[9] There are at least 232 scripts produced by Cleverdon archived.[10][11]

He married Elinor Nest Lewis in 1944; she was a secretary at the BBC, and they provided a social focus for producers and performers.[12]

[edit] Later life

On leaving the BBC, he set up a fine publishing imprint, Clover Hill Editions, with Will Carter.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Wells, John (2004). Cleverdon, (Thomas) Douglas James (1903–1987). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition, subscription access). Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 2008-04-30.
  2. ^ Cleverdon Mss. Ii
  3. ^ Keith Aldritt, David Jones: Writer and Artist, p. 65.
  4. ^ Thomas, Howard With An Independent Air London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1977 ISBN 0-297-77278-3
  5. ^ Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom (1995), p. 348.
  6. ^ The Official Richard Burton Website
  7. ^ BBC - Press Office - Jenny Abramsky Oxford lecture one
  8. ^ John Betjeman: Letter Volume One: 1926 to 1951, p. 556.
  9. ^ Nephie Christodoulides, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking: Motherhood in Sylvia Plath's Work (2005), p. 137.
  10. ^ University of Delaware: BBC THIRD PROGRAMME RADIO SCRIPTS
  11. ^ Further list http://marbl.library.emory.edu/FindingAids/content.php?id=bbc1055_10255
  12. ^ Obituary of Nest Cleverdon