E. H. Visiak

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Edward Harold Physick (20 July 1878 - 30 August 1972) was an English writer, known chiefly as a critic and authority on John Milton; also a poet and fantasy writer. He used the pseudonym E. H. Visiak from 1910.

Contents

[edit] Life

He was born in Ealing, London on July 20 1878. Both his father, Edward James Physick (the younger), and his grandfather, Edward James Physick (the elder), were sculptors. His maternal uncle was W. H. Helm, writer and critic.

He went to Hitchin Grammar school (now Hitchin Boys School), and became a clerical worker with the Indo-European Telegraph Company. He contributed poetry to The New Age and Dora Marsden's New Freewoman.

During World War I he was a conscientious objector. After a short time teaching he became an independent scholar, living very quietly. During the 1930s he collaborated on some short stories, with John Gawsworth in particular.

A friend and enthusiast of the Scottish novelist David Lindsay, Visiak wrote three short macabre novels, The Haunted Island, Medusa and The Shadow, and the autobiography Life's Morning Hour.

[edit] Works

[edit] Poetry

  • Buccaneer Ballads (1910)
  • Flints and Flashes (1911)
  • The Phantom Ship (1912)
  • The Battle Fiends (1916)

[edit] Novels

  • The Haunted Island (1910)
  • Medusa: A Story of Mystery (1929)
  • The Shadow (1936)

[edit] Literary criticism

  • Milton Agonistes: a metaphysical criticism (1923)
  • Mirror of Conrad (1956)
  • Portent of Milton: Some Aspects of His Genius (1968)
  • The Strange Genius of David Lindsay (1970; with J. B. Pick and Colin Wilson)

[edit] As editor

  • The Mask of Comus (1937)
  • Milton's Lament for Damon and his other Latin poems (1935; with Walter W. Skeat)
  • Richards' Shilling Selections from Edwardian Poets (1936)
  • Milton: Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, with English Metrical Translations of the Latin, Greek and Italian Poems (1938)

[edit] Autobiography

  • Life's Morning Hour (1969)

[edit] Critical study/anthology