W. S. Graham

William Sydney Graham (November 19 1918 - January 9 1986) was a Scottish poet who is often associated with Dylan Thomas and the neo-romantic group of poets. Graham's work was mostly overlooked in his lifetime but, partly due to the support of Harold Pinter, his work has enjoyed a revival in recent years and is represented in the "Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry" (Oxford University Press, 2001).

Early life and work

Graham was born in Greenock. In 1932, he left school to become an apprentice draughtsman and then studied structural engineering at Stow College, Glasgow. He was awarded a bursary to study literature for a year at Newbattle Abbey College in 1938. Graham spent the war years working at a number of jobs in Scotland and Ireland before moving to Cornwall in 1944. His first book, "Cage Without Grievance" was published in 1942.

Graham and the neo-romantics

The 1940s were prolific years for Graham, and he published four more books during that decade. These were "The Seven Journeys" (1944)' "2ND Poems" (1945), "The Voyages of Alfred Wallis" (1948) and "The White Threshold" (1949). The style of these early poems led critics to see Graham as part of the neo-romantic group that included Dylan Thomas and George Barker. The affinities between these three poets derive from a common interest in poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins, Arthur Rimbaud and Hart Crane, and, in the cases of Thomas and Graham, a taste for the Bohemian lifestyle of the London literary scene.

In 1948, after spending a year on a reading touring of the United States, which included a small amount of teaching at New York University, he moved to London to be nearer the hub of that Bohemian world. Here he came into contact with T. S. Eliot, then editor of Faber and Faber who published "The White Threshold" and who were to remain Graham's publishers for the rest of his life.

"The Nightfishing" and after

In 1954, Graham returned to Cornwall to live near the St. Ives artists colony. Here he became friendly with several of the resident painters, including Bryan Wynter and Roger Hilton. The following year, Faber and Faber published his "The Nightfishing," a book whose title poem is marked a dramatic change in Graham's poetry. The poem moved on from his earlier style and a move away from the neo-romantic/apocalyptic tag. Unfortunately for the poet, the poem's appearance coincided with the rise of the Movement with their open hostility to the neo-romantics, and, despite the support of Eliot and Hugh MacDiarmid, the book was neither a critical nor a popular success.

It was to be fifteen years before Graham published another book, "Malcolm Mooney's Land" (1970). This, and his last book, "Implements In Their Places" are a truly original and enduring poetic achievements, for which Graham is only slowly coming to be recognised. For many years, he had been living in semi-poverty on his income as a writer, but in 1974 he received a Civil List pension of £500 per year. Perhaps because of this alleviation of his financial circumstances, Graham began to publish with more frequency, with "Implements in their Places" (1977), "Collected Poems 1942-1977" (1979) and an American-published "Selected Poems" (1980). He died in Madron, Cornwall in 1986. His last collection "Aimed at Nobody" was published posthumously in 1993 and a book of "Uncollected Poems" appeared in 1990. Faber brought out a new "Selected Poems" in 1996. "The Nightfisherman: Selected Letters" was published in 1999 and "New Collected Poems" in 2005.

As this posthumous publication activity indicates, Graham's reputation has grown in recent years. Some might argue this is partly due to Harold Pinter's often-expressed enthusiasm for the poet, or attribute his increasing recognition to the wide-spread advocacy of poets associated with the British Poetry Revival. However Graham's work was represented in the anthology "Conductors of Chaos" (1996) by a selection introduced by the poet and critic Tony Lopez, who also wrote a book-length study, "The Poetry of W. S. Graham" (1989).

Marriage, death and recognition

He married another poet, Agnes Kilpatrick Dunsmuir (1909-1999), known as "Nessie Dunsmuir" ["New Collected Poems", page 375. She is addressed by name in stanza 6 of "To my wife at midnight", pp.262-265. ] .

He died January 9 1986.

In 2006, 20 years after his death, memorial plaques were unveiled in Fore Street Madron where he spent his final years, and at his birthplace, 1 Hope St Greenock .

ee also

*Scottish literature
* "New Collected Poems", edited by Matthew Francis and with a foreword by Douglas Dunn: Faber and Faber; (2005) ISBN 0571209890 ISBN-13: 978-0571209897

References

External links

* [http://www.7greenhill.freeserve.co.uk/graham.html Short introduction to Graham with links to poems]
* [http://www.haroldpinter.org/poetry/poetry_graham.shtml Pinter on Graham]
* [http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=11686 Review of "The Nightfisherman: Selected Letters, edited by Michael and Margaret Snow. Manchester: Carcanet." by Dennis O'Driscoll in "Thumbscrew" No. 16 (2000), "On Pancakes Alone"]
* [http://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?file=/free/pnr135/articles/135ar03.txt Review of "The Nightfisherman: Selected Letters, edited by Michael and Margaret Snow." by James Keery in "PN Review", "HIS PERFECT HUNGER'S DAILY CHANGING BREAD"]
* [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MBZRx3WU6G4C&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=%22nessie+dunsmuir%22&source=web&ots=WdnCPh1Vi1&sig=sT515QOa_tE9r7ufoZFJktOWYzM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result "W S Graham: speaking towards you", edited by Ralph Pite and Hester Jones, Liverpool University Press ISBN 0853235791 - some pages available on Googlebooks]