Night Thoughts
The Surreal Life of the Poet David Gascoyne
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:16th Feb '12
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
The poet David Gascoyne (1916-2001) led a life as surreal as his early poems. At eighteen he drafted the manifesto of the English Surrealist Group and at nineteen he published what remains an authoritative account of the international movement. He translated for Salvador Dalì and crossed swords with André Breton; the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London was largely his brainchild. During the war he toured as an actor, embraced religious existentialism and became, in the words of John Lehmann, 'the most important philosophic poet of our time'. After the war he wrote for radio, painted, cooked, and went mad. The journals he kept during his periods of mental instability are masterpieces of the bizarre. Gascoyne found unexpected happiness in late middle age, emerging as an elder statesman of British poetry. Robert Fraser contends that, through all the twists and turns of his variegated existence, Gascoyne strove for candour and truth of self-expression. With equivalent candour this pioneering biography describes his creative work and multifarious translations, his inconvenient addictions, his tormented private life, and his many friendships in England and in France.
I've been engrossed * Ian Collins, Eastern Daily Press *
An enriching biography of an inspirational poet whose work continues to infuse light and knowledge into the world. * Resurgence and Ecologist *
Fraser's biography is a marvellous evocation which sets such sensational events - even an appearance in the Spanish Civil War - in an emotional and intellectual context, from hopeless fumblings with Antonia White to a private performance by Bartok contrasting with a glimpse of Stravinsky as "a little fencing-master spy". There is illumination at every turn. * Christopher Hawtree, The Independent *
Night Thoughts brings to life Gascoyne's relationships with places, artists, friends, publishers, schools he was inspired by and later inspired ... when Night Thoughts deals with poetry itself - its composition, and relationship with tradition and innovation - it comes to life. * Mark Burnhope, Epicentre Magazine *
In the complex progress uncovered by Fraser, Gascoyne's history becomes a witnessed romance of manners and slights, a landscape in which cold biographical facts are converted into metaphors of questing vision, delirium, breakdown ... at times this biography is a form of channelled ventriloquism, a paraphrasing of Gascoyne's private letters to himself ... all the gaps in Gascoyne's hopping and skipping monologue are neatly filled. * Iain Sinclair, The Guardian *
Gratifyingly detailed biography ... this is a worthwhile, rich and readable biography. * Kevin Jackson, Literary Review *
Robert Fraser has the manner, the alacrity of tone and very often the humour of a born story teller. Night Thoughts recreates the richness of a whole period of French and English literary life and is really fascinating to discover, with all its strange characters, never dry nor arid to read though it is so erudite and complete. * Christine Jordis, Editions Gallimard *
Colourful biography of the English surrealist poet David Gascoyne. Fabulous. * Samuel Muston, The Independent *
In this first-ever biography of Gascoyne, Fraser provides an elegant history ... An engaging, worthwhile book ... highly recommended. * B. Wallenstein, Choice *
ISBN: 9780199558148
Dimensions: 240mm x 163mm x 44mm
Weight: 910g
488 pages