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Louis Macneice
In this compelling new study of one of the century's most memorable poets, Jon Stallworthy has produced an outstanding full-scale biography of Louis MacNeice, drawing on the testimony of family, friends, lovers, and MacNeice's extensive unpublished correspondence and papers.
Stallworthy, whose Wilfred Owen was described by Graham Greene as "one of the finest biographies of our time," has produced another no less remarkable life of an equally haunting figure. MacNeice's mother died when he was seven and Stallworthy shows how his imagination transmuted her ghostly presence, and the powerful presence of his father, into an elemental opposition structuring most of what he would write - from anguished indictments of his native Ireland to poignant love poems.
Stallworthy, whose Wilfred Owen was described by Graham Greene as "one of the finest biographies of our time," has produced another no less remarkable life of an equally haunting figure. MacNeice's mother died when he was seven and Stallworthy shows how his imagination transmuted her ghostly presence, and the powerful presence of his father, into an elemental opposition structuring most of what he would write - from anguished indictments of his native Ireland to poignant love poems.
572 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1995
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About the author
Jon Stallworthy
91 books12 followersJon (Howie) Stallworthy (18 January 1935 – 19 November 2014) FBA FRSL was Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford. He was also a Fellow (and was twice Acting President) of Wolfson College, a poet, and a literary critic. From 1977 to 1986, he was the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English at Cornell.
Stallworthy was born in London. His parents, Sir John Stallworthy and Margaret Stallworthy, were from New Zealand and moved to England in 1934. Stallworthy started writing poems when he was only seven years old. He was educated at the Dragon School, Rugby School and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize. His works include seven volumes of poetry, and biographies of Wilfred Owen and Louis MacNeice. He has edited several anthologies and is particularly known for his work on war poetry.
While researching the local history of New Zealand Stallworthy discovered an obscure volume entitled Early Northern Wairoa written by his great-grandfather, John Stallworthy (1854–1923), in 1916. From this book he learned that his great-great-grandfather, George Stallworthy (1809–1859), had left his birthplace of Preston Bissett in Buckinghamshire, England, for the Marquesas as a missionary. This discovery led in turn to him finding family-related letters in the archives of the London Missionary Society. Stallworthy's book A Familiar Tree (Oxford University Press, 1978) is a collection of poetry inspired by events depicted in these documents. Singing School is an autobiography which emphasises Stallworthy's development as a poet.
Stallworthy wrote a short summary of war poetry in the introductory chapter to the Oxford Book of War Poetry (Edited by Jon Stallworthy, Oxford University Press, 1984), as well as editing several anthologies of war poetry and writing a biography of Wilfred Owen. In 2010 he received the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award from the Wilfred Owen Association. In the course of his literary career, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the British Academy.
Stallworthy was born in London. His parents, Sir John Stallworthy and Margaret Stallworthy, were from New Zealand and moved to England in 1934. Stallworthy started writing poems when he was only seven years old. He was educated at the Dragon School, Rugby School and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize. His works include seven volumes of poetry, and biographies of Wilfred Owen and Louis MacNeice. He has edited several anthologies and is particularly known for his work on war poetry.
While researching the local history of New Zealand Stallworthy discovered an obscure volume entitled Early Northern Wairoa written by his great-grandfather, John Stallworthy (1854–1923), in 1916. From this book he learned that his great-great-grandfather, George Stallworthy (1809–1859), had left his birthplace of Preston Bissett in Buckinghamshire, England, for the Marquesas as a missionary. This discovery led in turn to him finding family-related letters in the archives of the London Missionary Society. Stallworthy's book A Familiar Tree (Oxford University Press, 1978) is a collection of poetry inspired by events depicted in these documents. Singing School is an autobiography which emphasises Stallworthy's development as a poet.
Stallworthy wrote a short summary of war poetry in the introductory chapter to the Oxford Book of War Poetry (Edited by Jon Stallworthy, Oxford University Press, 1984), as well as editing several anthologies of war poetry and writing a biography of Wilfred Owen. In 2010 he received the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award from the Wilfred Owen Association. In the course of his literary career, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the British Academy.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 20, 2012
Auden called MacNeice "A lover of women and Donegal" and the two might be emblematic of the physical and the musical that runs through his verse. He wrote a handful of the most beautiful lyric poems in English. Most of them “love poems”.
MacNeice emerges as a far more likeable character than many of the more dogmatic "Greater Poets" of that "low dishonest decade". Which probably goes some way to explain why he gets overlooked. His description of the ideal poet is a self portrait:
"I would have the poet able bodied, fond of talking, a reader of the newspapers, capable of pity and laughter, informed in economics, appreciative of women, involved in personal relationships, actively involved in politics, susceptible to physical impressions."
He was anti-theory and anti-dogma and I suppose that makes him difficult to conscript to whatever ideology you subscribe to. As the biography makes plain his relationship with Ireland was too complex for him to be conscripted into the gallery of “Irish poets” but too affable, too social, too frankly sensual, so very “unEnglish” that he seems to drift out of what he once described in a debate with Higgins as the England vs Ireland game he didn’t want to play.
The enjoyment of reading this biography comes from Stallworthy's prose, which is gently elegant, often faintly comic, without being obtrusive:
"Her nephew now needed a nanny, but before she could be appointed, the Scottish nurse had to be disappointed."
His treatment of his subject is even handed: he’s aware of what might be MacNeice’s faults and he doesn’t try to hide them. His willingness to let the subject speak in letters and poems is admirable. I'm not sure "cradle song" will ever be the same after reading MacNeice's letters to Eleanor Clark, but that's biography for you.
MacNeice emerges as a far more likeable character than many of the more dogmatic "Greater Poets" of that "low dishonest decade". Which probably goes some way to explain why he gets overlooked. His description of the ideal poet is a self portrait:
"I would have the poet able bodied, fond of talking, a reader of the newspapers, capable of pity and laughter, informed in economics, appreciative of women, involved in personal relationships, actively involved in politics, susceptible to physical impressions."
He was anti-theory and anti-dogma and I suppose that makes him difficult to conscript to whatever ideology you subscribe to. As the biography makes plain his relationship with Ireland was too complex for him to be conscripted into the gallery of “Irish poets” but too affable, too social, too frankly sensual, so very “unEnglish” that he seems to drift out of what he once described in a debate with Higgins as the England vs Ireland game he didn’t want to play.
The enjoyment of reading this biography comes from Stallworthy's prose, which is gently elegant, often faintly comic, without being obtrusive:
"Her nephew now needed a nanny, but before she could be appointed, the Scottish nurse had to be disappointed."
His treatment of his subject is even handed: he’s aware of what might be MacNeice’s faults and he doesn’t try to hide them. His willingness to let the subject speak in letters and poems is admirable. I'm not sure "cradle song" will ever be the same after reading MacNeice's letters to Eleanor Clark, but that's biography for you.
January 4, 2019
Well researched and written bio of a great 20th century poet.
September 13, 2012
This was an excellent biography of a poet's poet by very able biographer, I have had the opportunity of hearing Dr. Stallworthy lecture a few times at Oxford as well as read his brilliant biography of another poet Wilfred Owen. His research deepens the understanding of another writer's life and his observations add a picture of a very interesting artist which Macneice was.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews