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Collected Letters
The Mid Northumberland Arts Group & Carcanet Press 1991 edited by R K R Thornton 579 pages
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1991
4 people want to read
About the author
Ivor Gurney
87 books3 followersComposer and author Ivor Gurney was born in Gloucester and was educated at the cathedral there where he proved a very gifted student. He began composing music at the age of 14 and in 1911 secured a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He was described by Charles Villiers Stanford as potentially "the biggest" of many distinguished pupils he had taught-which included Ralph Vaughn Williams-but, also as "unteachable." This being because of his propensity for mood swings which not only made concentration very difficult for him, but also precipitated in a breakdown in 1913.
After the outbreak of the First World War he enlisted as a private soldier with the Gloucester Regiment. It was during the war where he began to write poetry. Just before completing his first book of poetry, Severn and the Somme, he was wounded in the shoulder in April 1917. He returned to active duty not long after finding a publisher for his book to be gassed in September that same year. While recovering he fell in love with nurse Annie Nelson Drummond who initially reciprocated his feelings only to sever their correspondence before a second breakdown in February 1918.
Following the war his mental condition deteriorated further to the point where he was declared insane by his family in 1922. He spent his remaining years institutionalized, where he yet remained prolific albeit largely unrecognized.
After his death from tuberculosis in 1937 his friend Marion Scott worked to preserve his letters and manuscripts.
Some two-thirds of his musical output remains unpublished.
Ivor Gurney is commemorated as one of 16 Great War Poets in Westminster Abbey.
After the outbreak of the First World War he enlisted as a private soldier with the Gloucester Regiment. It was during the war where he began to write poetry. Just before completing his first book of poetry, Severn and the Somme, he was wounded in the shoulder in April 1917. He returned to active duty not long after finding a publisher for his book to be gassed in September that same year. While recovering he fell in love with nurse Annie Nelson Drummond who initially reciprocated his feelings only to sever their correspondence before a second breakdown in February 1918.
Following the war his mental condition deteriorated further to the point where he was declared insane by his family in 1922. He spent his remaining years institutionalized, where he yet remained prolific albeit largely unrecognized.
After his death from tuberculosis in 1937 his friend Marion Scott worked to preserve his letters and manuscripts.
Some two-thirds of his musical output remains unpublished.
Ivor Gurney is commemorated as one of 16 Great War Poets in Westminster Abbey.
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May 18, 2013
One of the surprises of Hurd's 'The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney' was the humour of the letters. I hadn't intended to read all 469 collected here but I did. He was a fine and entertaining corespondent though obviously the letters darken towards the 1920s. At times it's almost difficult to connect him to the writer of the later poems.
The collection stops short in 1922 for reasons Thorton explains in his introduction. So in both Biography and Letters there's a sense of a decorous turning aside from the last years Gurney spent in an asylum.
For a poet with such a small reputation he's been well served by the three books: Kavanagh's 'Collected', Hurd's Biography and this collection of his letters. And given the biographical subject of so much of his poetry, the other two books seem almost necessary to set beside them.
The collection stops short in 1922 for reasons Thorton explains in his introduction. So in both Biography and Letters there's a sense of a decorous turning aside from the last years Gurney spent in an asylum.
For a poet with such a small reputation he's been well served by the three books: Kavanagh's 'Collected', Hurd's Biography and this collection of his letters. And given the biographical subject of so much of his poetry, the other two books seem almost necessary to set beside them.
Displaying 1 of 1 review