tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6740569507462865624.post8753736400672742964..comments2024-01-27T01:51:07.872-08:00Comments on Jot101: Read and Spender---unlikely double actJot101http://www.blogger.com/profile/04163335378108954329noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6740569507462865624.post-74362127711192533952015-08-20T02:24:11.253-07:002015-08-20T02:24:11.253-07:00It's true that Lewis and Grigson had ( and st...It's true that Lewis and Grigson had ( and still have ) enemies. The Mexican poet Michael Schmidt still harbours a completely irrational animus against Grigson for something he did or said many years ago--some people are just petty minded.But Grigson had praise for many poets and artists, as his books testify, and Lewis was generous to up and coming artists, like Francis Bacon, among others. But it's just a fact of literary life--which breeds envy and hubris--that people who take a stand on sound principles ( like Grigson) will annoy and anger the over sensitive. R.M.Healeynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6740569507462865624.post-29501780010205191982015-08-19T01:51:59.939-07:002015-08-19T01:51:59.939-07:00Many thanks Tommi, you have nailed it. Perfect pro...Many thanks Tommi, you have nailed it. Perfect provenance. Odd how Read does not look like a poet, let alone an anarchist.Jot101https://www.blogger.com/profile/04163335378108954329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6740569507462865624.post-48130634857051840582015-08-19T00:38:16.996-07:002015-08-19T00:38:16.996-07:00Be that as it may, the (non-Sunday) Times on 22 De...Be that as it may, the (non-Sunday) <i>Times</i> on 22 December 1937 had a letter in praise of Lewis, on the occasion of his first exhibition in 16 years, initiated by Henry Moore and signed by both Read and Spender (as well as Eliot, Auden and many more).<br /><br />Regarding the photo, looking at the <i>Sunday Times</i> quickly comes up with the solution: it's the 15-day <i>Sunday Times</i> book exhibition held at Dorland Hall, Regent Street, from 2 to 16 November 1936. On Saturday, 14 November, Spender spoke on "Modern Poetry" at 2.30 PM and the discussion was chaired by Read.<br />Tommi Uschanovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02852865209279310471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6740569507462865624.post-36443966110784315042015-08-14T09:01:34.571-07:002015-08-14T09:01:34.571-07:00I also cannot see why Spender and Read should have...I also cannot see why Spender and Read should have been snapped together, and find it difficult to believe that Spender would have gone to LISE in 1936, as he hated surrealism, writing in 1943 ‘With surrealism came the complete breakdown of the attempt to understand the dreams within and the nightmares outside our civilisation’, which also shows that he also did not understand it one jot. He also did not think much of Read’s poetry, criticising it for having insufficient awareness of the reality of evil. Politically they were poles apart, Spender the card-carrying communist and certainly by the late 1930s an apologist for Stalinist Russia, and Read becoming converted to anarchism by the Spanish Civil War. Still, Read is commemorated in Poet’s Corner and Spender and Grigson aint.<br />I cannot let the final comment go unchallenged. Neither Grigson nor Lewis had a good word to say about anyone, and although Grigson and Read were co-founders of the ICA in 1947 I doubt they thought they had much in common. I would bet that Read would reply to Grigson’s comment in the same way as he did to Priestley’s poor review of LISE ‘As if a man should spit against the wind; the filth returns in’s face’. Now, Lewis was Read’s arch-enemy and said far fouler things against him, as only a fascist can say of an anarchist: a photo of those two together would really be something!<br />PaulHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10459016273198662366noreply@blogger.com