Stevie Smith : a biography / Frances Spalding.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spalding, Frances, 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Smith, Stevie, 1902-1971.

Smith, Stevie.

Women poets, English--20th century--Biography.

Women poets, English.

Poets, English--20th century--Biography.

Poets, English.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 331 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stroud : Sutton, 2002.

Summary:

Stevie Smith had a unique literary voice: her idiosyncratic, wonderfully funny and poignant poems established her as one of the most individual of English modern poets. She claimed her own life was 'precious dull', but Frances Spalding's acclaimed biography, revised with a new introduction for this centenary edition, reveals a far from conventional woman. While she lived in suburbia with her beloved 'Lion Aunt', Stevie Smith was from the early 1930s a vibrant figure on London's intellectual scene, mixing with artists and writers, among them Radclyffe Hall, Olivia Manning, Rosamond Lehmann and George Orwell. She was noted for her wit -- often maliciously directed at friends -- and occasional public tantrums. Her use of real people in her writing angered many of her friends and brought the threat of libel. Always feeling herself out of step with the world, she was haunted by her father's absence during her childhood and her mother's early death; she longed for love yet was sexually ambivalent. In exploring the intimate relationship between Stevie Smith's life and work, Frances Spalding gives a new insight into a writer who always saw death as a friend, yet was also one of the great celebrators of life, whether commonplace or extraordinary.

Contents:

1 From Hull to Palmers Green 1

2 North London Collegiate 26

3 Bonded Liberty 44

4 Dear Karl 65

5 As tiger on padded paw 86

6 Novel on Yellow Paper 110

7 The Power of Cruelty 133

8 Wartime Friendships 147

9 Fits and Splinters 169

10 Madness and Correctitude 189

11 Not quite right 210

12 Fixed on God 230

13 Frivolous and Vulnerable 244

14 In Performance 261

15 Black March 283

Appendix Stevie Smith's published works 305.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0750928603

OCLC:

49593755