Bloomsbury and Beyond: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell - Hardcover

Pearce, Joseph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002740923 ISBN 13: 9780002740920

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

A biography of one of the most prominent, respected and popular poets of the 20s, 30s and 40s on the centenary of his birth. A member of the Bloomsbury Group, Campbell had among his friends T S Eliot, Ezra Pound, Dylan Thomas and Edith Sitwell.

The Bloomsbury set, passionate, unconventional and daring, have passed into literary legend. The life of Roy Campbell, best friend and bitter enemy to many in the group, reveals many of the contradictions and paradoxes behind their stormy relationships.

On the centenary of his birth, we look back at a man who once ate a vase of daffodils with Dylan Thomas in celebration of St David’s Day. He brawled with poets in the pubs of London, yet they refused to press charges against him, saying that he was ‘a great poet’. Later, his wife’s affair with Vita Sackville-West nearly tore him apart, prompting them to leave England in search of peace on the Continent. That peace was shattered by the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.

Joseph Pearce has interviewed Roy Campbell’s daughters, his granddaughter and his close friend, Rob Lyle. With access to hundreds of previously unpublished letters and photographs, Bloomsbury and Beyond promises the inside story on one of the most famous writing groups ever to scandalise a nation.

Hither flock all the crowd whom love has wrecked
Of intellectuals without intellect
And sexless folk whose sexes intersect...
Roy Campbell on the Bloomsbury Group in The Georgiad

About this title

Product Description:

Very Good, 1st Edition, Harper Collins 2001. Thick Royal 8vo. xii, 340 p., several posrtrait illustrations from photographs. Very good clean tight sound square, no bookplate, inscription or marks of any kind. In bright silver lettered blue cloth boards, with original unclipped portrait pictorial dustwrapper very gently rubbed to spine. Eating a vase of daffodils with Dylan Thomas on St David's Day and swinging a punch at Stephen Spender during the latter's on-stage recital were representative antics of Campbell, regarded as one of the finest poets of the century by by his peers, including T.S. Eliot. Spender refused to press charges, saying 'He's a great poet, we must understand.' Vita Sackville-West's relationship with his wife 'nearly tore him apart', and made Virginia Woolf jealous. Husband and wife escaped to the continent, but tranquility was shattered by th Spanish Civil War. The volume in hand promises to give a ground-breaking inside story of the Bloomsbury group, who lived in squares, wrote in circles and loved in triangles.

From the Back Cover:

'Hither flock all the crowds whom love has wrecked
Of intellectuals without intellect
And sexless folk whose sexes intersect...'
Roy Campbell on the Bloomsbury Group in 'The Georgiad'

The Bloomsbury set have passed into literary legend. The life of Roy Campbell, best friend and bitter enemy to many in the group reveals some of the contradictions and paradoxes behind their stormy relationships.

On the centenary of Campbell's birth, we look back at a man who was considered one of the finest poets of the century by many of his peers, most notably T.S. Eliot and Edith Sitwell. Yet his unfortunate ability to make enemies hindered his literary career, especially after his thinly disguised attack on the Bloomsbury Group in his poem 'The Georgiad'.

Campbell's antics were widely known: he once ate a vase of daffodils with Dylan Thomas in celebration of St David's Day and he brawled with poets. During a poetry recital by Stephen Spender, Campbell stormed on to the stage and swung a punch at him. But Spender refused to press charges, saying, 'He is a great poet... We must try to understand'.

Later, his wife's affair with Vita Sackville-West stirred the jealousy of Virginia Woolf and nearly tore him apart, prompting the Campbells to leave England in search of peace on the continent. But that tranquillity was soon shattered by the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.

Joseph Pearce has interviewed Roy Campbell's daughters, his granddaughter and his close friend, Rob Lyle, in preparing this groundbreaking biography. With access to hundreds of previously unpublished letters and photographs, 'Bloomsbury and Beyond' promises the inside story on one of the most famous writing groups to ever scandalise a nation.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0002740923
• ISBN 13: 9780002740920
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368