A full-length study of the British novelist, poet, and illustrator Stevie Smith (1902-1971), this book draws on extensive archival material to offer new insights into her work, challenging conventional readings of her as an eccentric. It reveals the careful control with which she managed her public persona, reassesses her allusive poetry in the light of her own conflicted response to written texts, and traces her simultaneous preoccupation with and fear of her reading public. William May considers the influence of artists such as George Grosz and Aubrey Beardsley on her apparently artless illustrations and explores her use of fiction and book reviews as a way of generating contexts for her poetry, offering readers a fascinating in-depth study that not only radically alters our understanding of Smith and her work, but provides new perspectives on British twentieth-century poetry and its reception.
Author(s): William May
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 256
Contents......Page 10
List of Illustrations......Page 11
Introduction......Page 14
1. Reforming a Literary Orphan: Stevie Smith’s Poetry in Context......Page 34
2. ‘A Poet Reading’......Page 68
3. Brought to Book: The Publishing History of Stevie Smith......Page 96
4. Towards a Constructive Criticism of Stevie Smith......Page 126
5. ‘Observation, Discipline, and Company’: The Overlooked Reader......Page 155
6. ‘Beyond Words’: Stevie Smith as a Visual Artist......Page 183
Conclusion......Page 219
Bibliography......Page 230
E......Page 252
M......Page 253
S......Page 254
W......Page 256
