Stevie Smith and Authorship (Oxford English Monographs)

257 Pages·2010·2.23 MB·English

by  William May

STEVIE SMITH AND AUTHORSHIP
OXFORD ENGLISH MONOGRAPHS
GeneralEditors
helen barr david bradshaw paulina kewes
hermionelee sallymapstone davidnorbrook
fionastafford
STEVIE SMITH AND
AUTHORSHIP
WILLIAM MAY
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwidein
Oxford NewYork
Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi
KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi
NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
Withofficesin
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress
intheUKandincertainothercountries
PublishedintheUnitedStates
byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork
#WilliamMay2010
Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted
DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker)
Firstpublished2010
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,
withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,
orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate
reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction
outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,
OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove
Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover
andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010930308
TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India
PrintedinGreatBritain
onacid-freepaperby
MPGBiddles,BodminandKing’sLynn
ISBN 978–0–19–958337–9
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
for Martha
Preface
Fewtwentieth-centuryBritishwritersarebothasinvitingandashostile
to their audience as Stevie Smith. If she has maintained a qualified
popularity in poetry anthologies, for some, her sui generis idiosyncrasy
makesheruniquelyimmunetoacademictreatment.Otherspointtoher
authorialshoulder-shrugstoaskwhethersheneedbetakenseriouslyat
all. Her caricatures of professional literary readers in her poems and
novels find them, without exception, to be pompous, self-regarding,
andbelittlingtotheirsubjects.Ifsustainedstudyofherworkisreward-
ing,itsgiftsareoftengivenwithslylooksandmistrust.
Thisbookarguesnotonlythatareassessmentofherworkistimely,
butthatSmith’sdefensiveattitudetowardsitcanofferapointofentry,
rather than a barrier, to its rich and humane insights. Recent attempts
to posthumously categorize her works as feminist treatises, proto-
postmodernist experiments, or imperial critiques offer revealing com-
mentaries on individual works but suffer from silencing large portions
of her oeuvre, whether her nine collections of poetry or her three
whimsically intransigent novels. This monograph does not aim for
definitive statements or final answers to her riddling complexity, but
focuses on Smith’s reception to return to her work itself with a new
receptivity. Combining close readings of her poems along with a
newfocusonherillustrations,thebookopensupnewpointsofcontact
between Smith and figures as seemingly unlikely as Aubrey Beardsley,
Alexander Pope, or Henry Wallis. More importantly, it reclaims
Smith’s own agency in her career, recasting her as impresario, rather
thanvictim,ofherownliteraryreputation.
Acknowledgements
The book has benefited immensely from the encouragement and sup-
portofmydoctoralsupervisor,SallyBayley,aswellasJonStallworthy
and Hermione Lee, who both oversaw earlier research projects on
Smith. I also thank Frances Spalding who was the external examiner
of my thesis on Smith. Jacqueline Baker and Ariane Petit at Oxford
University Press have been extremely helpful throughout the commis-
sioningandpublicationprocess,aswerethetwoanonymousreadersfor
OUP,whoseconstructivecommentshavebeenparticularlyuseful.
IthankMonikaClass,GeorgeMay,andMelodyEnjoubaultfortheir
translationwork,andAlexandraHarrisandAndrewBladesforreading
early drafts. Charles Lauder’s copyediting and Katie Ryde’s proofread-
inghavealsobeenmuchappreciated.
The monograph has involved extensive archival research at the
McFarlinLibrary, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I thank allthe staff
attheSpecialCollectionsdepartment,andforTulsaStudiesinWomen’s
Literature for their generous financial support for the project. I also
particularlythankJanandBobButlerfortheirwarmhospitalityduring
mystayinTulsa.
ManythankstostaffatKing’sCollegeLibrary,Cambridge,theBBC
Written Archives Centre in Reading, the Brymor Jones Library at the
UniversityofHull,andtheBodleianLibrary,Oxford.IalsothankHam-
ishMacGibbonforpermissiontoincludeSmith’sunpublisheddrawings.
I thank the following for copyright permission. All poems by Stevie
Smith,fromCollectedPoemsofStevieSmith,copyright#1972byStevie
Smith. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
and courtesy of the Estate of James MacGibbon. All unpublished
material published courtesy of the Estate of James MacGibbon and
the McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa. Portions of Chapter 3
published courtesy of The Library journal. Originally published as
‘“The Choosers”: Posthumous Collections of Stevie Smith’s Poetry’,
TheLibrary,20056(3):321–38.ImagesbyAubreyBeardsleyandGoya
supplied by the Bridgeman Art Library. Images by George Grosz #
DACS2009.Allreasonableefforthasbeenmadetocontacttheholders
ofcopyrightinmaterialsreproducedinthisbook.Anyomissionswillbe
rectifiedinfutureprintingsifnoticeisgiventothepublisher.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
ListofIllustrations x
Introduction 1
1.ReformingaLiteraryOrphan:
StevieSmith’sPoetryinContext 21
2.‘APoetReading’ 55
3.BroughttoBook:ThePublishingHistoryofStevieSmith 83
4.TowardsaConstructiveCriticismofStevieSmith 113
5.‘Observation,Discipline,andCompany’:
TheOverlookedReader 142
6.‘BeyondWords’:StevieSmithasaVisualArtist 170
Conclusion 206
Bibliography 217
Index 239