W. S. Graham
W. S. Graham was a prominent Scottish poet, born on November 19, 1918, in Greenock, Scotland. He grew up on Scotland's western coast and began his career as an engineer before fully embracing his literary pursuits. His first poetry collection, "Cage Without Grievance," was published in 1942, showcasing a style influenced by Dylan Thomas, characterized by complex syntax and rich imagery. Throughout the 1940s, while working in a torpedo factory, Graham established his reputation as a writer, contributing to periodicals in Canada, the UK, and the US. His work gained critical acclaim with "The White Threshold" in 1949, notable for its innovative interactions between the writer and readers. Graham's style evolved over time, leading to greater linguistic compression, particularly evident in his celebrated collection "The Nightfishing" (1955). His later works, including "Malcolm Mooney's Land" (1970) and "Implements in Their Places" (1977), further explored the complexities of language. By the late 1970s, collections such as "Collected Poems, 1942-1977" solidified his legacy as one of the key figures in 20th-century British poetry.
On this Page
Subject Terms
W. S. Graham
- Born: November 19, 1918
- Birthplace: Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland
- Died: January 9, 1986
- Place of death: Madron, England
Biography
W. S. Graham, increasingly regarded as one of twentieth century Britain’s most-important poets, was born in Greenock, Scotland, on November 19, 1918, to Alexander Graham, an engineer, and Margaret Macdiarmid Graham. He grew up on Scotland’s western coast. At the age of fourteen he began a five-year apprenticeship at an engineering firm in Glasgow. During this time he also studied literature and philosophy in the evenings. At the end of his apprenticeship, Graham became a journeyman engineer.
In 1954 he married Nessie Dunsmuir, with whom he had one daughter, Rosalind. The family lived in Cornwall. During the 1940’s, while he was working as an engineer in a torpedo factory on Clydeside, Graham began to establish his literary reputation: His first collection of poems, Cage Without Grievance, was published in 1942. Its gnarled syntax and dense imagery demonstrate Dylan Thomas’s influence on Graham.
Graham’s next book, The Seven Journeys (1944), stresses the significance of Graham’s internal experiences and their importance to his creative process. A number of Graham’s poems were published in periodicals in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States; he received the Atlantic Award for Literature, lectured at New York University, and went on a reading tour in the United States with Kathleen Raine and David Gascoyne. The White Threshold (1949) was the first of Graham’s books to garner critical attention; it was particularly hailed for its innovative approach to the relationship between author and audience. Graham’s essays on poetry from the same time acknowledge the ambiguity and varying semantic possibilities surrounding words.
With each new collection of verse that Graham published, his style moved towards greater linguistic compression. He is probably best known for his sixth volume, The Nightfishing, which was published in 1955. In it, Graham is concerned with how the changing self communicates; this trope is also present in some of his earlier poems. It was not until the 1970’s that Graham’s next books appeared: Malcolm Mooney’s Land (1970) and Implements in Their Places (1977), also engrossed in the problems of language, were both Poetry Book Society Choices. The publication of Collected Poems, 1942-1977 (1979) and Selected Poems (1980) helped to secure Graham’s position in the world of twentieth century letters.