David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne was an influential British poet, novelist, essayist, and translator, born on October 10, 1916, in Harrow, Middlesex. He gained early recognition as a writer, publishing his first collection of poems at the young age of sixteen. Gascoyne became a prominent figure in the Surrealist movement, authoring the first English-language history of Surrealism in 1935 and producing his own Surrealist poetry. His connections with notable artists such as Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí during his time in Paris enriched his creative endeavors. However, as he matured, Gascoyne grappled with personal challenges, including his sexuality and addiction, which affected his work and relationships. After periods of limited publication and a serious breakdown in the late 1950s, he returned to England, where he found renewed inspiration after marrying Judy Lewis in 1975. Throughout his later years, he received recognition for his poetry and translations, including an award in Italy for his work. Gascoyne passed away on November 25, 2001, leaving behind a legacy as a significant voice in 20th-century literature.
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David Gascoyne
Poet
- Born: October 10, 1916
- Birthplace: Harrow, Middlesex, England
- Died: November 25, 2001
- Place of death: Isle of Wight, United Kingdom
Biography
David Emery Gascoyne was born on October 10, 1916, the son of a bank manager, in Harrow, Middlesex. He attended Salisbury Choir School from 1924 to 1930, after which he became a student at Regent Street Polytechnic in 1931. He left this school when he failed his exams in 1932. On a more auspicious note, though, in 1932, his imagistic Roman Balcony, and Other Poems was published; he was only sixteen years of age.
After Opening Day, his first and only full-length novel, was published in 1933, and after New English Weekly and one of the early issues of New Verse published his work, his earnings as a writer enabled him to visit Paris, where he spent his seventeenth birthday. In Paris he made many new acquaintances, among them Max Ernst and Salvador Dali. By the mid-1930’s Gascoyne had become a prolific writer: he was poet, novelist, essayist, reviewer, and translator.
In 1935 Gascoyne returned to Paris to research a book on Surrealism. His Short Survey of Surrealism (1935) was the first English-languge, book-length historical account of the movement. His own Surrealist poems, Man’s Life Is This Meat, followed in 1936, as did his translation of Andre Bréton’s What Is Surrealism? In England he cocurated, with Roland Penrose and Herbert Read, The International Surrealist Exhibition at The Burlington Galleries.
By this time Gascoyne was a member of the Communist Party, and he traveled from Paris to Spain during that country’s civil war. In Barcelona he translated bulletins during the day, and he broadcast them in English in the evening for the propaganda bureau of the Catalonian government. During the rest of the decade, Gascoyne traveled back and forth from England to the continent. Dylan Thomas is among the names of friends to be found in his journals of the period, during which Gascoyne’s disenchantment with Surrealism grew. He also struggled with his homosexuality, his growing amphetamine addiction, and his growing interest in Existentialism.
In 1937 Gascoyne met poet-philosopher Benjamin Fondane and Pierre Jean Jouve. Blanche Reverchon, Jouve’s wife, became his analyst. Gascoyne’s Hoelderlin’s Madness was published in 1938. According to Cyril Connelly, his Poems, 1937-1942 “take us in their chill, calm, sensitive language as near the edge of the precipice as a human being is able to go and still turn back.” In 1947 Bréton cast him out of the Surrealist group, accusing him of being a Roman Catholic. Between 1954 and 1964 Gascoyne lived in France and published very little. After a serious breakdown, he returned to England to live with his parents on the Isle of Wight. His father died during this troubling time. After his marriage to Judy Lewis in 1975, his self-esteem returned and he began to write steadily again. In 1981 he took part in Homage to David Gascoyne, organized jointly with the British Council; and a selection of his translated poems became a university text in France. In Italy he was presented with the Premio Biella-Poesia Europa for his translated collection La mano del poeta (1982). In the 1990’s Gascoyne broke his pelvis in a fall. While he recovered from his injury, he gradually became less mobile. He died on November 25, 2001.