Wilfred Owen's Missing Folio
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APPENDIX: WILFRED OWEN'S MISSING FOLIO On or about 20 l\lay 1918, having juSt returned from a visit to Robert Ross in London, Wilfred Owen wrotc to his mother from Ripon, having undertaken there a major revision of all his work to that date. Significantly, he said in that letter, 'The upshot is that I am to have my work typed at once, and send it to Heinemann, who is certain 10 send it to Ross to read for him!!' No such folio of typed script has been discovered, but it is inconcei .... able that he failed to compile this for typing, particularly as the only presently known manuscripts of so many poems are of unfinished drafts, most particularly in the instance of 'Strange Meeting'. This poem's surviving manuscripts clearly demonstrate its unfinished state; they themselves comprise the prime evidence that they do not give us a fair copy of a,lintJliseti text. Those that survive have amendarions which are arguably alterna/it'( or additional, rather than ./inal. Further, there is strong evidence that the generally acknowledged version's 44 lines are far short of what Owen actually wrote. In a pre-publication list he tabulated between J\lay and July "1918, 'Strange J\[eeting' is, most importantly, listed as categorically finished and, as such, comprised/our pages of text in its./inished state. These facts are specifically and very methodically noted by Wilfred Owen in this handwritten list. None of the surviving manuscripts gives us the poem's text on more than two pages. It is therefore the case that either the whole of a./Qur page manuscript has been lost or, at the very least. ,",oJurtlur pagrs, of one or bO[h of the presently known two page manuscripts, have been lost. It seems that four pages of handwriting could comprise up to 80 lines. The manuscript of 'A Terre' comprises four pages and has 65 lines. Other poems noted by Owen in his list as ha\'ing four pages of manuscript, are not noted there as having been ./inishrd. Indeed it appears that either thrJl were somehow condensed into later versions with shorter texts, or the surviving manuscripts represent earlier versions of those poems, which were later 352 Appendix: Wilfred Owen's Missing FfJlifJ developed into funger ones, but that the manuscripts of those later, longer versions bave been lost. Manuscriptually, 'Strange Meeting' is unique as apparemly once having four pages of manuscript text in a state, confirmed by the poet himself in his own handwriting, as being thus finished. What could the missing two pages of text have contained? It seems unlikely that the killed German's Great Monologue would have continued for another 20 to 40 or so lines. It seems reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the remaining text contained a reconciliatory response from the soldier who had killed him the day before. This is a matter of great importance from every point of view, Accordingly, a methodical search should be instituted for this lost folio, whether it was actually typed or in manuscript prepared for typing. I would suggest that one could usefully stan by searching the Heinemann archives and then those connected with Roben Ross. Robert A. Christoforides Fordingbridge,1997 RECONSIDERATIONS Clearly Robert Christoforides is right in saying that among other things a reply by the (English Officer) killer to his (German Conscript) victim would be 'a maHer of great importance' and [hal its possible existence in manuscript or typescript form is worth pursuing. The main evidence for such a possihility appears to be Owen tabulating the poem as 'finished', and of its consisting of four (handwricten?) pages. I put a question afrer 'handwritten' because it is also possible that Owen was attempting to work out how many printed pages in a book this poem (and others) would each of them occupy. The Heinemmann 1922 edition of Isaac Rosenberg's Puems, for instance, prints 27 lines to a page. In that format, Owen's 'present' 'Strange ,\leering' would occupy two pages. But perhaps Owen was thinking of auual written rather than printed polges. Notwithstanding stationery sizes of paper, written lines of poetry usually take up more space on a page than typed or printed ones. .-/.ppentlix: Wi(fid Owen's MissinK Fulio 353 However, other disturbing questions necessarily involve the number of pages alioca[ed by Owen ro other poems, such as 'Nothing Happens' ('Exposure'), which is given four pages but which is currently comparable in length [0 the 'present' 'Strange Meeting'. On the other hand, the four pages allocated to 'Strange l\leeting' are for a poem that is according to Owen 'finished', whereas 'Nothing Happens' was not then given that status. The argument seems to resolve itself along lines of what might roughly be called 'common sense' and 'probability' as opposed to what Owen actually laid down in his earliest, admittedly most precise, carefully tabulated, list. To put the problem in its most neutral form, questions concerning the finished status of 'Strange ~Ieeting' (and its possible length) remain unresolved. Jon Silkin SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY The place of publication is London unless otherwise indicated. Dates afe those of editions cited in the text. POETRY Richard Aldingron, Complett: PUc'IIIS (1948) Edmund B1unden, PUrllIS 1914-1930 (1930) - Ot'atones of 1-111r: POt'lllS of the First WorM If!ur, edited with an introduction by J\lartin Taylor (1996) Gordon Bottomley, PO(llU find P/tlY.f (1952) Bertolt Brecht, Sdated POrlllS, translated by H.R. Hays (New York, 1959) Rupert Brooke, P(J(ficlIl H'iJrks, edited by Geoffrey Keynes (1946) Keith Douglas, CIJIII'Ctd PU!'II/S. edited by John Waller and G.S. Fraser (1951) ES. Flim, In tht' Net of StilI'S (1909) - Othaworfd ICufienm (1920) Ford Madox Ford, On HetH"mI1/1IfJ other Pr)t'1m (Poems written on lIetlu urt"iu) (1918) - Bucksilee, with Introductions by Robert Lowell and Kennt:th Rexroth (Cambridge, l\iaSS., 1966) - Sclectt!d Poell/s, edited and with a Preface by Basil Bunting (Cambridge, J\iass., 1971) Roy Fuller, Co"ead PU(l1l5 (1962) David Gascoyne, Cul/t!Oai Porllls (1965) Robert Graves, Fllirirs lind FU.I/"ias (1917) - Col/att'ti Pot'lm (1959) hor Gurney, Seurn lind So/mile (1917) - rtllf's Ell/bas (1919) - PO(lJlS, edited with a i\{emoir by Edmund Blunden (1954) - POt!lIlS, 189f~/937, with an Introduction by Edmund Blunden and a Bibliographical Note by Leonard Clark (1973) - CQI/ald Poe/lls, Chosen, edited and with an Introduction by P. j. Kavanagh (1982) 356 Sda/ BIMwgmph.l' Thomas Hardy, Collated PI/ellis (1952) - The Dl'ntf$(S (1930) A.E. Housman, Colluted PU(///S ( 1939) David jones, In Ptlr(l1tlJ(sis (1963) - TJI(.-/.nlltht'lIIl1tll (1952) - TIl( Tribune ')" Visitlftion (1969) Sidney Keyes, Colluted PI/euu (19~5) Rudyard Kipling, Poems (Definitive Edition, 194-0) D.H. Lawrence, Collected PI/elliS ( 1928) Alun Lewis, Raider's Damn ( 1942 ) - HII.! fill.' .-IIIIOTIK the Trumpets, with a Fore\\"ord b~- Robert Gr.n-es (190\;) - Selated POell:J/ llnd PruSt', edited with a Biographical Introduction b~- Ian Hamilton (1966) Emanuel Litvinoff, Tlte Untried Soldil'/" (1942) - "oJ Crown jor ell III (1948) Frederic )\lanning, E,ilnll!n ( 191 7) john ~lase field , Collated PI!I'IIIS (1923) Vladimir i\layako\'sky, The Bl'IlbuK IlIIl/ SI'/utl'li Podr)" translated by ~lax Hayward and George Rea\-ey (1961) Harold l\ionro, Cullected Poems, edited by Alida ~lonro (1933) Robert Nichols, A.rdullfS Cfnd EndllrtlllUS (1917) Wilfred Owen, TIl( PUI'/1IS, edited with a memoir and notes by Edmund B1unden (1931) - Cullrited Porms, edited with an Introduction by C. Day Lewis and with a 1\ lemoir by Edmund Blunden (1963) - If"" P U(IiIS IInti Others, edited with an Introduction by Dominic Hibberd (197 J) - The CUlJlplt'le PoelllS /Inti Fragments, Edited by Jon Stallworth), (1983) Wilfred Owen: TIlt' '1"lr Poell/s, edited with commentary on each poem by jon Silk in (1994) Ezra Pound, Personael Th( Collerll'll ShfJrter Poellls (1 952) Herbert Read, Colluted Poems (1966 ) Edgell Rickward, BdEind the Eyes: Cullall'd PtJl'lm tlnd Translt/twns (1976) Isaac Rosenberg, Poellls, selected and edited by Gordon Bottomley with an Introductory J\(emoir by Laurence Binyon (1922) - TIl(' C(Jmplrte l-1-or):s , edited by Gordon Bottomley and D. W. Selal Biblwgraphy 357 Harding (1937) - Tlu Col/(ctei/ 1/ (irks, edited with an introduction by Ian Parsons (1979) Siegfried Sassoon, Cullall'd PIJI'IIIS (19-1-7) - Tlu H;, r PO I'///.~, arranged and introduced by Rupert Hart-Da\'is (1983) Charles Hamilton Sorle~ ~ .\Jar/burough and utlll:r POI'IIIS (Cambridge, 1932) - C()/lecll'tl P()I'IIIS, edited by Jean ,\ loorcroft Wilson (1985) August Stramm, TJ1't'nt.l' Twu P Ut'IIIS, translated by Patrick Bridgwater with Drawings by Rigby Graham (Wymondham lJK, 1969) Algernon Charles Swinburne, PUI'II/)' //1111 BIlI/(/(/5 (1st Series) (1892) - Songs /)(jul'l' Sunris( (1917) Edward Thomas, Col/att'll POI'IIH, with a Foreword by Walter de la ~Iare (1936) - Pot'ms IIntl LtlSl POI'II15, edited by Edna Longley (1973) - Col/aId POI'IIIS, edited by R. George Thomas (1978) Georg Trakl, T1T't't1i,l' POI'III)', chosen and translated by James Wright and Robert Bly (;\ linneapolis, '\linn., 1963) - D(c/indTI1't'/l'l' POt'IIIS, translated by j\lichael Hamburger (St. hes, 1952) Guiseppe Ungal'eni, two poems translated by Jona[han Griffin, Sfllnd, XI, 1\0. -I- (1970); four poems translated by Charles Tomlinson, Slltnd, XII, ~o . 2 (1971) - 5t'/<'cl<'II POI.'II/S, translated by Patrick Creagh (1971) :\I\:TH()U)Glt:S Ronald Blythe, editor, Compollc'lIts (!f' tlu 5/·c'1I1.' (1966) Patrick Bridgwater, 'German Poets of the 191-+-18 War', in Till' Joul'lIl1ls oI Pit'rrl.' ,\1rnIlI'II, 3 July 1969 w.G.