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Sergeant of Outposts Sergeant of Outposts: One Editor's Role in Post-War British Poetry 1944 - 1981

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Sergeant of Outposts Sergeant of Outposts: One Editor's Role in Post-War British Poetry 1944 - 1981 SERGEANT OF OUTPOSTS SERGEANT OF OUTPOSTS: ONE EDITOR'S ROLE IN POST-WAR BRITISH POETRY 1944 - 1981 By BROCE MILLER MEYER, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University .July 1988 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY {1988) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (English) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Sergeant of Outposts: One Editor's Role in Post-War Poetry. AUTHOR: Bruce Miller Meyer, B.A. (University of Toronto) M.A. (University of Toronto) SUPERVISOR: Dr. B. John NUMBER OF PAGES: iv, 312 ii ABSTRACT Poetry magazines are a reflection of the trends and the pressures of their ages: such was the case with Howard Sergeant's Outposts. Howard Sergeant was the longest continuous editor of a single literary magazine in the English language. Founded in 194) under the pressures of the Second World War, Outposts continued under his editorial direction until ill-health forced him to relinquish the reins in 1986. Between 1944 and 1986, Sergeant and Outposts played a key role in many of the major trends, groups and movements that shaped modern British poetry. Begun as a poetry and critical journal with a wartime "Apocalyptic'' slant, Sergeant's Outposts evolved through the changes which encompassed the Nee-Romantics, the Personalists, The Movement, the Mavericks, The Group, the pop poets, and the Martians and Narrative poets of the Eighties. Sergeant was among the first to recognize these changes in British poetry, and his magazine is a cross­ section of the currents and counter-currents of the period. His major accomplishments include the founding of the British Poetry Association with Dorothy Wellesley and Siegfried Sassoon, his recognition and promotion of Commonwealth iii poetry (which launched the first Commonwealth movement in Britain), and his support of poets in the earliest stages of their development as a judge for the Gregory Awards with Herbert Read, T.S. Eliot, Henry Moore, and Philip Larkin. Among the key figures whose relationships to Sergeant are discussed are Muriel Spark, Earle Birney, Kingsley Amis, Seamus Heaney, Peter Redgrove, Dannie Abse, and D.M. Thomas. Set in the context of forty years of highly charged activity on the British poetry scene, Sergeant's story is one of prudence, critical intelligence, and perseverance. As a poet, editor, and critic, Sergeant's role in British poetry is examined and discussed, and his contributions to the art are weighed against the achievements of those he assisted. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special words of gratitude are owed to those who assisted me in the pursuit of Howard Sergeant's story. Their support, suggestions and information made this project possible and pleasurable. I am indebted to my Supervisor, Dr. Brian John of the Department of English at McMaster University for his good advice, his moral and intellectual s~pport, and for his "grace t:.nder pressure" when I needed it most. My gratitude to Dr. Richard Morton, Dr. John Ferns, and Professor Graham Petrie also of McMaster University, for their good critical sense and their careful eye for detail. Their support and time has meant a great deal to me. Thanks to Jonathan Barker of the Arts Council Poetry Library of Great Britain; Professor David Wevill of the University of Texas at Austin for his kindness and support; Professor Zulfikar Ghose of the University of Texas at Austin for his kindness and information; Dr. Dannie Abse for his information; Dean William Slater of the School of Graduate Studies at McMaster University; Cathy Henderson of the Harry Ranso~ Humanities Research Centre, University of Texas; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their generous support. v The list of those to whom I owe a very special gratitude would not be complete without a vote of thanks to my parents and my sister Carolyn. Lionel Monteith provided me with information, and his memories and archives have been an invaluable source.His support and willingness to help are the marks of a true friend and I am most grateful to him. Literary magazines and their editors do not survive for long unless they are supported by those who make caring the most important part of their lives. Without Jean Sergeant,who opened her heart and her home to my work with a sense of generosity and caring, this study would not have been possible. Thank you, Jean. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1... Notes to the Introduction 12 I A SENSE OF VALUES 13 Notes to Chapter One 78 II THE PERSONALIST YEARS 83 Notes to Chapter Two 163 III THE MAVERICK YEARS 168 Notes to Chapter Three 246 IV GROUP ACTIVITIES 252 Notes to Chapter Four 300 BIBLIOGRAPHY 304 vii INTRODUCTION The politics of writing, the sheer struggle of making oneself heard above the din of other voices, often comes into direct and damaging confrontation with the actual act of writing. Aside from skill and craft -- matters often overlooked entirely in the grand scheme of publish or perish -- the poet has little on his or her side other than luck and the fickle currents of prevailing taste, literary association and audience receptivity. This study focusses on the work of one editor who tried, and often failed, to maintain both universal receptivity and a diplomatic aesthetic neutrality in his magazine and his literary endeavours. Howard Sergeant cannot be faulted entirely for his failures -- they are in many aspects more interesting than his successes -- for he attempted to steer a steady and balanced course through the viciousness of a literary scene that produced a discouraging record of complaint against an unprecedentedly high rate of expectation and achievement. One of the central problems with Sergeant's work as a man of literature, at least in the first two decades of his literary career, was that he operated from the facile 1 2 assumption that modern poetry was a matter of group struggles between members of conflicting aesthetic principles. That may be partially true -- certainly, the highlights of Sergeant's career discussed in this study suggest that British poetry since the Second World War has followed a pattern of action and reaction. My intent has been to examine Sergeant's role in some of the major trends of post-war British poetry and to observe and explain the forces which moved him, and often his magazine, in certain directions. A broader and more intensive study of the period might concern itself with those who are not mentioned here. My intention is not to write a detailed literary history of the period but to chronicle one man's actions and responses to many of the so-called "groups" that made their presence felt in the past forty years. Poetry, of course, is not a matter of camps. Poets are individuals -- a perception that Sergeant struggled to acknowledge in his own work and philosophy -- and they write from what they know and what they have experienced. Theoretical principles are always secondary to the best of poets, and critical groupings, as they arose during the post-war years, were often attempts by observers to find a convenient structure for comparison, discussion and anthologization. At times, however, poets grouped themselves together in the hope that there was some safety in numbers in the harsh environment of critical 3 careerism. As Michael Holroyd wrote in the Fortieth Anniversary issue of Outposts in 1983, "The world of poets is more cut-throat than the academic community.... "1 If this study leaves the reader with the assumption that the poetry of the period was simply a matter of "groups'' or "movements" it is because Sergeant often involved himself in such gatherings, both as a protagonist and antagonist of aesthetics which such clannish enterprises represented. A study of the period which does not focus on a specific individual would better serve those who are not mentioned here. My prime objective, in this context, is to tell Howard Sergeant's story and examine the role of one man in a literary era. Herbert Howard Sergeant was born in Hull, Yorkshire on May 6, 1914.2 His father was killed at the Battle of the Somme and Howard was raised by his mother under very strict and financially difficult circumstances. The major influence on his childhood was his maternal grandfather, a former railwayman, who taught him to read and rewarded him for memorizing passages from the Bible. Sergeant's second­ last chapbook of poems, Travelling Without a Valid Ticket, was dedicated to his grandfather. His upbringing, aside from the grandfather's influence, was strict Methodist and politically liberal -- two beliefs to which Sergeant remained loyal all his life. When his mother remarried, it was to a sailor who insisted that the bookish young boy 4 become a boxer. His relationship with his step-father was an uneasy one. At the age of six, Sergeant had lost the hearing in his left ear, and this disability left him introspective, quiet, and at times withdrawn. Sergeant managed to survive the boxing matches and Hull Grammar School where he received his early education, and eventually graduated with a certificate in accounting from the College of Commerce in Hull. This certificate was gradually upgraded by extensive work at night school until Sergeant became a professional accountant. His roots and his struggle for an education were factors which influenced Sergeant's life to a considerable degree. He often felt inferior to those who had received a genteel upbringing and a good education, and worked all his life to educate himself in literature and languages. Sergeant did a thorough job -- few people in England were as well-versed in contemporary poetry as he was, and he taught himself Urdu and Hindi in order to review books for journals in India.
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