Edgell Rickword facts for kids

John Edgell Rickword (born October 22, 1898 – died March 15, 1982) was a British writer, poet, and editor. He was also a brave soldier who won an award called the Military Cross. Later in his life, he became known for his strong political ideas, especially in the 1930s.

Early Life and War Experience

Edgell Rickword was born in Colchester, Essex, England. He went to the local grammar school there. When he was 18, in 1916, he joined the British Army during World War I. He became an officer and fought bravely, earning the Military Cross, a special award for courage in battle.

During the war, he also wrote poems about his experiences. These poems were later put together in a book called Behind the Eyes in 1921. After the war, in 1919, he became very ill. He had a serious infection that affected his left eye. Doctors had to remove his eye to stop the infection from spreading.

Later in 1919, Rickword went to Pembroke College, Oxford to study French literature. He didn't stay long, leaving after about a year when he got married. At Oxford, he met many other writers who had also been soldiers, like Edmund Blunden and Robert Graves. His poems were included in a collection called Oxford Poetry in 1921.

A Talented Critic

After leaving Oxford, Edgell Rickword moved to London and started working as a writer and literary critic. A critic is someone who writes reviews and gives their opinion on books and other creative works. He wrote for important newspapers like the Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman. He became well-known for his review of a famous poem called The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot.

In 1925, Rickword started his own literary magazine called Calendar of Modern Letters. This magazine became very important and is still highly respected today. It aimed to challenge the popular writers of the time, like G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw. The magazine helped shape how people thought about literature and influenced other important literary journals.

Political Involvement

In 1934, Edgell Rickword joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. He became very active in politics, especially during the Spanish Civil War. Even though he was busy with political work, he continued to write poetry. He became friends with other important writers and thinkers who shared his political views, such as Randall Swingler and Jack Lindsay.

Rickword was also involved in creating Lawrence & Wishart, which became the official publishing house for the Communist Party in 1936. He helped publish important books, including Negro: An Anthology by Nancy Cunard.

Around the same time, he helped start and edit a magazine called Left Review. This magazine was published from 1934 to 1938 and brought together writers from the Communist Party and others who were interested in Marxist ideas. It played a big role in developing Marxist literary criticism in the UK.

Later, from 1944 to 1947, Rickword edited another Communist magazine called Our Time. He believed that popular culture could be used to promote radical political ideas. Under his leadership, the magazine grew and covered a wider range of topics. Many important writers and thinkers, including Doris Lessing, were part of the group that worked on Our Time.

Works

• Behind the Eyes (1921) poems
• Rimbaud: The Boy and the Poet (1924)
• Invocation to Angels (1928) poems
• Scrutinies By Various Writers (1928) editor
• Scrutinies Volume II (1931) editor
• Love One Another (1929) Mandrake Press
• Poet Under Saturn. The Tragedy of Verlaine by Marcel Coulon (1932) translator
• A handbook of freedom: a record of English democracy through twelve centuries (1939) Co-editor with Jack Lindsay
• Collected Poems (1947)
• Radical Squibs and Loyal Ripostes: a collection of satirical pamphlets of the Regency period 1819-1821 (1971) editor
• Essays and Opinions Volume 1: 1921-31 (1974) edited by Alan Young
• Literature and Society: Essays and Opinions, vol.2 1931-1978 (1978)
• Twittingpan and Some Others (1981) poems
• Fifty Poems, A Selection by Edgell Rickword with Introduction by Roy Fuller