Edmund Blunden Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Edmund Blunden CBE MC
Blunden, c. 1914
Born	Edmund Charles Blunden (1896-11-01)1 November 1896 London, England
Died	20 January 1974(1974-01-20) (aged 77) Long Melford, England
Resting place	Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford
Occupation	Poet, author
Education	Christ's Hospital; Queen's College, Oxford
Notable works	Poems 1913 and 1914; An Elegy and Other Poems; Cricket Country; Poems on Japan
Notable awards	Military Cross; C.B.E.; the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
Spouse	Mary Daines Sylva Norman Claire Margaret Poynting
Partner	Aki Hayashi
Children	seven

Edmund Charles Blunden (born November 1, 1896 – died January 20, 1974) was an English poet and writer. He also worked as a literary critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote about his experiences in World War I in both poems and stories.

For much of his life, Blunden reviewed books for English magazines. He also taught at universities in Tokyo and Hong Kong. Later, he became the Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.

Early Life and School
Serving in World War I
Life at University and as a Writer
Later Years
Personal Life and Interests
Awards and Recognition
Works
Images for kids
See also

Early Life and School

Edmund Blunden was born in London. He was the oldest of nine children. His parents, Charles and Georgina Blunden, were both headteachers at a school in Yalding.

Edmund went to Christ's Hospital, a famous boarding school. Later, he studied at The Queen's College, Oxford.

Serving in World War I

In September 1915, during World War I, Blunden joined the British Army. He became a second lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment. He served on the Western Front in France.

He fought in major battles like Ypres and the Somme. In 1917, he also took part in the Battle of Passchendaele. For his bravery in action, he received the Military Cross (MC) in January 1917.

Blunden spent almost two years on the front lines. He was lucky not to be physically hurt, even though he was gassed in 1917. However, the war left him with lasting mental scars. He later wrote about his wartime experiences in his book, Undertones of War, published in 1928.

Life at University and as a Writer

After the war, Blunden left the army in 1919. He went to Oxford University, where he had a scholarship. He studied English literature alongside his friend, Robert Graves.

However, Blunden found university life wasn't for him. He left in 1920 to start a career as a writer. He first worked as an assistant for the Athenaeum magazine.

A famous poet, Siegfried Sassoon, became a close friend and supporter of Blunden. In 1920, Blunden published a collection of poems called The Waggoner. He also helped edit the poems of John Clare.

His next book of poems, The Shepherd, came out in 1922. It won the Hawthornden Prize. Even though his poetry was well-liked, it didn't earn him enough money to live on.

In 1924, he accepted a job as a Professor of English at the University of Tokyo in Japan. He returned to England in 1927 and worked as a literary editor for a year.

In 1931, Blunden went back to Oxford. He became a Fellow at Merton College and was a respected tutor. During his time at Oxford, he wrote many books. These included poetry collections like Choice or Chance (1934) and Shells by a Stream (1944). He also wrote about other writers such as Charles Lamb and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

He also wrote a book about his favorite sport, Cricket Country (1944). In 1944, he became an assistant editor for The Times Literary Supplement. In 1947, he returned to Japan. Later, in 1953, he became a Professor of English Literature at the University of Hong Kong.

Later Years

Blunden retired in 1964 and moved to Suffolk, England. In 1966, he was chosen to be the Oxford Professor of Poetry. He won by a large number of votes. However, he found giving public lectures too tiring. He resigned from the role after only two years.

Edmund Blunden passed away from a heart attack at his home in Long Melford, Suffolk, in 1974. He is buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.

Personal Life and Interests

Edmund Blunden was married three times and had children.

He had a great love for cricket, which he wrote about in his book Cricket Country. He played cricket often, even though he wasn't very good at it! His friend, the writer George Orwell, described him as a "true cricketer." Orwell said Blunden loved informal village games, where players might be called away for work.

A writer from Bangalore, Suresh Menon, wrote about Blunden's book. He said that Blunden believed cricket wasn't just a game. It was connected to the countryside, gardens, and barns around the cricket field.

Blunden also had a good sense of humor. His fellow poets thought highly of him. They held a special dinner in his honor, where poets like Cecil Day-Lewis and William Plomer wrote poems for him. Famous poets like T. S. Eliot were also guests.

Awards and Recognition

Edmund Blunden received several honors:

The CBE in 1951.
The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1956.
The Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature.
The Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd Class, from Japan in 1963.
Honorary membership of the Japan Academy.

On November 11, 1985, Blunden was honored at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. A special stone was placed there to remember him and 15 other poets from World War I. The words on the stone were written by another war poet, Wilfred Owen: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."