Geoffrey Grigson facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Geoffrey Grigson
Born	Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson (1905-03-02)2 March 1905 Pelynt, Cornwall, England
Died	25 November 1985(1985-11-25) (aged 80) Broad Town, Wiltshire, England
Pen name	Martin Boldero
Occupation	Poet, essayist, editor, critic, anthologist and naturalist
Education	St John's School; St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Notable awards	Duff Cooper Prize
Children	4, inc. Lionel Grigson; Sophie Grigson
Relatives	John Grigson (brother; Wilfrid Grigson (brother); Giacomo Benedetto (grandson)

Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson (born March 2, 1905 – died November 25, 1985) was a British writer who did many things! He was a poet, wrote essays, edited books and magazines, and was also a critic and a naturalist (someone who studies nature). In the 1930s, he edited a very important magazine called New Verse. He wrote 13 books of his own poems and put together many collections of other people's poems. He also wrote about art, travel, and the countryside. Grigson helped start the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1946. He even wrote a book about his own life called The Crest on the Silver.

Life and Work of Geoffrey Grigson

Early Life and Education

Geoffrey Grigson was born in 1905 in Pelynt, a small village in Cornwall, England. His childhood in the countryside of Cornwall greatly influenced his poetry and writing. From a young age, he loved collecting natural objects like plants, bones, and stones. This interest was sparked by family friends in Polperro who were painters and amateur naturalists.

Grigson went to St John's School, Leatherhead and later studied at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford.

Starting a Career in Writing

After finishing university, Grigson began working at the London office of the Yorkshire Post newspaper. He then became the literary editor for the Morning Post.

He became well-known in the 1930s, first as a poet, and then as the editor of an important poetry magazine called New Verse. He edited New Verse from 1933 to 1939. This magazine featured works by many famous poets like Louis MacNeice, Stephen Spender, Dylan Thomas, and W. H. Auden. It also included unique works like "concrete poetry" (poems where the shape of the words matters) and folk poetry from tribal villages. During this time, Grigson sometimes published his own poems using the pen name Martin Boldero.

Work During World War II

During World War II, Grigson worked for the BBC Monitoring Service, which listened to and reported on radio broadcasts. He also produced radio talks for the BBC in Bristol.

Founding the Institute of Contemporary Arts

In 1946, Grigson was one of the people who helped create the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. This organization was founded with other important figures in the art world, like Roland Penrose and Herbert Read.

In 1951, Grigson organized an exhibition of drawings and watercolors from the British Council Collection. This exhibition traveled around the world for 30 years, visiting 57 art galleries and museums. It showed more than 100 artworks by famous artists such as Henry Moore, Paul Nash, and Graham Sutherland.

Later Life and Contributions

Later in his life, Grigson became a respected critic and reviewer, especially for the New York Review of Books. He also put together many collections of poetry by other writers. He published 13 books of his own poems and wrote about various topics, including travel, art (he wrote about artists like Samuel Palmer and Wyndham Lewis), the English countryside, and botany (the study of plants).

In 1951, he was the main editor for a 13-book series of guidebooks called About Britain. These books were published to go along with the Festival of Britain, a national exhibition held in 1951.

Grigson was also featured on a popular radio show called Desert Island Discs in 1982, where guests choose music and books they would take if they were stranded on a desert island.

In his later years, Grigson lived partly in Wiltshire, England, and partly in a unique cave house in Trôo, a village in France. He passed away in 1985 in Broad Town, Wiltshire, where he is buried.

Geoffrey Grigson's Family

Geoffrey Grigson was born in 1905, the youngest of seven sons. His father, William Shuckforth Grigson, was a clergyman. Many of Geoffrey's brothers died while serving in the First and Second World Wars. His only surviving brother, Wilfrid Grigson, died in a plane crash in 1948.

Geoffrey Grigson was married three times. His first wife was Frances Franklin Galt, with whom he started the New Verse magazine. They had one daughter, Caroline. With his second wife, Berta Emma Kunert, he had two children, Anna and Lionel Grigson. His third wife was Jane Grigson, a well-known food writer. Their daughter is Sophie Grigson, who is also famous in the food world.

Honors and Legacy

Grigson received the Duff Cooper Prize in 1971 for his poetry book Discoveries of Bones and Stones. In 1985, the year he died, a collection of tributes called Grigson at Eighty was published to celebrate his 80th birthday. In 2005, a conference was held at Oxford University to mark 100 years since his birth.

In 2007, the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester held an exhibition called Poets in the Landscape. This exhibition explored how poetry and nature influenced British art. It featured Grigson's anthology The Poet's Eye and copies of his magazine New Verse.

In 2017, the British Museum presented a major exhibition of British landscape paintings. The exhibition's title, "Places of the Mind," was taken from Grigson's 1949 collection of essays. This showed how Grigson's ideas about imagination and landscape were still important.

Selected Works by Geoffrey Grigson