George Reavey facts for kids

George Reavey (born May 1, 1907 – died August 11, 1976) was an Irish poet, publisher, translator, and art collector. He was born in Russia. He is known for his unique surrealist poetry. Reavey also helped introduce 20th-century Russian poetry to people who spoke English through his translations. He was also the first publisher to release a collection of English translations of poems by the French surrealist poet Paul Éluard. He even worked as the first literary agent for the famous writer Samuel Beckett.

Early Life and Education

George Reavey was born in Vitebsk, Russia. His father, Daniel Reavey, was an engineer from Belfast, Ireland. His mother, Sophia Turchenko, was Russian. In 1909, his family moved to Nizhni Novgorod, where George grew up and learned to speak fluent Russian.

During the Russian Civil War in 1919, his father was arrested. George and his mother then moved to Belfast, Ireland. He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution until 1921. After that, his family moved to London, England, where he went to the Sloan School.

During his summer holidays, George often visited Belfast. He spent time recording traditional folk songs and Gaelic poems in his notebooks. In 1926, he started studying history and literature at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Here, he joined a group of writers who worked on a magazine called Experiment. He wrote prose and poetry for the magazine and also translated works by Boris Pasternak.

Adventures in Paris

In 1929, Reavey moved to Paris, France, with his friend Julian Trevelyan. He wanted to improve his French, but his real goal was to join the exciting avant garde (new and experimental) art scene in the city.

In Paris, he met many important writers. These included Thomas MacGreevy, who introduced him to Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Brian Coffey, and Denis Devlin. Many of these writers published their work in a literary magazine called transition. Reavey also regularly contributed to another magazine, The New Review, run by Samuel Putnam.

Putnam published Reavey's first book, Faust's Metamorphoses, in 1932. This book was a series of twenty free-verse poems based on Christopher Marlowe's play Faust. It included illustrations by S. W. Hayter.

Around this time, Reavey started his own literary agency, the Bureau Littéraire Européen. He also created his own publishing company, Europa Press. The first three books published by Europa Press were Reavey's own Nostradam (1932) and Signes d'Adieu, and Beckett's Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates (both in 1935).

London and World War II

Soon after publishing Beckett's book, Reavey moved his agency and publishing company to London. Many other surrealist artists and writers were also moving from Paris to London around this time. This made London a busy center for surrealist art and publishing.

Reavey was very active in this scene. He collected paintings, wrote for a book called Surrealism (1936), and helped authors through his Bureau. His most famous client was Samuel Beckett, whose novel Murphy Reavey tried to get published.

In 1936, Europa Press published Thorns of Thunder. This was the first collection of English translations of poems by Paul Éluard. The book had a drawing by the famous artist Pablo Picasso and an introduction by Herbert Read. Many people helped translate the poems, including Reavey, Beckett, and Man Ray. Europa Press went on to publish four more books before World War II began.

When World War II started, Reavey first traveled to Poland to help his mother. Then, he closed his press and agency and joined the Foreign Office. He worked in Madrid, Spain, and in the Soviet Union. After returning to London in 1945, he published Soviet Literature Today (1946). This book helped him get a job teaching Russian literature in New York, United States.

Life in the United States

George Reavey spent the rest of his life in the United States, though he made occasional trips to Paris, London, Dublin, and Belfast. In the U.S., he published several important translations. These included A Leaf of Spring by Alexander Esenin-Volpin (1961) and New Life: A Day on a Collective Farm by Fyodor Abramov (1963). He also created a collection of poems called The New Russian Poets 1953 – 1968 (1968), which included both Russian and English versions. He also contributed to Yevgeny Yevtushenko's book Stolen Apples (1972).

As a poet, Reavey was not as well-known after moving to the United States. However, he continued to publish his own poetry collections, such as Colours of Memory (1955) and Seven Seas (1971). Some of his poems were also featured in a special issue of The Lace Curtain magazine in 1971. His work was also included in Faber Book of Irish Verse (1974) by John Montague.