Memories of Paul Edwards - & the Icelandic Sagas

John Updike: Memories of the Ford Administration (1992)

Alf Clayton, a struggling history professor at Wayward Junior College in New Hampshire, receives a request ... to provide his memories and impressions of the Presidential administration of Gerald Ford. Clayton has spent several years unsuccessfully attempting to write a new biography of President James Buchanan and the two projects intertwine as Clayton's mind shifts between them ...

- Wikipedia: Memories of the Ford Administration

I have to begin by admitting that I didn't know Professor Paul Edwards (1926-1992) particularly well. He was one of the Academics in the Edinburgh English Department when I first arrived there in 1986. Judging from those dates above, He must have been 60 at the time, and I have to say that he looked it. I haven't been able to locate a photo of him online, so you'll have to envisage a rather red-faced, overweight, Rabelaisian figure, holding court in his large office upstairs in the David Hume Tower, which housed all of us Hamanities misfits.

So why am I writing about him?

Eyrbyggja Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards (1973)

One reason is because I knew his name pretty well long before I ever got there - though the picture of him in my mind's eye was nothing like the reality. You see, I'd already developed into a bit of an Icelandic Saga-ophile (if there is such a term) over my undergraduate years, partly as a result of having studied Old Norse for a year under the learned tutelage of Professor Forrest Scott of Auckland University.

Hermann Pálsson (1921-2002)

Here's a list of the translations and books Edwards and his collaborator, Icelandic scholar Hermann Pálsson, composed on the subject, starting with Gautrek's Saga in 1968, and concluding with Vikings in Russia in 1989:

Paul Edwards & Hermann Pálsson, trans. Gautrek's Saga (1968)

1. [with Hermann Pálsson] Gautrek's Saga, and Other Medieval Tales (1968)
2. [with Hermann Pálsson] Arrow-Odd: A Medieval Novel (1970)
3. [with Hermann Pálsson] Legendary Fiction in Medieval Iceland (1970)
4. [with Hermann Pálsson] Hrolf Gautreksson: A Viking romance (1972)
5. [with Hermann Pálsson] The Book of Settlements; Landnámabók (1972)
6. [with Hermann Pálsson] Eyrbyggja Saga (1973)
7. [with Hermann Pálsson] Egil's Saga by Snorri Sturluson (1976)
8. [with Hermann Pálsson] Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney (1978)
9. [with Hermann Pálsson] Göngu-Hrólfs Saga (1980)
10. [with Hermann Pálsson] Seven Viking Romances (1985)
11. [with Hermann Pálsson] Knytlinga Saga: The History of the Kings of Denmark (1986)
12. [with Hermann Pálsson] Magnus' Saga: The Life of St Magnus, Earl of Orkney, 1075–1116 (1987)
13. [with Hermann Pálsson] Vikings in Russia: Yngvar's saga and Eymund's saga (1989)

Vikings in Russia: Yngvar's Saga & Eymund's Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards (1989)

I managed to meet Hermann Pálsson, too, shortly after I first got to Edinburgh. We'd concentrated on one of the shorter sagas, Hrafnkel's Saga, in my year of Old Norse at the University of Auckland, and Pálsson had written a critical monograph about it - as well as translating it for the Penguin Classics (along with some shorter works, including the thoroughly charming story of "Auðun from the West Fjords," whose best friend was a Polar Bear ...)

Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories. Trans. Hermann Pálsson (1971)

I believe it was Mark Twain who put it best:

There are three infallible ways of pleasing an author, and the three form a rising scale of compliment:

1. to tell him you have read one of his books;
2. to tell him you have read all of his books;
3. to ask him to let you read the manuscript of his forthcoming book.

No. 1 admits you to his respect; No. 2 admits you to his admiration; No. 3 carries you clear into his heart.

I can't claim to have gone much beyond first base on that list with Pálsson, but he certainly seemed impressed that I'd read his 1966 monograph Siðfræði Hrafnkels sögu (1966 - published in English as Art and Ethics in Hrafnkel's Saga in 1971).

The classic account of that saga is to be found in Sigurður Nordal's 1949 book Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoða: A Study (translated into English in 1958). Nordal's exhaustive analysis of the local names and kinship systems in the region where the saga is set demonstrated beyond doubt that it had to be regarded as historical fiction, despite the presence of a few genuine place-names and people.

Nordal's book constituted the final nail in the coffin of the then still-current view that the so-called "Family Sagas" were nothing more than careful records of actual deeds and events in medieval Iceland. That may be true - to some extent - of some of them, but certainly not of this tale of the priest of Frey, Hrafnkel's Saga. Pálsson's 1966 account of the saga builds on Nordal's pioneering work to flesh out the complex connections between pure invention and fact in this early piece of prose fiction.

Anyway, Hermann and I had a nice little chat about it all. He seemed astonished to meet an English student who could actually read in a foreign language, and was interested in the Sagas. That was certainly not the norm among my fellow post-graduates.

Eyrbyggja Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards (1973)

Forrest Scott, my Icelandic teacher in Auckland, was positively obsessed with Eyrbyggja Saga, the rather episodic tale of the People of Eyri (which includes one of the best ghost stories I've ever read). Not content with the original manuscript sources preserved in Iceland, he'd spent a great deal of time in Copenhagen, looking through all the older paper copies of the text preserved in the National Library there.

At the time I was rather surprised that his long-awaited edition of the poem never seemed to get any closer to completion - even after his retirement from the everyday duties of the English Department. Now, having retired myself from teaching at Massey University a couple of years ago, I think I understand him a little better. Books get harder, not easier, to complete as the years go by. The need to update and reformat all the work you've already done becomes more and more of an insuperable obstacle, and instead you decide to scribble a short article (or, for that matter, a blogpost) on some more easily circumscribed subject ...

Edwards and Pálsson's fluent and fast-moving Penguin Classics translation provided us students with a convenient crib to set alongside our own rough versions of episodes from the Eyrbyggja Saga, translated from the drafts of Prof. Scott's projected edition.

Magnús Sigursteinsson [Magnus Magnusson] (2007)

Penguin Books began their series of translations of the sagas under the aegis of Edinburgh-raised Icelander (and future TV personality) Magnus Magnusson - in collaboration, of course, with the ubiquitous Hermann Pálsson. These included:

1. Njal’s Saga (1973)
   • Njal’s Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Magnus Magnusson. 1960. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.
2. The Vinland Sagas (1965)
   • The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America – Grænlendinga Saga & Eirik’s Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Magnus Magnusson. 1965. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
3. King Harald’s Saga (1966)
   • King Harald’s Saga: Harald Hardradi of Norway – from Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Magnus Magnusson. 1966. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
4. Laxdaela Saga (1969)
   • Laxdaela Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Magnus Magnusson. 1969. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.

Presumably Magnusson got too busy with his BBC broadcasting duties after that, so Hermann Pálsson thought he'd have a go on his own - hence the appearance of Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories with him as sole translator.

Snorri Sturluson: Egil's Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards (1976)

Pálsson must have concluded that the task of transforming the stark, implication-laden prose of the Sagas into idiomatic English prose was one which required a native-speaking collaborator, though, because a positive stream of sagas issued from the team of Pálsson & Edwards from 1972 onwards, many (not all) of them reprinted as Penguin Classics.

Gongu-Hrolfs Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards (1980)

Paul Edwards had studied Icelandic in his youth, and his genial, informal approach to the subject - I remember him remarking to me once that he'd just completed an article on "spewing in Old Norse sagas" - definitely brought a breath of fresh air to the Penguin series.

I mentioned above his "holding court in his large office." You'll have to try and imagine a battered old wooden table, with him at the head, a set of glasses and a flask of (dreadful) red wine at his elbow, serving out drinks to all and sundry. There were loud guests and silent ones. I was one of the latter. But he was infinitely kind to me - even before I gradually revealed my respect for him and his work, and my love of the Sagas themselves.

More to the point, he offered me (and others) invaluable, non-pompous advice about how to navigate the strange cross-currents of Academic life, and particularly the crises of faith which tend to beset those working on large postgraduate dissertations.

I guess it was all so welcome because he did so strongly resemble Sir John Falstaff - with all of us cast as his tavern companions. A Falstaff without any of the malice and mendacity, though: just the ready with and the endless desire for fun and good company. I wish I could go back and listen to him discourse just one more time.

Paul Edwards, ed. Equiano's Travels (1967)

The truth of the matter is, however, that those of you who've already heard of "Professor Paul Edwards" will probably be wondering why I'm concentrating so much on the Icelandic Sagas. His main claim to fame is undoubtedly the book above. It's just the tip of the iceberg of his work on African literature, mind you. He was, in fact, the go-to guy for such matters for most UK universities at the time. Wikipedia, as usual, provides us with a few useful facts and dates to get us started:

After completing his education he worked in West Africa for nine years, teaching literature in Ghana and Sierra Leone. The demand of his African students for African literature propelled his encounter with Equiano.

Daniel Orme; Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797)

Encouraged by Chinua Achebe, and helped by the historian of Sierra Leone Christopher Fyfe, in 1967 Edwards published an abridged edition of Equiano's autobiographical Narrative in Heinemann's African Writers Series, under the title Equiano's Travels. He subsequently published a facsimile version of the Narrative, and another edited version under the title The Life of Olaudah Equiano.

He was, in fact, at the time that I met him, Professor of English and African Literature at Edinburgh. I guess if you're shocked at my description of him serving out red wine to students in his office on a regular basis you'll have to take my word for it that we did things differently then.

It was quite a shock to me when I got back to New Zealand to readjust to our rather puritan ways. In Edinburgh, all business and all social gatherings were conducted in the pub. Professors seldom stood their rounds, admittedly, but they were happy enough to have drinks bought for them by indigent students trying to curry favour.

It may not be anything to skite about, but you couldn't walk for more than a few yards down any street in Edinburgh without running into a bar. The city was awash with booze. I remember my first impression of it as I approached my hall of residence in a taxi was seeing a drunk throwing up in a gutter. "Auld Reekie" certainly lived up to its name.

Certainly my friends and I always gathered in pubs. You could sit in the corner for hours debating the meaning of existence, and you could even get a snack there if you were sick of the Student Union pizzas. Halcyon days.

It is a bit vexing that I can't locate a picture of Paul Edwards. I suppose that his legacy is really two-fold. On the one hand, there's the beautiful edition of the Sagas published by the Folio Society around the turn of the millennium, which includes a few of his translations alongside all the ones by Pálsson and Magnusson:

Magnus Magnusson: The Icelandic Sagas (2000 & 2002)

Magnusson, Magnus, ed. The Icelandic Sagas. Vol. 1 of 2. Illustrated by Simon Noyes. 1999. London: The Folio Society, 2000.

1. Au∂un’s Saga, trans. Hermann Pálsson (1971)
2. Grænlendiga Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Pálsson (1965)
3. Eirík’s Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Pálsson (1965)
4. The Tale of Thorstein Stangarhögg (Staff-Struck), trans. Hermann Pálsson (1971)
5. Egil’s Saga, trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards (1976)
6. Hrafnkel’s Saga, trans. Hermann Pálsson (1971)
7. Eyrbyggja Saga, trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards (1972)
8. Vopnfir∂inga Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson (1999)
9. Bandamanna Saga, trans. Hermann Pálsson (1975)
10. Gunnlaug’s Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson (1999)
11. The Tale of Thi∂randi and Thórhall, trans. Magnus Magnusson (1999)
12. Njál’s Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Pálsson (1960)

Magnusson, Magnus, ed. The Icelandic Sagas. Vol. 2 of 2. Illustrated by John Vernon Lord. London: The Folio Society, 2002.

1. Ívarr’s Tale, trans. Magnus Magnusson (1999)
2. Gísli’s Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Pálsson (1999)
3. Ölkofri’s Tale, trans. Magnus Magnusson (1999)
4. Laxdæla Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Pálsson (1969)
5. Gunnarr Thi∂randabani’s Tale, trans. Alan Boucher (1981)
6. Fóstbrœ∂ra Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Pálsson (1999)
7. Hrei∂arr’s Tale, trans. Magnus Magnusson (1999)
8. Vatnsdæla Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson (1999)
9. Hænsa-Thórir’s Saga, trans. Hermann Pálsson (1975)
10. Grettir’s Saga, trans. Denton Fox & Hermann Pálsson (1974)

The Icelandic Sagas. Illustrated by Simon Noyes & John Vernon Lord (2000 & 2002)

On the other hand there's the memorial volume Romanticism and Wild Places: Essays In Memory of Paul Edwards, ed. Paul Hullah (Edinburgh: Quadriga, 1998). I can't find an image of that online, either. Perhaps, instead, I can conclude with a (partial) list of his own works. They at least are, I'm positive, going to live on.

Paul Edwards, ed.: Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1989)

•

David Hume Tower renamed after racism row (2020)

Paul Geoffrey Edwards
(1926-1992)

Books I own are marked in bold:

Books:


1. [with Hermann Pálsson) Legendary Fiction in Medieval Iceland (1970)
2. [with James Walvin] Black Personalities in the Era of the Slave Trade (1983)

Essays:


3. "Black writers of the 18th and 19th centuries." In The Black Presence in English Literature. Ed. David Dabydeen (1985): 50–67.
4. "Three West African Writers of the 1780s." In The Slave's Narrative. Ed. Charles T. Davis and Henry Louis Gates (1985)

Edited:


5. West African Narrative: An Anthology for Schools (1963)
6. Modern African Narrative: An Anthology (1966)
7. Through African Eyes (1966)
8. Equiano's Travels: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African by Olaudah Equiano. African Writers Series 10 (1967)
   • Equiano’s Travels: His Autobiography. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African. 1789. Ed. Paul Edwards. 1967. London: Heinemann, 1982.
9. A Ballad Book for Africa (1968)
10. Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African. African Classics (1990)
11. [with David Dabydeen) Black Writers in Britain: 1760–1830 (1991)
12. [with Polly Rewt) The letters of Ignatius Sancho by Ignatius Sancho (1994)

Translated:


13. [with Hermann Pálsson] Gautrek's Saga, and Other Medieval Tales (1968)
14. [with Hermann Pálsson] Arrow-Odd: A Medieval Novel (1970)
15. [with Hermann Pálsson] Legendary Fiction in Medieval Iceland (1970)
16. [with Hermann Pálsson] Hrolf Gautreksson: A Viking romance (1972)
    • Hrolf Gautrekkson: A Viking Romance. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards. New Saga Library 1. Edinburgh: Southgate, 1972.
17. [with Hermann Pálsson] The Book of Settlements; Landnámabók (1972)
18. [with Hermann Pálsson] Eyrbyggja Saga (1973)
    • Eyrbyggja Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards. New Saga Library 2. Edinburgh: Southgate, 1973.
19. [with Hermann Pálsson] Egil's Saga by Snorri Sturluson (1976)
    • Egil’s Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
20. [with Hermann Pálsson] Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney (1978)
    • Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards. 1978. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
21. [with Hermann Pálsson] Göngu-Hrólfs Saga (1980)
22. [with Hermann Pálsson] Seven Viking Romances (1985)
    • Seven Viking Romances. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985.
23. [with Hermann Pálsson] Knytlinga Saga: The History of the Kings of Denmark (1986)
24. [with Hermann Pálsson] Magnus' Saga: The Life of St Magnus, Earl of Orkney, 1075–1116 (1987)
25. [with Hermann Pálsson] Vikings in Russia: Yngvar's saga and Eymund's saga (1989)
26. [with Hermann Pálsson] "Egil’s Saga" (1976) & "Eyrbyggja Saga" (1972). In The Icelandic Sagas. Vol. 1 of 2. Ed. Magnus Magnusson. Illustrated by Simon Noyes. 1999. London: The Folio Society, 2000. 67-246 & 275-384.



Vidar Hreinsson: The Complete Sagas of Icelanders (1997)


Further Reading on the Sagas:


27. Blake, N. F. ed. The Saga of the Jomsvikings: Jómsvíkinga Saga. Nelson’s Icelandic texts, ed. Sigurður Nordal & G. Turville-Petre. London: Nelson, 1962.
28. Dasent, George. M., trans. The Saga of Burnt Njal: From the Icelandic of Njal’s Saga. Everyman’s Library. London & New York: J. M. Dent & E. P. Dutton, n.d.
29. Hight, George Ainslie., trans. The Saga of Grettir the Strong: A Story of the Eleventh Century. Everyman’s Library 699. 1914. London & New York: J. M. Dent & E. P. Dutton, 1929.
30. Hreinsson, Viðar, ed. The Complete Sagas of Icelanders (including 49 Stories). General Editor: Viðar Hreinsson, Editorial Team: Robert Cook, Terry Gunnell, Keneva Kunz & Bernard Scudder. Introduction by Robert Kellogg. 5 vols. Iceland: Leifur Eiriksson Publishing Ltd., 1997.
    1. Vinland / Warriors and Poets
       1. Foreword
          1. By the President of Iceland
          2. By the Icelandic Minister of Education, Culture and Science
          3. By the Former Director of the Manuscript Institute of Iceland
          4. Preface
          5. Credits
          6. Publisher's Acknowledgments
          7. Introduction
       2. Vinland and Greenland
          1. Eirik the Red's Saga
          2. The Saga of the Greenlanders
       3. Warriors and Poets
          1. Egil's Saga
          2. Kormak's Saga
          3. The Saga of Hallfred the Troublesome Poet
          4. The Saga of Bjorn, Champion of the Hitardal People
          5. The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue
       4. Tales of Poets
          1. The Tale of Arnor, the Poet of Earls
          2. Einar Skulason's Tale
          3. The Tale of Mani the Poet
          4. The Tale of Ottar the Black
          5. The Tale of Sarcastic Halli
          6. Stuf's Tale
          7. The Tale of Thorarin Short-Cloak
          8. The Tale of Thorleif, the Earl's Poet
       5. Anecdotes
          1. The Tale of Audun from the West Fjords
          2. The Tale of Brand the Generous
          3. Hreidar's Tale
          4. The Tale of the Story-Wise Icelander
          5. Ivar Ingimundarson's Tale
          6. Thorarin Nefjolfsson's Tale
          7. The Tale of Thorstein from the East Fjords
          8. The Tale of Thorstein the Curious
          9. The Tale of Thorstein Shiver
          10. The Tale of Thorvard Crow's-Beak
    
    
    2. Outlaws / Warriors and Poets
       1. Outlaws and Nature Spirits
          1. Gisli Sursson's Saga
          2. The Saga of Grettir the Strong
          3. The Saga of Hord and the People of Holm
          4. Bard's Saga
       2. Warriors and Poets
          1. Killer-Glum's Saga
          2. The Tale of Ogmund Bash
          3. The Tale of Thorvald Tasaldi
          4. The Saga of the Sworn Brothers
          5. Thormod's Tale
          6. The Tale of Thorarin the Overbearing
          7. Viglund's Saga
       3. Tales of the Supernatural
          1. The Tale of the Cairn-Dweller
          2. The Tale of the Mountain-Dweller
          3. Star-Oddi's Dream
          4. The Tale of Thidrandi and Thorhall
          5. The Tale of Thorhall Knapp
    
    
    3. Epic / Champions and Rogues
       1. An Epic
          1. Njal's Saga
       2. Champions and Rogues
          1. The Saga of Finnbogi the Mighty
          2. The Saga of the People of Floi
          3. The Saga of the People of Kjalarnes
          4. Jokul Buason's Tale
          5. Gold-Thorir's Saga
          6. The Saga of Thord Menace
          7. The Saga of Ref the Sly
          8. The Saga of Gunnar, the Fool of Keldugnup
       3. Tales of Champions and Adventures
          1. Gisl Illugason's Tale
          2. The Tale of Gold-Asa's Thord
          3. Hrafn Gudrunarson's Tale
          4. Orm Storolfsson's Tale
          5. Thorgrim Hallason's Tale
    
    
    4. Regional Feuds
       1. Regional Feuds
          1. The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal
          2. The Saga of the Slayings on the Heath
          3. Valla-Ljot's Saga
          4. The Saga of the People of Svarfadardal
          5. The Saga of the People of Ljosavatn
          6. The Saga of the People of Reykjadal and of Killer-Skuta
          7. The Saga of Thorstein the White
          8. The Saga of the People of Vopnafjord
          9. The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck
          10. The Tale of Thorstein Bull's Leg
          11. The Saga of Droplaug's Sons
          12. The Saga of the People of Fljotsdal
          13. The Tale of Gunnar, the Slayer of Thidrandi
          14. Brandkrossi's Tale
          15. Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson's Saga
          16. Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson's Tale
          17. Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson's Dream
          18. Egil Sidu-Hallsson's Tale
    
    
    5. Epic / Wealth and Power
       1. An Epic
          1. The Saga of the People of Laxardal
          2. Bolli Bollason's Tale
       2. Wealth and Power
          1. The Saga of the People of Eyri
          2. The Tale of Halldor Snorrason I
          3. The Tale of Halldor Snorrason II
          4. Olkofri's Saga
          5. Hen-Thorir's Saga
          6. The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey's Godi
          7. The Saga of the Confederates
          8. Odd Ofeigsson's Tale
          9. The Saga of Havard of Isafjord
       3. Religion and Conflict in Iceland and Greenland
          1. The Tale of Hromund the Lame
          2. The Tale of Svadi and Arnor Crone's-Nose
          3. The Tale of Thorvald the Far-Travelled
          4. The Tale of Thorsein Tent-Pitcher
          5. The Tale of the Greenlanders
       4. Reference Section
          1. Maps and Tables
          2. Illustrations and Diagrams
          3. Glossary
          4. Cross-Reference Index of Characters
          5. Contents of Volumes I-V
    6. Johnston, George, trans. The Saga of Gisli. Ed. Peter Foote. 1963. Everyman’s Library. London: Dent, 1984.
    7. Jones, Gwyn, trans. Eirik the Red and other Icelandic Sagas. The World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Pres, 1980.
    8. Turville-Petre, G. Origins of Icelandic Literature. 1953. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
    
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    Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney. Trans. Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards (1978)
    
    
    
    
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Poetry First Editions (Penguin Classics)

The Essential Collection of Poetry First Editions (2013)

Mexican-born poet, publisher, and pundit Michael Schmidt is a formidable presence in the world of letters. Founder (in 1969) of Carcanet Press, he's championed the work of many neglected or unfashionable figures, from John Clare and Robert Graves to Sylvia Townsend Warner and Ivor Gurney.

The Book Binder's Daughter: A Carcanet Press Collection (2020)

I've already written a piece extolling Schmidt's extravagantly learned The Novel: A Biography (2014). But this is just one of the massive tomes he's written. They include:

1. Lives of the Poets (1998)
2. The Story of Poetry. 3 vols (2001-2006):
   1. From Cædmon to Caxton
   2. From Skelton to Dryden
   3. From Pope to Burns
3. The First Poets: Lives of the Ancient Greek Poets (2004)
4. The Novel: A Biography (2014)

Michael Schmidt (1947- )

This particular post, however, is about a little side-venture of his: the Penguin Classics "Poetry First Editions". So far as I can tell, this series lasted only a year or so. Which is to say that all of the eight titles I've been able to find details of seem to have been published in 1999, at the turn of the millennium. They were presumably collected in a boxset sometime after that.

So why do I assume that Schmidt was behind this enterprise? I guess because he contributed "notes on the text" to both of the books in this series I own myself - Robert Burns and John Keats - as well (it would appear) to the other six.

•

The Essential Collection of Poetry First Editions (2013)

1. [1786] Robert Burns: Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
2. [1798] William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads
3. [1814] Lord Byron: The Corsair
4. [1820] John Keats: Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes &c.
5. [1896] A. E. Housman: A Shropshire Lad
6. [1915] Rupert Brooke: 1914 and Other Poems
7. [1923] D. H. Lawrence: Birds, Beasts and Flowers
8. [1928] W. B. Yeats: The Tower

•

What's the first thing that strikes you when you look at this list? It's certainly eclectic and wide-ranging, but isn't it just a little surprising that all of authors on display are old, dead, white guys?

Old and dead, yes, that could be explained away by the nature of what was (presumably) meant to be a largely historical project: resurrecting important individual books of poems from the works of well-known poets we tend to encounter only in anthologies or in collected editions.

But white? Well, if you look at the list again, and try to deduce its approximate parameters, it would appear to be confined to poets from the British Isles. There are no Americans, no colonials, no poets writing in languages other than English (unless you count Burns). Finding a non-white poet to include might have risked sounding like tokenism, given the racial - and class - stranglehold on higher education (and publishing) characteristic of the British literary tradition until, at the very least, the mid-twentieth century.

The absence of any women poets demands a bit more explanation, though.

Henry Lamb: Sir Arthur Quiller Couch (1863-1944)

Back in the late nineteenth century, when he was putting together his classic Oxford Book of English Verse, Sir Arthur Quiller Couch seems to have had little difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory definition of just what he meant by poetry:

The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so; nor had it been any feat to search out and insert the second-rate merely because it happened to be recondite.

Sir Arthur Quiller Couch, ed.: The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1918 (1939)

Forty years later, when he attempted to update his work, he must have felt a bit more pressure to justify the nature of his choices:

Of experiment I still hold myself fairly competent to judge. But, writing in 1939, I am at a loss what to do with a fashion of morose disparagement; of sneering at things long by catholic consent accounted beautiful; of scorning at ‘Man’s unconquerable mind’ and hanging up (without benefit of laundry) our common humanity as a rag on a clothes-line. Be it allowed that these present times are dark. Yet what are our poets of use — what are they for — if they cannot hearten the crew with auspices of daylight?

God knows what the old man thought of Auden and the other Macspaunday poets as they extolled communism and tried vainly to bring an end to "the old gang":

The hard bitch and the riding-master,
Stiff underground; deep in clear lake
The lolling bridegroom, beautiful, there.

No, so far as Q was concerned:

The reader, turning the pages of this book, will find this note of valiancy — of the old Roman ‘virtue’ mated with cheerfulness — dominant throughout, if in many curious moods. He may trace it back, if he care, far behind Chaucer to the rudest beginnings of English Song. It is indigenous, proper to our native spirit, and it will endure.

Louis Edouard Fournier: The Funeral of Shelley (1889)

If you reexamine the list of Poetry First Editions above, it's pretty clear that it's largely confined to the Romantic tradition in English verse. There are no Augustan satirists, no Modernists, no problem poets of any kind. The tradition this list embodies would have been perfectly acceptable to Q and other turn-of-the-century conservatives, determined to stick to the well-made lyric and eschew any other approach to writing verse. No Basil Bunting, T. S. Eliot, T. E. Hulme, Ezra Pound - not even Wilfred Owen or Isaac Rosenberg need apply.

And yet, if you turn back the clock 50 years, to 1975 (rather than 25, to the 1999 Penguin list) you'll find the following 'Poetry Reprint Series' of facsimile reprints of influential first slim volumes of verse published jointly by St James Press in London and St Martin's Press in New York:

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Poetry Reprint Series (1975)

Poetry Reprint Series:
Set One (1786)

Books I own are marked in bold:

1. [1916] Robert Graves: Over the Brazier
2. [1916] H.D.: Sea Garden
3. [1923] Wallace Stevens: Harmonium
4. [1931] John Betjeman: Mount Zion
5. [1914] Conrad Aiken: Earth Triumphant

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Robert Graves: Over the Brazier (1916)

Robert Graves:
Over the Brazier (1916)

Robert Graves. Over the Brazier. 1916. Poetry Reprint Series, 1. London: St. James Press / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.

Robert Graves (1895-1985)

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H.D.: Sea Garden (1916)

H.D. [Hilda Doolittle]:
Sea Garden (1916)

H.D. Sea Garden. 1916. Poetry Reprint Series, 2. London: St. James Press / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.

Man Ray: H.D. (1896-1961)

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Wallace Stevens: Harmonium (1923)

Wallace Stevens:
Harmonium (1923)

Wallace Stevens. Harmonium. 1923. Poetry Reprint Series, 3. London: St. James Press / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

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John Betjeman: Mount Zion (1931)

John Betjeman:
Mount Zion (1931)

John Betjeman. Mount Zion; or, In Touch with the Infinite. Illustrated by de Cronin Hastings et al. 1931. Poetry Reprint Series, 4. London: St. James Press / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.

John Betjeman (1906-1984)

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Conrad Aiken: Earth Triumphant (1914)

Conrad Aiken:
Earth Triumphant (1914)

Conrad Aiken. Earth Triumphant and Other Tales in Verse. 1914. Poetry Reprint Series, 5. London: St. James Press / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.

Conrad Aiken (1889-1973)

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Poetry Reprint Series: Set One (1975)

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How exciting that "Poetry Reprint Series" still looks today! The ratio of Americans to Brits is, admittedly, 3 to 2, and all the books are from the twentieth century, but at least they've included H.D.'s marvellous first volume alongside all the blokes. Nor do they seem to be averse to experimental or even humorous poetry.

Was the idea, then, with the later 1999 'Poetry First Editions' series, to stick solely to exceptionally bestselling and/or influential volumes of verse? Keats's third book may well have been the latter, but it certainly wasn't the former. It sold as badly as the first two - until the news of his early death came out, that is. Rupert Brooke's book, by contrast, sold by the truckload, both before and after his own death. Why, then, the need to resurrect it now?

If, too, the dates can range over a century and a half, from 1786 to 1928, then why wasn't Emily Brontë included? Why no Christina Rossetti? Why not Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous (or, if you prefer, infamous) Sonnets from the Portuguese?

W. E. Henley's free verse poems from the 1870s, eventually collected as In Hospital (1903), would surely offer a salutary alternative to the flood of over-ornate verbiage characteristic of the High Victorian age. And if the intention was to cast back to the late eighteenth century, why not open your list with William Blake's Poetical Sketches (1783), as a companion piece to Burns?

Talking of other inclusions alongside Burns, how about one of John Clare's books? Perhaps Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820), or The Rural Muse (1835).

None of these - it should be stressed - are meant as radical or revisionist suggestions. If the original objective of the series was to revisit influential mainstream poetry books which have left their mark on British writing in general, it does seem absurd that this opening salvo should have been so sedulously limited to the pale, stale and male.

Perhaps, in the end, that's why they decided not to persevere with the series. It's a shame, though, because these books are - in themselves - both beautiful and useful. I'm sorry that, as in the case of those 1975 "Poetry First Editions" books, there was no set 2 to straighten up the balance a bit.

I've included my own suggested list of supplementary or alternative inclusions directly below the original Penguin list below:

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The Essential Collection of Poetry First Editions (2013)

The Poetry First Editions Series
(1786-1928)

1. [1786] Robert Burns (1759-1796): Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
2. [1798] Wordsworth (1770-1850) & Coleridge (1772-1834): Lyrical Ballads
3. [1814] Lord Byron (1788-1824): The Corsair
4. [1820] John Keats (1795-1821): Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes &c.
5. [1896] A. E. Housman (1859-1936): A Shropshire Lad
6. [1915] Rupert Brooke (1887-1915): 1914 and Other Poems
7. [1923] D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930): Birds, Beasts and Flowers
8. [1928] W. B. Yeats (1865-1939): The Tower

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Robert Burns: Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1999)

Robert Burns:
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786)

Robert Burns. Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. 1786. Note on the Text by Michael Schmidt. Poetry First Editions. London: Penguin, 1999.

• Robert Burns. The Kilmarnock Poems [Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1786]. Ed. Donald A. Low. Everyman's Library. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1985..

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

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Lyrical Ballads (1798)

William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
Lyrical Ballads (1798)

William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lyrical Ballads. 1798. Note on the Text by Michael Schmidt. Poetry First Editions. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.

• William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lyrical Ballads 1805. 1798. Ed. Derek Roper. 1968. Collins Annotated Student Texts. London: Collins Publishers, 1973.

Peter Vandyke: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Benjamin Robert Haydon: William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

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Lord Byron: The Corsair (1814)

George Gordon, Lord Byron:
The Corsair (1814)

Lord Byron. The Corsair. 1814. Note on the Text by Michael Schmidt. Poetry First Editions. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.

• The Poetical Works of Lord Byron. Ed. Frederick Page. 1904. Rev. ed. 1945. Oxford Standard Authors. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.

Thomas Phillips: Lord Byron (1788-1824)

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John Keats: Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes (1820)

John Keats:
Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes and Other Poems (1820)

John Keats. Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes and Other Poems. 1820. Note on the Text by Michael Schmidt. Poetry First Editions. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.

• Jack Stillinger, ed. The Poems of John Keats. The Definitive Edition. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1978.

Joseph Severn: John Keats (1795-1821)

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A. E. Housman: A Shropshire Lad (1896)

Alfred Edward Housman:
A Shropshire Lad (1896)

A. E. Housman. A Shropshire Lad. 1896. Note on the Text by Michael Schmidt. Poetry First Editions. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.

• A. E. Housman. A Shropshire Lad. 1896. London: Grant Richards Ltd., 1923.

A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

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Rupert Brooke: 1914 and Other Poems (1915)

Rupert Brooke:
1914 and Other Poems (1915)

Rupert Brooke. 1914 and Other Poems. 1915. Note on the Text by Michael Schmidt. Poetry First Editions. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.

• Rupert Brooke. 1914 and Other Poems. 1915. London: Faber, 1941.

Sherril Schell: Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

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D. H. Lawrence: Birds, Beasts, and Flowers (1923)

David Herbert Lawrence:
Birds, Beasts, and Flowers (1923)

D. H. Lawrence. Birds, Beasts and Flowers. 1923. Note on the Text by Michael Schmidt. Poetry First Editions. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.

• The Collected Poems of D. H. Lawrence. Vol. 2: Unrhyming Poems. 2 vols. London: Martin Secker, 1928.

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

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W. B. Yeats: The Tower (1928)

William Butler Yeats:
The Tower (1928)

W. B. Yeats. The Tower. 1928. Note on the Text by Michael Schmidt. Poetry First Editions. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.

• The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W. B. Yeats. Ed. Peter Allt & Russell K. Alspach. 1957. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1973.

W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

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And here's my own (doubtless very subjective) counter-list:

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William Patrick Roberts: The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel: Spring, 1915 (1961-2)

My Own Suggested List
(1783-1932)

1. [1783] William Blake (1757-1827): Poetical Sketches
2. [1820] John Clare (1793-1864): Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery
3. [1846] Emily Brontë (1818-1848): Poems by Currer, Ellis & Acton Bell
4. [1850] Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861): Sonnets from the Portuguese
5. [1850] Christina Rossetti (1830-1894): Goblin Market and Other Poems
6. [1903] W. E. Henley (1849-1903): In Hospital
7. [1918] G. M. Hopkins (1844-1889): Poems
8. [1920] Wilfred Owen (1893-1918): Poems
9. [1932] W. H. Auden (1907-1973): The Orators

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William Blake: Poetical Sketches (1783)

William Blake:
Poetical Sketches (1783)

William Blake. Poetical Sketches (1783)

• Poetry and Prose of William Blake: Complete in One Volume. Ed. Geoffrey Keynes. The Centenary Edition. 1927. London: the Nonesuch Press / New York: Random House, 1948.

William Blake: William Blake (1807)

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John Clare: Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820)

John Clare:
Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820)

John Clare. Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820)

• The Poems of John Clare. Ed. J. W. Tibble. 2 vols. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. / New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1935.

John Clare (1862)

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Currer, Ellis & Acton Bell: Poems (1846)

Emily Jane Brontë:
Poems (1846)

Emily Brontë [as 'Ellis Bell]: Poems (1846)

• Emily Jane Brontë. The Complete Poems. Ed. C. W. Hatfield. 1941. New York & London: Columbia University Press & Oxford University Press, 1963.

Branwell Brontë: Emily Brontë (1833)

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Sonnets from the Portuguese (1906)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

• The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Oxford Complete Edition. London: Henry Frowde / Oxford University Press, 1908.

Michele Gordigiani: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1858)

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Christina Rossetti: Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)

Christina Georgina Rossetti:
Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)

Christina Rossetti. Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)

• The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti. Ed. William Michael Rossetti. 1904. The Globe Edition. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1924.
• Christina Rossetti. The Complete Poems. Ed. R. W. Crump. 1979-90. Notes & Introduction by Betty S. Flowers. 2001. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005.
• Christina Rossetti. Goblin Market. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: Harrap Limited, 1984.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Christina Rossetti (1866)

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W. E. Henley: In Hospital (1903)

William Ernest Henley:
In Hospital: Rhymes and Rhythms (1903)

• Poems by William Ernest Henley (1898)
• W. E. Henley: In Hospital: Rhymes and Rhythms (1903)

William Ernest Henley (1902)

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Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1918)

Gerard Manley Hopkins:
Poems (1918)

Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ed. Robert Bridges (1918)

• Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ed. Robert Bridges. 1918. Second Edition With an Appendix of Additional Notes, and a Critical Introduction by Charles Williams. 1930. The Oxford Bookshelf. 1937. London: Oxford University Press, 1941.
• Gerard Manley Hopkins. The Poems: Fourth Edition, based on the First Edition of 1918 and enlarged to incorporate all known poems and fragments. Ed. W. H. Gardner & N. H. MacKenzie. 1967. London: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1889)

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Wilfred Owen: Poems (1920)

Wilfred Owen:
Poems (1920)

Wilfred Owen. Poems. Ed. Siegfried Sassoon (1920)

• The Poems of Wilfred Owen. Ed. with a Memoir and Notes by Edmund Blunden. 1931. London: Chatto & Windus Ltd., 1963.
• The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen. Ed. Cecil Day Lewis. 1963. Memoir by Edmund Blunden. 1931. A Chatto & Windus Paperback CWP 18. London: Chatto & Windus Ltd., 1977.
• Wilfred Owen. The Complete Poems and Fragments. 2 vols. Ed. Jon Stallworthy. 1983. Rev. ed. Chatto & Windus. London: Random House, 2013.

Wilfred Owen (1920)

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W. H. Auden: The Orators (1932)

Wystan Hugh Auden:
The Orators: An English Study (1932)

W. H. Auden. The Orators (1932)

• W. H. Auden. The Orators: An English Study. 1932. London: Faber, 1966.
• W. H. Auden. Poems. Volume I: 1927-1939. The Complete Works of W. H. Auden. Ed. Edward Mendelson. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2022.

W. H. Auden (1946)

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So there you are! 8 + 5 + 9 = 22 wonderful books of poetry we'd all be a lot worse off without. I wish I had enough space here to write a treatise on each them: but luckily such information isn't hard to access nowadays.

If you haven't read at least a few of them, you really should. You won't regret it. I promise.

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