ABSTRACT

Edgell Rickword (1898–1982) is widely acclaimed as one of the most important and influential critics and editors of the twentieth century. As editor of the ‘Calendar of Modern Letters’, 1925–7, his rigorous and discriminating criticism set an acknowledged precedent for F.R. Leavis’s work in ’Scrutiny’. Leavis himself published in 1933 a selection from the ’Calender’ under the title ‘Towards Standards of Criticism’ (republished with new introduction, 1976). In the 1930s Rickword joined the Communist Party and worked for ‘Left Review’ (1934–8), which he edited with an internationalist awareness from January 1936 to June 1937; he later edited the Communist cultural periodical ‘Our Time’, 1944–7. Though well received as a poet in early years, he ceased to write lyric poetry on joining the Communist Party (from which he withdrew after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956). His publications include ‘Invocations to Angels’ (poetry, 1928), ‘Essays and Opinions 1921–1931’ (1974), ‘Behind the Eyes: Collected Poems and Translations’ (1974), and ‘Literature in Society: Essays and Opinions 1931–1978’ (1978). (See also ‘PN Review’, 6, 1, 1979, for Edgell Rickword: A Celebration, an informative collection of memoirs and opinions.) *