ABSTRACT
Herbert Read was one of the most prolific, cosmopolitan and ambitious English intellectuals and men of letters of the twentieth century. During his lifetime he was practically ubiquitous as a critic, scholar, poet, advocate and educator. He left a singular legacy of academic and popular publications – more than sixty books and 1000 articles and reviews – which include his own considerable literary achievements, and his relentless political and cultural advocacy for interpreting and understanding modern art and literature. Herbert Read was born in Yorkshire on 4 December 1893, grew up on a farm, and attended the University of Leeds. During the First World War he served as an infantry officer, an experience which, like others of his generation, found compelling expression in poetry, such as in Read's Naked Warriors. Read's prominent role as an advocate gave him real cultural power.
