Laura Riding
Encyclopedia
Laura Jackson (January 16, 1901 – September 2, 1991) was an American
poet
, critic
, novelist, essay
ist and short story
writer.
to a family of Austria
n Jewish immigrants, and educated at Cornell University
, where she began to write poetry, publishing first (1923–26) under the name Laura Riding Gottschalk. She became associated with the Fugitives through Allen Tate
, and they published her poems in The Fugitive magazine. Her first marriage, to historian Louis R. Gottschalk
(1899–1975), ended in divorce in 1925, at the end of which year she went to England
at the invitation of Robert Graves
and his wife Nancy Nicholson
. She would remain in Europe for nearly 14 years.
over conventional metres. She, Robert Graves, and Nancy Nicholson were based in London
until Riding's failed suicide attempt
in 1929. It is generally agreed that this episode was a major cause of the break-up of Graves's first marriage: the whole affair caused a famous literary scandal.
Thereafter, until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
in 1936, Riding and Graves lived in Deià
, Majorca, where they were visited by writers and artists including James Reeves
, Norman Cameron
, John Aldridge, Len Lye
, Jacob Bronowski
, and Honor Wyatt. The house is now a museum. Progress of Stories (1935) would later be highly esteemed by, among others, John Ashbery
and Harry Mathews
. Between 1936 and 1939 Riding and Graves lived in England, France, and Switzerland; Graves accompanied Riding on her return to the USA in 1939.
Riding and Graves were highly productive from the start of their association, though after they moved to Majorca they became even more so. While still in London they had set up (1927) a private press (the Seizin Press
), collaborated on A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) (which inspired Empson to write Seven Types of Ambiguity and was in some respects the seed of the New Criticism
), A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928), and other works. In Majorca the Seizin Press was enlarged to become a publishing imprint, producing inter alia the substantial hardbound critical magazine Epilogue (1935–1938), edited by Riding with Graves as associate editor. Throughout their association both of them steadily produced volumes of major poetry, culminating for each with a Collected Poems in 1938.
Graves and Riding left Majorca in 1936 at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
. In 1939, they moved to the United States
and took lodging in New Hope, Pennsylvania
. Their changing relationship is described by Elizabeth Friedmann in A Mannered Grace, by Richard Perceval Graves
in Robert Graves: 1927–1940, The Years with Laura and by T.S. Matthews in Jacks or Better (1977), and also was the basis for Miranda Seymour
's novel The Summer of '39 (1998). In 1939 Riding and Graves parted, and in 1941 she married Schuyler B. Jackson, eventually settling in Wabasso, Florida
, where she lived quietly and simply until her death in 1991, Schuyler having died in 1968. The vernacular "cracker" house in which they lived has been renovated and preserved by the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation.
According to Graves' biographer Richard Perceval Graves
, Riding played a crucial role in the development of Graves' thoughts when writing his book The White Goddess
, despite the fact the two were estranged at that point. However, on reviewing the book after publication Riding was furious, saying: "Where once I reigned, now a whorish abomination has sprung to life, a Frankenstein pieced together from the shards of my life and thoughts."
, her first formal statement of her reasons for renouncing poetry (there had been a brief reference book entry in 1955). An expanded version of the piece was published that year in the New York magazine Chelsea
, which also published "Further on Poetry" in 1964, writings on the theme of women-and-men in 1965 and 1974, and in 1967, The Telling.
The 62 numbered passages of The Telling, a 'personal evangel', formed the 'core part' of a book of the same title, thought by some to be her most important book alongside Collected Poems. Writings and publications continued to flow throughout the sixties, seventies, and eighties, as Laura (Riding) Jackson (her authorial name from 1963–64 onwards) explored what she regarded as the truth-potential of language free from the artificial restrictions of poetic art. 'My faith in poetry was at heart a faith in language as the elementary wisdom', she had written in 1976 ('The Road To, In, And Away From, Poetry', Reader 251). Her later writings attest to what she regarded as the truth-potential contained in language and in the human mind. She might be regarded as a spiritual teacher whose unusually high valuation of language led her to choose literature as the locus of her work.
Two entire issues of Chelsea were given over to new writings by her, It Has Taken Long (1976) and The Sufficient Difference (2001). Publication of her work has continued since her death in 1991, including First Awakenings (her early poems) (1992), Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words (1997), The Poems of Laura Riding, A Newly Revised Edition of the 1938/1980 Collection (2001), and Under The Mind's Watch (2004). The most recent books to appear are The Failure of Poetry, The Promise of Language (2007), and On the Continuing of the Continuing (2008). Her works have been published in France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Poland, and Brazil. The Laura (Riding) Jackson Board of Literary Management are her literary executors.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
, novelist, essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
ist and short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer.
Early life
She was born Laura Reichenthal in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to a family of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n Jewish immigrants, and educated at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, where she began to write poetry, publishing first (1923–26) under the name Laura Riding Gottschalk. She became associated with the Fugitives through Allen Tate
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
, and they published her poems in The Fugitive magazine. Her first marriage, to historian Louis R. Gottschalk
Louis R. Gottschalk
Louis Reichenthal Gottschalk was an American historian, an expert on Lafayette and the French Revolution. He taught for many years at the University of Chicago, where he was the Gustavus F. and Ann M...
(1899–1975), ended in divorce in 1925, at the end of which year she went to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
at the invitation of Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
and his wife Nancy Nicholson
Nancy Nicholson
Nancy Nicholson was a British painter and fabric designer.Born Annie Mary Pryde Nicholson, she was the only daughter of the artists Sir William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde. She had three brothers, sculptor Ben Nicholson, architect Christopher Nicholson and Anthony, who was killed in action in 1918...
. She would remain in Europe for nearly 14 years.
Poetry: association with Robert Graves
The excitement stirred by Laura Riding's poems is hinted at in Sonia Raiziss' later description: 'When The Fugitive (1922–1925) flashed down the new sky of American poetry, it left a brilliant scatter of names: Ransom, Tate, Warren, Riding, Crane.... Among them, the inner circle and those tangent to it as contributors, there was no one quite like Laura Riding' ('An Appreciation', Chelsea 12 1962, 28). Riding's first collection of poetry, The Close Chaplet, was published in 1926, and during the following year she assumed the surname Riding. By this time the originality of her poetry was becoming ever more evident: generally she favoured a distinctive form of free verseFree verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
over conventional metres. She, Robert Graves, and Nancy Nicholson were based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
until Riding's failed suicide attempt
Failed suicide attempt
Failed suicide attempts comprise a large portion of suicide attempts. Some are regarded as not true attempts at all, but rather parasuicide. The usual attempt may be a wish to affect another person by the behaviour. Consequently, it occurs in a social context and may represent a request for help....
in 1929. It is generally agreed that this episode was a major cause of the break-up of Graves's first marriage: the whole affair caused a famous literary scandal.
Thereafter, until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
in 1936, Riding and Graves lived in Deià
Deià
Deià is a small coastal village on the northern ridge of the Spanish island of Majorca. It is located about ten miles north of Valldemossa, and it is known for its literary and musical residents...
, Majorca, where they were visited by writers and artists including James Reeves
James Reeves
John Morris Reeves was a British writer known as James Reeves principally known for his poetry and contributions to children's literature and the literature of collected traditional songs.-Life:...
, Norman Cameron
Norman Cameron
Norman Cameron was a Scottish poet, distantly related to Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay who, between the two world wars, associated on Majorca with Robert Graves and Laura Riding. Later, as a part-time Fitzrovian, he was a colleague of Dylan Thomas, Geoffrey Grigson, Len Lye, John Aldridge RA,...
, John Aldridge, Len Lye
Len Lye
Len Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye , was a Christchurch, New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives such as the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Pacific...
, Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski was a Polish-Jewish British mathematician, biologist, historian of science, theatre author, poet and inventor...
, and Honor Wyatt. The house is now a museum. Progress of Stories (1935) would later be highly esteemed by, among others, John Ashbery
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
and Harry Mathews
Harry Mathews
Harry Mathews is an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays.-Life:Born in New York City to an upper class family, Mathews was educated at private schools there and at the Groton School in Massachusetts before enrolling at Princeton University in 1947...
. Between 1936 and 1939 Riding and Graves lived in England, France, and Switzerland; Graves accompanied Riding on her return to the USA in 1939.
Riding and Graves were highly productive from the start of their association, though after they moved to Majorca they became even more so. While still in London they had set up (1927) a private press (the Seizin Press
Seizin Press
The Seizin Press was a small press, founded in 1927 by Laura Riding and Robert Graves in London. From 1930 to 1937 it operated out of Majorca....
), collaborated on A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) (which inspired Empson to write Seven Types of Ambiguity and was in some respects the seed of the New Criticism
New Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...
), A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928), and other works. In Majorca the Seizin Press was enlarged to become a publishing imprint, producing inter alia the substantial hardbound critical magazine Epilogue (1935–1938), edited by Riding with Graves as associate editor. Throughout their association both of them steadily produced volumes of major poetry, culminating for each with a Collected Poems in 1938.
Graves and Riding left Majorca in 1936 at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. In 1939, they moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and took lodging in New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope, formerly known as Coryell's Ferry, is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA. The population was 2,528 at the 2010 census. The borough lies on the west bank of the Delaware River at its confluence with Aquetong Creek. A two-lane bridge carries automobile and foot traffic across the...
. Their changing relationship is described by Elizabeth Friedmann in A Mannered Grace, by Richard Perceval Graves
Richard Perceval Graves
Richard Perceval Graves is an English biographer, poet and lecturer.-Early career:Richard Graves was born in Brighton, England and educated at Tollard Royal, Dorset, The White House, Wokingham and at Holme Grange School, Wokingham. He went on to Copthorne School , Charterhouse and St. John's...
in Robert Graves: 1927–1940, The Years with Laura and by T.S. Matthews in Jacks or Better (1977), and also was the basis for Miranda Seymour
Miranda Seymour
Miranda Jane Seymour is an English literary critic, novelist, and biographer.Miranda Seymour was two years old when her parents moved into Thrumpton Hall, the family's ancestral home in Nottinghamshire. This celebrated Jacobean mansion is on the south bank of the River Trent at the secluded...
's novel The Summer of '39 (1998). In 1939 Riding and Graves parted, and in 1941 she married Schuyler B. Jackson, eventually settling in Wabasso, Florida
Wabasso, Florida
Wabasso is a census-designated place in Indian River County, Florida, United States. The population was 918 at the 2000 census. It is located on the intersections of CR 605, U.S...
, where she lived quietly and simply until her death in 1991, Schuyler having died in 1968. The vernacular "cracker" house in which they lived has been renovated and preserved by the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation.
According to Graves' biographer Richard Perceval Graves
Richard Perceval Graves
Richard Perceval Graves is an English biographer, poet and lecturer.-Early career:Richard Graves was born in Brighton, England and educated at Tollard Royal, Dorset, The White House, Wokingham and at Holme Grange School, Wokingham. He went on to Copthorne School , Charterhouse and St. John's...
, Riding played a crucial role in the development of Graves' thoughts when writing his book The White Goddess
The White Goddess
The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales magazine, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961...
, despite the fact the two were estranged at that point. However, on reviewing the book after publication Riding was furious, saying: "Where once I reigned, now a whorish abomination has sprung to life, a Frankenstein pieced together from the shards of my life and thoughts."
Renunciation of poetry; later writings
In about 1941 Riding renounced poetry, though it would be fifteen to twenty years before she would feel able to begin explaining her reasons and exploring her unfolding findings. She withdrew from public literary life, working with Schuyler Jackson on a dictionary (published posthumously in 1997) that would lead them into an exploration of the foundations of meaning and language. In April 1962 she read "Introduction for a Broadcast" for the BBC Third ProgrammeBBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio network broadcast by the BBC. The network first went on air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain, playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts...
, her first formal statement of her reasons for renouncing poetry (there had been a brief reference book entry in 1955). An expanded version of the piece was published that year in the New York magazine Chelsea
Chelsea (magazine)
Chelsea was a small American, twice-a-year literary magazine based in New York City. The influential journal, edited for many years by Sonia Raiziss, published poetry, prose, book reviews and translations with an emphasis on translations, art, and cross-cultural exchange.-History:In 1958, The...
, which also published "Further on Poetry" in 1964, writings on the theme of women-and-men in 1965 and 1974, and in 1967, The Telling.
The 62 numbered passages of The Telling, a 'personal evangel', formed the 'core part' of a book of the same title, thought by some to be her most important book alongside Collected Poems. Writings and publications continued to flow throughout the sixties, seventies, and eighties, as Laura (Riding) Jackson (her authorial name from 1963–64 onwards) explored what she regarded as the truth-potential of language free from the artificial restrictions of poetic art. 'My faith in poetry was at heart a faith in language as the elementary wisdom', she had written in 1976 ('The Road To, In, And Away From, Poetry', Reader 251). Her later writings attest to what she regarded as the truth-potential contained in language and in the human mind. She might be regarded as a spiritual teacher whose unusually high valuation of language led her to choose literature as the locus of her work.
Two entire issues of Chelsea were given over to new writings by her, It Has Taken Long (1976) and The Sufficient Difference (2001). Publication of her work has continued since her death in 1991, including First Awakenings (her early poems) (1992), Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words (1997), The Poems of Laura Riding, A Newly Revised Edition of the 1938/1980 Collection (2001), and Under The Mind's Watch (2004). The most recent books to appear are The Failure of Poetry, The Promise of Language (2007), and On the Continuing of the Continuing (2008). Her works have been published in France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Poland, and Brazil. The Laura (Riding) Jackson Board of Literary Management are her literary executors.
Selected bibliography
- The Close Chaplet (London: Hogarth Press, [October] 1926; New York: Adelphi Company, 1926)
- A Survey of Modernist Poetry [with Robert Graves] (London: Heinemann, 1927; New York: Doubleday, 1928)
- Voltaire: A Biographical Fantasy [with Foreword, 1921] (London : Hogarth Press, 1927).
- Anarchism Is Not Enough (London: Cape; New York: Doubleday, 1928; new ed. Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2001)
- Contemporaries and Snobs (London: Cape; New York: Doubleday, 1928)
- A Pamphlet Against Anthologies [with Robert Graves] (London: Cape; New York: Doubleday, 1928)
- Love as Death: Death as Love (Seizin Press, Hammersmith/London, 1928)
- Twenty Poems Less (Paris: Hours Press, 1930)
- Poems A Joking Word [with Preface] (London : Cape, 1930)
- Four Unposted Letters to Catherine (Paris: Hours Press, n.d.[1930])
- Experts Are Puzzled (London: Cape, 1930)
- Though Gently (Deya: Seizin Press, 1930)(reproduced, with responses from commentators and critics, in Delmar 8, Winter 2002)
- Laura and Francisca: a poem (Deya: Seizin Press, 1931)
- Everybody's Letters (London: Barker, 1933)
- The Life of the Dead. With Ten Illustrations by John Aldridge (London: Arthur Barker, 1933)
- Poet: A Lying Word (London: Barker, 1933)
- Focus I – IV (ed. with Robert Graves and others, four vols published, Deya, Majorca, 1935)
- Progress of Stories (Deya, Majorca: Seizin Press; London, Constable, 1935)
- Epilogue: a Critical Summary (ed. with Graves) (Deya: The Seizin Press; London: Constable, 1935–1938)
- A Trojan Ending (Deya, Majorca: Seizin Press; London: Constable, 1937)
- The Collected Poems of Laura Riding (London: Cassell; New York: Random House, 1938)
- The World and Ourselves (London: Chatto & Windus, 1938)
- Lives of Wives (London: Cassell, 1939)
- Selected Poems: In Five Sets (London: Faber, 1970; New York: Norton, 1973; New York: Persea, 1993)
- The Telling (Athlone 1972, Harper & Row 1973, Carcanet 2005)
- It Has Taken Long (Chelsea 35 [whole issue], New York, 1976)
- The Poems of Laura Riding: A New Edition of the 1938 Collection (Manchester: Carcanet; New York: Persea 1980)
- Some Communications of Broad Reference (Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1983)
- First Awakenings (Manchester: Carcanet; New York: Persea, 1992)
- The Word 'Woman' and Other related Writings (New York: Persea, 1993; Manchester: Carcanet, 1994)
- A Selection Of The Poems Of Laura Riding (edited with an Introduction by Robert Nye) (Manchester: Carcanet, 1994; New York: Persea, 1996)
- Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words [with Schuyler B. Jackson] (edited by William Harmon) (University Press of Virginia, 1997)
- The Sufficient Difference: A Centenary Celebration of Laura (Riding) Jackson (guest-edited by Elizabeth Friedmann) (Chelsea 69 [whole issue], New York, Dec. 2000)
- The Poems of Laura Riding Newly Revised Edition (edited by Mark Jacobs, Note on the Text by Alan J. Clark) (New York: Persea, 2001)
- Under The Mind's Watch: Concerning Issues Of Language, Literature, Life Of Contemporary Bearing (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2004)(edited by John Nolan and Alan J. Clark)
- The Failure of Poetry, The Promise of Language (edited by John Nolan) (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007)
- On the Continuing of the Continuing (London: Wyeswood Press, 2008) (fine-printed limited edition)
- The Person I Am (edited by John Nolan and Carroll Ann Friedmann) (Trent Editions, Nottingham Trent University, two volumes, forthcoming 2009)
Further reading
- Elizabeth Friedmann, A Mannered Grace: the Life of Laura (Riding) Jackson (Persea Books, 2005). ISBN 0-89255-300-6
- Alan J. Clark, "Laura (Riding) Jackson: a revised check-list March 1923 – January 2001", pp. 147–179 in The Sufficient Difference: a Centenary Celebration of Laura (Riding) Jackson (NY: Chelsea Associates, 2000) (Chelsea 69). ISSN 0009-2185. Also available at http://www.ntu.ac.uk/laura_riding
- Elizabeth Friedmann (ed), The Laura (Riding) Jackson Reader (Persea Books, 2005). ISBN 0-89255-263-8
- Paul Auster, "Truth, Beauty, Silence" (Picador, 2005). ISBN 0-312-42468-X
External links
- The Laura Riding Jackson Foundation
- Nottingham Trent University Laura (Riding) Jackson webpage
- Anthology of Riding webpage An anthology of stories and poems by Laura Riding
- The Laura Riding Jackson Papers at Washington University in St. Louis
- Contemporaries and Snobs
- A Pamphlet Against Anthologies
- Laura Riding fonds at University of Victoria, Special Collections
- Web oficial de 'La Casa de Robert Graves' en Deià, Mallorca. De la Fundación Robert Graves.