Max Plowman
Encyclopedia
Max Plowman was a British
writer and pacifist.
, Tottenham
, in London
. He left school at 16, and worked for a decade in his father's brick business. He became a journalist and poet. In 1914 he married Dorothy Lloyd Sulman.
From the beginning of the First World War Plowman felt morally opposed to the fighting - "insane and unmitigated filth" - but on Christmas Eve 1914 he reluctantly volunteered for enlistment in the Territorial Army 4th Field Ambulance. He later accepted a commission in an infantry regiment, and serving at Albert, close to the Somme
on the Western Front
, he suffered concussion from an exploding shell. Deemed to be affected by shell shock
, he was sent home to convalesce at Bowhill Auxiliary, a branch of Craiglockhart
, where he was treated by W. H. R. Rivers
, although he did not meet either of Rivers' two most celebrated patients, Wilfred Owen
and Siegfried Sassoon
. While recovering, he produced a poetry collection, A Lap Full of Seed, and an anonymous pamphlet, The Right to Live, inveighing against the kind of society that made war inevitable. Having been granted a further month's home service in January 1918, he wrote to his battalion adjutant asking to be relieved of his commission on the grounds of religious conscientious objection to all war. He was arrested and tried by court martial for refusing to return to his unit; his trial was covered in the Labour Leader
in April 1918. Having been dismissed from the Army, fortunately without punishment, he was served with notice of call-up as a conscript, but successfully applied to a Tribunal for exemption as a conscientious objector
.
In July 1918 Plowman gave a positive review in the Labour Leader to Siegfried Sassoon's anti-war poetry collection Counter-Attack. It was in response to a request in a letter from Plowman that Sassoon campaigned for Philip Snowden in Blackburn
, in the December 1918 General Election
.
His memoir of the war A Subaltern on the Somme was published in 1928, under the pseudonym "Mark VII".
and Richard Rees in developing The Adelphi
as a socialist monthly; Murry had founded it in 1923 as a literary journal (The New Adelphi, 1927-30); Rees edited it from 1930 to 1936, when he withdrew on account of Murry's commitment to pacifism, which increasingly became the magazine's theme; Murry resumed editorship until 1938, when Plowman took on the role. The Adelphi was closely aligned with the Independent Labour Party
; Jack Common
worked for it as circulation promoter and assistant editor in the 1930s.
In 1929 George Orwell
had sent The New Adelphi an article. Plowman sent Orwell books to review, founding an important friendship; and Rees was Orwell's literary executor
. Plowman later got to know Orwell better through Mabel Fierz. Orwell described Plowman as "pugnacious", and although one writer has suggested that Orwell was still in agreement with Plowman's pacifism in early 1938, another has pointed out that Orwell supported the International Brigade in Spain
and "was often rude about pacifists [although] he had good friends who were pacifists". Later that year Plowman introduced Orwell to Leo Myers
, and set up a secret gift of £300 from Myers so that Orwell and his wife could travel to Morocco
, to restore Orwell's health.
Plowman co-founded in 1934 and ran the Adelphi Centre. It was an early commune
, based on a farm in Langham, Essex
bought by Middleton Murry. Short-lived in its original conception, it ran a Summer School in August 1936 that was stellar: Orwell spoke on "An Outsider Sees the Distressed Areas" on 4 August, with Rayner Heppenstall
in the chair. Other speakers were Steve Shaw, Herbert Read
, Grace Rogers, J. Hampden Jackson, N. A. Holdaway (a Marxist theorist and schoolmaster, and a Director of the Centre), Geoffrey Sainsbury, Reinhold Niebuhr
, Karl Polanyi
, John Strachey, Plowman and Common.
Through it he also met the pacifist dramatist Richard Heron Ward, who from 1936 became a close friend. Ward formed the 'Adelphi Players' in 1941, who used the Adelphi Centre for rehearsals.
By 1937 the commune had collapsed, and the house, 'The Oaks', was turned over to some 60 Basque
refugee children under the auspices of the Peace Pledge Union
; they remained until 1939.
Plowman was attracted into organising for pacifism in the later 1930s by Hugh Richard Lawrie Sheppard
. He was the first General Secretary of the Peace Pledge Union 1937-1938. Murry, to whom Plowman was now close, became a pacifist after a diversion into communism.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer and pacifist.
Life to 1918
He was born in Northumberland ParkNorthumberland Park, London
Northumberland Park is a suburb near Tottenham, in Haringey, London, England. It is served by Northumberland Park railway station....
, Tottenham
Tottenham
Tottenham is an area of the London Borough of Haringey, England, situated north north east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book; hence Tota's hamlet became Tottenham...
, 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...
. He left school at 16, and worked for a decade in his father's brick business. He became a journalist and poet. In 1914 he married Dorothy Lloyd Sulman.
From the beginning of the First World War Plowman felt morally opposed to the fighting - "insane and unmitigated filth" - but on Christmas Eve 1914 he reluctantly volunteered for enlistment in the Territorial Army 4th Field Ambulance. He later accepted a commission in an infantry regiment, and serving at Albert, close to the Somme
Somme
Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....
on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
, he suffered concussion from an exploding shell. Deemed to be affected by shell shock
Shell Shock
Shell Shock, also known as 82nd Marines Attack was a 1964 film by B-movie director John Hayes. The film takes place in Italy during World War II, and tells the story of a sergeant with his group of soldiers....
, he was sent home to convalesce at Bowhill Auxiliary, a branch of Craiglockhart
Craiglockhart
Craiglockhart is a suburb in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland, lying between Colinton to the south, Morningside to the east Merchiston to the north east and Kingsknowe to the west...
, where he was treated by W. H. R. Rivers
W. H. R. Rivers
William Halse Rivers Rivers, FRCP, FRS, was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist, best known for his work with shell-shocked soldiers during World War I. Rivers' most famous patient was the poet Siegfried Sassoon...
, although he did not meet either of Rivers' two most celebrated patients, Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War...
and Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
. While recovering, he produced a poetry collection, A Lap Full of Seed, and an anonymous pamphlet, The Right to Live, inveighing against the kind of society that made war inevitable. Having been granted a further month's home service in January 1918, he wrote to his battalion adjutant asking to be relieved of his commission on the grounds of religious conscientious objection to all war. He was arrested and tried by court martial for refusing to return to his unit; his trial was covered in the Labour Leader
Labour Leader
The Labour Leader was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later re-named New Leader and Socialist Leader, before finally taking the name Labour Leader again....
in April 1918. Having been dismissed from the Army, fortunately without punishment, he was served with notice of call-up as a conscript, but successfully applied to a Tribunal for exemption as a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
.
In July 1918 Plowman gave a positive review in the Labour Leader to Siegfried Sassoon's anti-war poetry collection Counter-Attack. It was in response to a request in a letter from Plowman that Sassoon campaigned for Philip Snowden in Blackburn
Blackburn (UK Parliament constituency)
Blackburn is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The town currently elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. It has elected Labour MPs since its re-creation in 1955.-Boundaries:The constituency...
, in the December 1918 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1918
The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...
.
His memoir of the war A Subaltern on the Somme was published in 1928, under the pseudonym "Mark VII".
The Adelphi
In 1930 Plowman joined John Middleton MurryJohn Middleton Murry
John Middleton Murry was an English writer. He was prolific, producing more than 60 books and thousands of essays and reviews on literature, social issues, politics, and religion during his lifetime...
and Richard Rees in developing The Adelphi
Adelphi (magazine)
The Adelphi or New Adelphi was an English literary journal published between 1923 and 1955.founded by John Middleton Murry. The first issue appeared in June 1922, with issues published monthly thereafter. Between August 1927 and September 1930 it was renamed the New Adelphi and issued quarterly...
as a socialist monthly; Murry had founded it in 1923 as a literary journal (The New Adelphi, 1927-30); Rees edited it from 1930 to 1936, when he withdrew on account of Murry's commitment to pacifism, which increasingly became the magazine's theme; Murry resumed editorship until 1938, when Plowman took on the role. The Adelphi was closely aligned with the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
; Jack Common
Jack Common
Jack Common was a British novelist.He was born in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, close to the rail-sheds where his father worked as an engine-driver...
worked for it as circulation promoter and assistant editor in the 1930s.
In 1929 George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
had sent The New Adelphi an article. Plowman sent Orwell books to review, founding an important friendship; and Rees was Orwell's literary executor
Literary executor
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. According to Wills, Administration and Taxation: a practical guide "A will may appoint different executors to deal with different parts of the estate...
. Plowman later got to know Orwell better through Mabel Fierz. Orwell described Plowman as "pugnacious", and although one writer has suggested that Orwell was still in agreement with Plowman's pacifism in early 1938, another has pointed out that Orwell supported the International Brigade in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and "was often rude about pacifists [although] he had good friends who were pacifists". Later that year Plowman introduced Orwell to Leo Myers
Leo Myers
-Life:He was born in Cambridge into a cultured family; his father was the writer Frederic William Henry Myers and his mother the photographer Eveleen Tennant. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge...
, and set up a secret gift of £300 from Myers so that Orwell and his wife could travel to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, to restore Orwell's health.
Plowman co-founded in 1934 and ran the Adelphi Centre. It was an early commune
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
, based on a farm in Langham, Essex
Langham, Essex
Langham is a small village in the north east of Essex, England.-History:There is little evidence of pre Roman occupation of what is now Langham but the Romans built a villa at the north end of the village close to the River Stour and the Roman Road from Colchester into Suffolk also ran to the east...
bought by Middleton Murry. Short-lived in its original conception, it ran a Summer School in August 1936 that was stellar: Orwell spoke on "An Outsider Sees the Distressed Areas" on 4 August, with Rayner Heppenstall
Rayner Heppenstall
John Rayner Heppenstall was a British novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC radio producer.-Early life:...
in the chair. Other speakers were Steve Shaw, Herbert Read
Herbert Read
Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....
, Grace Rogers, J. Hampden Jackson, N. A. Holdaway (a Marxist theorist and schoolmaster, and a Director of the Centre), Geoffrey Sainsbury, Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...
, Karl Polanyi
Karl Polanyi
Karl Paul Polanyi was a Hungarian philosopher, political economist and economic anthropologist known for his opposition to traditional economic thought and his book The Great Transformation...
, John Strachey, Plowman and Common.
Through it he also met the pacifist dramatist Richard Heron Ward, who from 1936 became a close friend. Ward formed the 'Adelphi Players' in 1941, who used the Adelphi Centre for rehearsals.
By 1937 the commune had collapsed, and the house, 'The Oaks', was turned over to some 60 Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
refugee children under the auspices of the Peace Pledge Union
Peace Pledge Union
The Peace Pledge Union is a British pacifist non-governmental organization. It is open to everyone who can sign the PPU pledge: "I renounce war, and am therefore determined not to support any kind of war...
; they remained until 1939.
Plowman was attracted into organising for pacifism in the later 1930s by Hugh Richard Lawrie Sheppard
Hugh Richard Lawrie Sheppard
Hugh Richard Lawrie "Dick" Sheppard was an English Anglican priest, Dean of Canterbury and pacifist....
. He was the first General Secretary of the Peace Pledge Union 1937-1938. Murry, to whom Plowman was now close, became a pacifist after a diversion into communism.
Works
- A Lap Full of Seed (1917) poems
- The Right to Live (1917) anonymous pamphlet
- War and the Creative Impulse (1919)
- Introduction to the Study of Blake (1927)
- A Subaltern on the Somme (1928) as Mark VII
- The Faith Called Pacifism (1936)
- Bridge into the Future (1945) Collection of letters