About:

Documenting the quest to track down everything written by (and written about) the poet, translator, critic, and radio dramatist, Henry Reed.

An obsessive, armchair attempt to assemble a comprehensive bibliography, not just for the work of a poet, but for his entire life.

Read "Naming of Parts."

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Henry Reed, ca. 1960


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Reeding:

I Capture the Castle: A girl and her family struggle to make ends meet in an old English castle.
Dusty Answer: Young, privileged, earnest Judith falls in love with the family next door.
The Heat of the Day: In wartime London, a woman finds herself caught between two men.


Elsewhere:

Books

Libraries

Weblogs, etc.


All posts for "Videos"

Reeding Lessons: the Henry Reed research blog

3.12.2024


Deryck Guyler, Radio Hero

From a 1995 episode of BBC One's "TV Heroes" hosted by none other than Danny Baker, here's a biography of Deryck Guyler (1914–1999):


Guyler starred in many of Henry Reed's radio plays for the BBC Third Programme in the 1950s, famously voicing General Gland ('Did you press the tit?') in the Hilda Tablet plays.

Guyler's greatest credit may have been in Reed's radio production of Jules Laforgue's Hamlet: or, The Consequences of Filial Pity (1954), in which he played "A footman, a halberdier, a wedding guest, the first grave digger, an attendant lord, Yorick's skull, a theatrical director, an equerry, the King of Denmark, and a tree."

«  Radio Plays Videos  0  »


1541. Trewin, J.C., "Old Master." Listener 53, no. 1368 (19 May 1955), 905-906.
Trewin's review of Henry Reed's radio drama, Vincenzo.


Kidding and Tribute

Two videos have appeared, with former poet laureate Robert Pinksy using Henry Reed's famous parody of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets as a teaching tool, in Boston University's Art of Poetry Video Repository.

In the first, Pinsky delivers an excellent reading of "Chard Whitlow" (written by Henry Reed in 1941 and subtitled "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Evening Postscript," after this poem), and then compares it with a selection from Eliot's "East Coker":


Followed up with this conversation with some first-time Reed (and Eliot) readers:


Pinsky's point being that effective parody is more than just kidding around: it can help the reader appreciate or even understand the source material better. "Chard Whitlow" is possibly the best example of this, because it can be backed up with Eliot's own statement (also read by Mr. Pinksy):

Most parodies of one's own work strike one as very poor. In fact, one is apt to think one could parody oneself much better. (As a matter of fact, some critics have said that I have done so.) But there is one which deserves the success it has had, Henry Reed's "Chard Whitlow."

Eliot's quote first appeared as a blurb for Reed's tribute in Dwight Macdonald's anthology, Parodies: An Anthology from Chaucer to Beerbohm—and After (New York: Random House, 1960).

There's much, much more to be found on the Art of Poetry's YouTube page.



1540. Trewin. J.C., "Keeping It Up." Listener 52, no. 1342 (18 November 1954), 877. 879.
Trewin's review of Henry Reed's operatic parody, Emily Butter.



1st lesson:

Reed, Henry (1914-1986). Born: Birmingham, England, 22 February 1914; died: London, 8 December 1986.

Education: MA, University of Birmingham, 1936. Served: RAOC, 1941-42; Foreign Office, Bletchley Park, 1942-1945. Freelance writer: BBC Features Department, 1945-1980.

Author of: A Map of Verona: Poems (1946)
The Novel Since 1939 (1946)
Moby Dick: A Play for Radio from Herman Melville's Novel (1947)
Lessons of the War (1970)
Hilda Tablet and Others: Four Pieces for Radio (1971)
The Streets of Pompeii and Other Plays for Radio (1971)
Collected Poems (1991, 2007)
The Auction Sale (2006)


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