ILLUSION AND REALITY A STUDY OF THE SOURCES OF POETRY By
CHRISTOPHER CAUDWELL CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE INTRODUCTION THE
BIRTH OF POETRY THE DEATH OF MYTHOLOGY THE INVOLVMENT OF MODERN
POETRY ENGLISH POETS: I PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION II THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION III DECLINE OF CAPITALISM THE WORLD THE PHANTASY POETRYS
DREAMWORK THE ARTS THE FUTURE OF POETRY..... BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE THIS is one of the great books of our time. It is
not easy reading. It is a book to be studied and annotated and
returned to again and again. The reader will then find that,
however often he takes it up, it will always give him fresh food
for thought. The author, Christopher St. John Sprigg, was born in
Putney on October 20, 1907. He was educated at the Benedictine
school at Ealing. He left school at sixteen and a half and worked
for three years as a reporter on the Yorkshire Observer. Then he
returned to London and joined a firm of aeronautical publishers,
first as editor and later as a director. He invented an infinitely
variable gear, the designs for which were published in the
Automobile Engineer. They attracted a good deal of attention from
experts. He published five textbooks on aero nautics, seven
detective novels, and some poems and short stories. All this before
he was twentyfive. In May, 1935, under the name of Christopher
Caudwell, he published his first serious novel, This My Hand. It
shows that lie had made a close study of psychology, but he had not
yet succeeded in relating his knowledge to life. At the end of 1934
he had come across some of the Marxist classics, and the following
summer he spent in Cornwall immersed in the works of Marx, Engcls,
and Lenin, Shortly after his return to London he finished the first
draft of Illusion and Reality. Then, in December, he took lodgings
in Poplar and later joined the Poplar Branch of the Communist
Party. Many of his Poplar comrades were dockers, almost
aggressively proletarian, and a little suspicious at first of the,
quiet, well spoken young man who wrote books for a living out
before long he was accepted as one of themselves, doing his share
of whatever had to be done. A few months after joining the Party he
went over to Paris to get a firsthand experience of the Popular
Front and he came back with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Besides
continuing to write novels for a living, he rewrote Illusion and
Reality, completed . the essays published subsequently as Studies
in a Dying Culture, and began The. Crisis in Physics. He worked to
the clock. After spending the day at his typewriter, he would leave
the house at five and go out to the Branch to speak at an openair
meeting, or sell the Daily Worker at the corner of Crisp Street
Market. . Meanwhile, the Spanish Civil War had broken out. The
Poplar Branch threw itself into the campaign, with Caudwell as one
of the leading spirits. By November they had raised enough money to
buy an ambulance, and Caudwell was chosen to drive it across France
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
