A Lucid Dreamer: The Life of Peter Redgrove

by Neil Roberts, Peter Redgrove

Overview

The work of the poet Peter Redgrove is one of the great unexplored treasures of late twentieth century literature. His prolific output presents an intriguing variety of personae: magician, scientist, lover, psychologist, joker, madman. It is only now, with the publication of his Collected Poems and this biography, that we can see how and why these personae developed - and discover the full depth and range of this visionary writer.

Born into an apparently conventional middle-class family that was in reality deeply disturbed, the poet finally emerged: transforming himself from the neurotic, Oedipal young scientist, through a process of mental breakdown, insulin coma therapy, erotic revelation and the discovery of poetic companionship at Cambridge - and particularly his friendship and rivalry with Ted Hughes.

Neil Roberts explores the inner story of this emergence, and Redgrove's later development through marriage, family life, the fellowship of the 'Group', alcoholic excess, infidelity and marital breakdown to his triumphant later partnership with Penelope Shuttle. We also discover, for the first time, some darker secrets: his fascination with Aleister Crowley, his damaged and damaging relationship with his father, and the lifelong sexual fetish which he called the 'Game'. Drawing on the poet's intimate journals and correspondence, and interviews with family, friends and colleagues, A Lucid Dreamer tells the exceptionally inward and revealing story of an astonishing creative life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448130290
Publisher:	Random House
Publication date:	01/05/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Neil Roberts was born in Manchester and educated in Latymer Upper School, London, and
Clare College, Cambridge. He is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield, where he has taught for thirty-eight years. He wrote the first critical study of Peter Redgrove, The Lover, the Dreamer and the World, and knew the poet well during the last twenty years of his life. His other books include Ted Hughes: A Literary Life, and works on D. H. Lawrence, George Eliot and George Meredith. He lives in Derbyshire.

Peter Redgrove was born in 1932 and studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge. He was also a novelist, playwright and co-author (with Penelope Shuttle) of The Wise Wound, a revolutionary study of the human fertility cycle. Among his many awards were the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Prix Italia and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He died in 2003.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface 1

I Oedipus in Kingston 1932-45 5

II The Youthful Scientist 1945-49 21

III Lazarus 1950 35

IV Love and Poetry 1950-54 53

V Marriage and the Group 1954-61 87

VI The Gregory Fellowship 1961-66 123

VII Crisis 1966-70 15

VIII A New Life 1970-75 186

IX The Wise Wound 1975-79 209

X Breaking Connections 1980-85 231

XI The Death of the Father 1986-89 254

XII Decade of Mourning 1990-98 267

XIII The Final Years 1999-2003 280

Epilogue 297

References 301

Abbreviations 303

Notes 305

Index 333

Editorial Reviews

"Roberts is probably Redgrove's greatest admirer and his book does his man proud... Generous and insightful."

EBOOK COMMENTARY