Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney

by Kate Kennedy

Overview

The first comprehensive biography of an extraordinary English poet and composer whose life was haunted by fighting in the First World War and, later, confinement in a mental asylum

Ivor Gurney (1890–1937) wrote some of the most anthologized poems of the First World War and composed some of the greatest works in the English song repertoire, such as “Sleep.” Yet his life was shadowed by the trauma of the war and mental illness, and he spent his last fifteen years confined to a mental asylum. In Dweller in Shadows, Kate Kennedy presents the first comprehensive biography of this extraordinary and misunderstood artist.

A promising student at the Royal College of Music, Gurney enlisted as a private with the Gloucestershire regiment in 1915 and spent two years in the trenches of the Western Front. Wounded in the arm and subsequently gassed during the Battle of Passchendaele, Gurney was recovering in hospital when his first collection of poems, Severn and Somme, was published. Despite episodes of depression, he resumed his music studies after the war until he was committed to an asylum in 1922. At times believing he was Shakespeare and that the “machines under the floor” were torturing him, he nevertheless continued to write and compose, leaving behind a vast body of unpublished work when he died of tuberculosis. Drawing on extensive archival research and spanning literary criticism, history, psychiatry and musicology, this compelling narrative sets Gurney’s life and work against the backdrop of the war and his institutionalisation, probing the links between madness, suffering and creativity.

Facing death in the trenches, Gurney hoped that history might not “forget me quite.” This definitive account of his life and work helps ensure that he will indeed be remembered.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691218557
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kate Kennedy, a writer and broadcaster, is Co-Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, a Supernumerary Fellow in Music and English at Wolfson College, Oxford, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She has published widely on early twentieth-century music and literature, and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Kate Kennedy has written a wonderful book, the first comprehensive account of one of Britain’s most misunderstood poets and composers. A keen-eyed critic and literary commentator, she also proves herself a consummate storyteller, piecing out and pulling together the episodes of Gurney’s remarkable life and work in flowing, compelling chapters, producing a biography worthy of the thoughtful recognition and generous appraisal that Gurney had hoped for.”—Simon Armitage, UK Poet Laureate

“This inspiring biography of the poet and composer Ivor Gurney treads carefully and sensitively over a vast terrain of archives and original, unseen work. Reading Dweller in Shadows, I was drawn into the intimate relationship between music and poetry in Gurney’s literary and musical imagination. Kate Kennedy allows Gurney to speak for himself—through his poems, letters, and music—and so we hear him speaking directly to us, in the midst of creation.”—Sally Bayley, author of Girl with Dove: A Life Built by Books

“A vividly told, impeccably researched, groundbreaking, and transformative account of the complex, painful life of an exceptional English poet and composer.”—Hermione Lee, University of Oxford

“This engaging biography is without doubt the most comprehensive book on the life and work of Ivor Gurney to date. It is a remarkable achievement. Dweller in Shadows will be indispensable for those interested in early twentieth-century music and literature.”—Ian Venables, composer and Chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society

“Ivor Gurney has been too little regarded both as poet and composer. Perhaps the darkness of his mood and consequent instability have left him overshadowed by others who also endured the Great War. But this ‘Lover and maker of beauty,’ composer of chamber music and songs especially, now takes centre stage in Kate Kennedy’s wonderful biography.”—Thomas Allen, opera and concert singer and Chancellor of Durham University

“Building on meticulous research, Kate Kennedy writes with deep sympathy and understanding of the complex, talented, and often tormented Ivor Gurney. Her book will deservedly become the standard biography.”—Margaret MacMillan, University of Oxford

Editorial Reviews

Shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards

From the Publisher

07/30/2021

In this biography of Ivor Gurney, the poet known for his verses about the Great War (including the 1917 poetry collection Severn and Somme), Kennedy (music and English, Wolfson Coll., Oxford) describes his passion for creativity and learning and his hardheadedness, recognizing that he was gifted but also arrogant. She reveals some of Gurney's literary and musical influences, including the composer Schubert and the Gloucestershire poet Will Harvey, to name a few. One of the book's major subjects is Gurney's lifelong struggle with manic-depressive swings. From the 1910s on, and particularly after World War I, when Gurney was wounded in the Battle of Passchendaele, his mental health drastically declined; eventually, so did his physical health. Kennedy reveals that during these years, Gurney brought out more poetry and other writing that went unpublished. The book deftly sheds light on how Gurney produced his much respected work. VERDICT Recommend to readers who enjoy reading about 20th-century poetry and the emotional lives behind art.—Jesse A. Lambertson, Univ. of Chicago Law Libs.

Library Journal