HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE HO2073 11/21/02 "HARDY AND CHARLOTTE MEW" ============================================================= From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: Charlotte Mew Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 12:20:46 -0000 Subscribers might be interested to know that this week's 'Book of the Week' on BBC Radio 4 is 'Charlotte Mew and Her Friends' by Penelope Fitzgerald. She was highly regarded as a poet by Thomas Hardy who said Îfar and away the best living woman poet who will be read when others are forgotten'. I think she wrote 'Saturday Market' for him. The readings are on the BBC website's 'Listen Again' facility at www.bbc.co.uk and today's covers aspects of her friendship with TH. There is also much material about all this here: http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a819/disstn.doc Patrick Roper ========== From: "Rare Books" Subject: Re: Charlotte Mew Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 09:36:21 -0500 Actually Ms Fitgerald's book while extremely interesting has many inaccuracies not the least of which is Hardy's opinion of Mew. The quotation below is from the Civil List pension application that Hardy signed (with some considerable pressure from SCC) but did not write. What he actually said, in a letter, is "Mew is a very good poet for a woman but she did not write very much." Or words to that effect. I dont have the original of the letter in front of me but I am currently working on the editing of a book of Mew's complete poems and also own Hardy's pencilled copy of Mew's "Fin de Fete" and Cockerell's letter to Mew concerning the transcription. I am afraid Ms Mew has become a sort of retro-symbol for feminism and some distortion, however slight and well-intentioned, is to be expected. ========== Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 09:46:59 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Charlotte Mew These are Hardy's communications on and to Charlotte Mew: (he also secured her a Civil List Pension) MAX GATE, | DORCHESTER. | Oct. 28: 1919 Dear Miss Mew: I am sending a brief line to thank you for the beautiful poem you wrote in the volume made up by my poet friends, without my knowledge, which reached me about 10 days ago, having been delayed I believe by the binder. I shall always value the MS. & keep it for your sake, as will my wife also. Believe me Ever yours sincerely Thomas Hardy. ---- To Squire: Jan 27 1922 I liked your collection of Women Poets, though was rather disappointed to find you had omitted Charlotte Mew -- the greatest poetess I have come across lately, in my judgment, though so meagre in her output. -- I am glad you liked my Mercury poem. I should never have ventured to send it but for Walter de la Mare. My wife sends her kind regards, ---- Cheers, Rosemarie >some considerable pressure from SCC) but did not write. What he actually >said, in a letter, is "Mew is a very good poet for a woman but she did not >write very much." Or words to that effect. ========== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: RE: Charlotte Mew Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 14:55:54 -0000 That is most interesting and, perhaps, makes listening to the Radio 4 reading even more to the point as it is certainly reinforcing these innacuracies to a wide public (especially when read in such an engaging way by Eleanor Bron). Patrick Roper ========== From: "Rare Books" Subject: Re: Charlotte Mew Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 11:19:17 -0500 Thank you Rosemarie and Patrick for a quick research finger. I hope my paraphrase wasn't too far off the mark or in any way chauvinistic in its implication. I think Miss Mew's work has been sorely neglected and I strongly recommend her poetry to everyone; some of it is available on the net in various places. Try Google. BTW, I'm not on the Council of Management. ========== Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 11:16:46 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: RE:Civil List Hardy spent a good deal of his precious time, in later life, engaged in signing petitions. In the case of Civil List petitions he appears to have bowed, deferentially but not always keenly, to the better judgement of the proposer (see below). Among the Civil List petitions he signed there were proposals for the following; To the widow of John Churton Collins (awarded ) TH says he "Will sign the petition if you think the case a very hard one." To William Butler Yeats (awarded) To Miss S. Gertrude Ford (not awarded) To Lascelles Abercrombie (not awarded) His response to Charlotte Mew's letter of thanks (the petition was granted) is as follows: _________________ MAX GATE, | DORCHESTER. | 3 Jan. 1924 Dear Miss Mew: What I did was really infinitesimal: Others did more than I. You are merely to think the little event happened -- a very small one. Our kindest regards & best wishes for the New Year. Sincerely yours Thomas Hardy. ========== From: Martin Ray Sender: enl090@abdn.ac.uk Subject: Re: Mew Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 16:22:11 +0000 (GMT) Dear Rare Books: TH once ended a letter by signing himself as Thomas Hardy, again --- Thomas Hardy. again again! Thomas Hardy. (Letters, VII, 166) He thereby became the founder of e-mail etiquette. Yours, Martin Ray, again --- Dr Martin Ray School of English and Film Studies University of Aberdeen Aberdeen AB24 2UB Scotland, UK m.ray@abdn.ac.uk Editor, Thomas Hardy Journal ========== Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 10:09:29 -0400 From: Mary Rimmer Subject: Re: Charlotte Mew : Florence Hardy may have been a warmer admirer of Mew than Thomas Hardy: here's her comment to Sydney Cockerell (22 June 1918, _Letters of Emily and Florence Hardy_, pp. 142-43): Thank you also so much for the book of poems by Charlotte Mew. I have read most of them to my my husband. He thinks they are rather too obscure. I think them very good, and he says I can read some again to him tonight. The first one, 'The Farmer's Bride', is certainly very good, and others too. I can see that they are the sort of poems that improve on a second, or third reading. One of the pleasures of my current half-year's leave has been to read the Hardy wives' letters straight through instead of simply dipping into it, which is all I've had time for up to now. I am developing considerable respect for Florence Hardy as a perceptive reader, and I quite agree with her about Mew. I first read 'The Farmer's Bride' a couple of years ago, and it is an excellent poem, disturbing and compelling. By the way, Hardy's reluctance to sign the Civil List petition for Mew seems to have had more to do with the phrasing of the letter than any conviction that Mew didn't deserve the pension. That he did sign it, despite the wording, I think demonstrates his sense of her real worth as a poet. Mary Rimmer ========== Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 09:17:52 -0500 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Charlotte Mew Any chance you could post a Mew or two, Mary? Many thanks for your good letter, Cheers, Rosemarie ==========