Edward Upward

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Edward Upward (ca.1972)

Edward Upward (born September 9, 1903 in Romford , Essex , † February 13, 2009 in Pontefract , West Yorkshire ) was a British writer .

Life

Upward attended school in Repton , where he met Christopher Isherwood . While studying at Corpus Christi College of Cambridge University awarded him in 1924 the Chancellor's Medal for English Verse. With his fellow students Isherwood, WH Auden and Stephen Spender , he formed a literary circle. After graduating, Upward worked as a teacher, since 1932 at the independent Alleyn's School in London . In that year he also joined the Communist Party of Great Britain as a supporter of the Socialist International , but left it again in 1948 when he saw its revolutionary ideals betrayed.

In 1938 Upward published his first novel Journey to the Border , in which he describes in poetic prose the revolt of a private teacher against his employer and the world of the 1930s. The main character comes to the realization that only joining the labor movement can solve the dilemma. In 1994 Upward published a revised version of the novel, which was translated into German in 2005 ( Reise an die Grenzen , translated by Karin Rausch, with an introduction by Stephen Spender and an afterword by Elfriede Jelinek ; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 2005, ISBN 3-518 -22390-9 ).

In the 60s and 70s, Upward published the autobiographical trilogy of novels The Spiral Ascent . In 1961 he had retired and moved to Sandown on the Isle of Wight . He campaigned against the nuclear arms race. In old age he wrote numerous short stories.

In 2005, Upward received the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature .

Secondary literature

  • Benjamin Kohlman: Edward Upward and Left-wing Literary Culture in Britain . Ashgate, Burlington VT 2013, ISBN 978-1-4094-5061-0 .
  • Benjamin Kohlman: Edward Upward, WH Auden, and the Rhetorical Victories of Communism . In: Modernism / Modernity 20: 2, 2013, pp. 287-306, ISBN 978-0-945636-90-8 .
  • Patrick Quinn: At the Frontier: Edward Upward's Journey to the Border . In: Patrick Quinn (Ed.): Recharting the Thirties . Susquehanna University Press, Selinsgrove PA 1996. pp. 233-246.
  • Robert Sullivan: Edward Upward. In: Jay Parini (Hrsh): British Writers , Supplement Volume 13. Gale, Detroit 2008.
  • Alan Walker: Edward Upward: A Bibliography 1920-2000 . With a foreword by Frank Kermode . Enitharmon Press, London 2000, ISBN 978-1-900564-32-8 .
  • Peter Stansky : Edward Upward: art and life , London: Enitharmon Press, 2016, ISBN 978-1-910392-84-3

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Upward, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Romford , Essex
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2009
Place of death Pontefract