James Thomson (writer, 1834)

James Thomson (BV)

James Thomson , alias Bysshe Vanolis (born November 23, 1834 in Port Glasgow , Scotland , † June 3, 1882 in London ) was a Scottish poet .

Life

Thomson's father, a sailor who died in 1840 due to a stroke, his mother in 1842. At eight years old orphan become, visited James the Caledonian Asylum and the Royal Military Academy in Woolich . He then served in Ireland , where in 1851, at the age of seventeen, he met Charles Bradlaugh , a year his senior , whose free-thinking and atheism had a strong influence on him.

Ten years later, Thomson retired from the military and moved to London , where he worked as a clerk. Here, too, he kept in contact with Bradlaugh, in whose journal National Reformer he published. Since 1863 he wrote short stories, essays and poems, including his famous main work The City of Dreadful Night , in which he addresses, among other things, his problem with alcoholism and depression . He increasingly isolated himself from his friends, including Bradlaugh; When his collection of poems, The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems , appeared in 1880 and received mostly benevolent reviews, its decline could no longer be stopped.

plant

Thomson and his work are hardly known outside of specialist circles today, although The City still appears in some anthologies. The autobiographical trait in his poems cannot be overlooked. He is distinguished by a deep pessimism and despair over what sounds worldless, ugly and brutal modernity , whose anonymous urbanity can offer more individuals no home and no security. Thomson's work reflects the melancholy, desperate and world-negative side of the Victorian era . His admiration for Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837), the great Italian pessimist, whom he also translated into English, fits into this picture . He himself inspired Konstantinos Kavafis , whose famous poem Η πόλις shows influences from The City .

pseudonym

Thomson's pseudonym is composed of the middle name of his poetic model Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and an anagram of the name of another favorite poet, the great romantic Novalis (1772-1801). The addition "(BV)", with which he abbreviated his pseudonym "Bysshe Vanolis", distinguishes him from his namesake, the Scottish poet James Thomson , who lived in the 18th century.

Works

poetry

• The City of dreadful night and other poems , London: Dobell 1910.
  • Nachtstadt and other light-shy writings , trans. v. Ulrich Horstmann with the assistance of Georg Heinemann, Zurich: Haffmans 1992, ISBN 3-251-20122-0 .

science

• Walt Whitman , the man and the poet , London: The Editor 1910.

literature

• Annette Katherina Birchmeier-Nussbaumer: Worldview of a pessimist. The structure of the concrete imagination of James Thomson “BV” . Schück, Rüschlikon 1957 (plus dissertation, University of Zurich).
• Kenneth Hugh Byron, The pessimism of James Thomson “BV” in relation to his times . Mouton, La Hague 1965.
• Paul Chauvet: Sept essais de littérature anglaise . E. Figuière, Paris n.d. (≈1931).
• Georg Heinemann: “An all-disastrous fight”. Outrage and resignation in the work of James Thomson (BV) . Lang, Frankfurt / Main a. a. 1991, ISBN 3-631-43395-6 .
• Norbert Lennartz: Absurdity in front of the theater of the absurd: examines absurd tendencies and paradigmata using selected examples from Lord Byron to TS Eliot . Wissenschaftsverlag, Trier 1998.
• Tom Leonard: Places of the mind: the life and work of James Thomson ("BV") . Cape, London 1993.
• Richard Pawley: Secret city. The emotional life of Victorian poet James Thomson (BV) . University Press of America, Lanham MD 2001.
• William David Schaefer, James Thomson “BV” Beyond “The city” . University Press of California, Berkeley 1965.
• Imogen B. Walker: James Thomson "BV" A critical study . Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY 1950.
• Thomson, James . [poet, 1834-1882] . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 26 : Submarine Mines - Tom-Tom . London 1911, p. 873 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

• Literature by and about James Thomson in the catalog of the German National Library
• Thomson's works online
• Article in the Literary Encyclopedia
• Article on victorianweb
• Portrait on the BBC