Hugh Sykes Davies | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1909-08-17)17 August 1909 |
| Died | 6 June 1984(1984-06-06) (aged 74) |
| Occupation | Poet, novelist and critic |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Genre | Surrealism |
| Spouse | Kathleen Raine (div.) |
Hugh Sykes Davies (17 August 1909 – 6 June 1984)[1] was an English poet, novelist and communist, who was one of a small group of 1930s Britishsurrealists.
Davies was born inPrescot,Merseyside (then inLancashire), to a Methodist minister and his wife. He went toKingswood School,Bath, and read the Classics and English Triposes atSt John's College, Cambridge,[2] where he co-edited the student magazineExperiment withWilliam Empson. Following graduation he was awarded both the Jebb Studentship and the Le Bas Essay Prize. In 1933 he was elected the first-ever fellow of English at St John's College, and three years later he was appointed a University Lecturer in the subject. While at Cambridge he was a member of theApostles[3] and befriended the philosopherLudwig Wittgenstein.[4]
Davies spent some time in Paris during the 1930s, and in 1936 he was one of the organisers of theLondon International Surrealist Exhibition, where he met the artistSalvador Dalí. His poems were mostly published inavant garde magazines and were not collected during his lifetime; his best known was arguablyPetron (1935). His novels includeFull Fathom Five (1956) andThe Papers of Andrew Melmoth (1960), while his works of literary scholarship includeRealism in the Drama (his prize-winning entry for the Le Bas competition; 1933),Surrealism (1936),Macaulay's Marginalia to Lucretius (1937) andGrammar Without Tears (1951).
Politically Davies was of the left, and he intended to stand as theLabour Party candidate forIsle of Ely in the anticipated 1940 general election, but his prospective candidature was terminated when the party found out that he was also a member of theCommunist Party. During World War II he was employed at theMinistry of Food, which gave him an insight into administrative problems; perhaps consequently, he lost much of his youthful utopianism, and in the 1950s renounced his communist affiliation and reverted to a more orthodox social democracy in its stead.[1][3]
Davies had a talent for friendship, and in addition to Empson and Dalí he numberedT. S. Eliot,I. A. Richards,Anthony Blunt andLudwig Wittgenstein amongst his circle. At one stage he hadMalcolm Lowry declared his ward in an attempt to stop Lowry's drinking. He appears in theNational Film Board of Canada's feature-length documentaryVolcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (1976), where he talks about Lowry and their friendship.
Davies died at St John's College inCambridge on 6 June 1984, after recovering several months earlier from a serious operation.[1] He was married five times to four women, the first of whom was the poetKathleen Raine.[5]
