Biographical Sketch
John Sleigh Pudney, British poet, novelist, editor, and journalist was
born on January 19, 1909, in Langley, Buckinghamshire, England. The only son of
Henry William Pudney and Mabel Sleigh Pudney, he was reared in the country, but
was sent away for his education to Gresham's Hall, Holt. At Gresham's Hall
Pudney became friends with W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten. Pudney left school
at sixteen, however, to work for an estate agency and to pursue his interest in
writing. His first volume of poetry,
Spring Encounter (1933), ushered Pudney into
the literary circle of Lady Ottoline Morrell. In 1934 he married Crystal
Herbert, with whom he had two daughters and a son. At this time Pudney also
began his professional writing career in earnest as writer-producer for the BBC
(1934-1937), and as a journalist for the
News Chronicle. In 1938 Pudney published the
first of many novels,
Jacobson's Ladder.
In 1940 Pudney was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as an
intelligence officer and as a member of the Air Ministry's Creative Writer's
Unit. During World War II Pudney published articles for this organization and
wrote considerable poetry, including his famous ode to British airmen,
For Johnny. This poem achieved national
significance and was broadcast and performed by several famous actors including
Sir Laurence Olivier. After the war Pudney continued to write in various media
and genres as well as work as literary advisor, editor, and director for
several magazines, agencies, and publishing companies, including the
News Review (1948-1950), Evans Brothers,
Ltd. (1950-1953), and Putnam & Co., Ltd. (1953-1963). In 1949 he began
editing an annual anthology entitled
Pick of Today's Short Stories (1949-1963).
In 1952 Pudney published
The Net, his most successful novel.
After 1965 Pudney focused on the subject of recovery (from divorce and
alcoholism), producing several articles and the autobiographical
Thank Goodness for Cake (1978). In 1967 he
married his second wife, Monica Forbes Curtis, and renewed his career with
poetry readings accompanied by jazz musicians. During 1966-1967 he continued to
write poems, two of which appeared in the
Times Literary Supplement after his death on
November 10, 1977.
Scope and Contents
The John Pudney Papers, 1850-1977 (bulk 1926-1976), include drafts,
notes, printer's copies, galleys, research material, notebooks, diaries, and
correspondence. The collection is arranged in two series: Works, 1850-1977
(2.75 boxes) and Correspondence, 1937-1962 (.25 box).
The Works series reflects the diverse genres (novels, poems, plays,
diaries, literary criticism, humorous non-fiction, short stories) in which
Pudney wrote. The manuscripts found here, both holograph and typescript, most
often represent drafts, modified with corrections, annotations, and inserts.
This series is alphabetically arranged by published titles or Pudney's folder
headings, which are designated in the folder list by single quotation marks.
The folders often contain numerous manuscripts and/or related notes, proposals,
and correspondence. Many of the drafts of poems are written on the verso of
other incomplete manuscripts by Pudney. This series contains both published and
unpublished material, which are identified as such whenever possible.
Manuscripts for Pudney's poetry collections and chapbooks in this series
include
Collected Poems, 1957 (here entitled
The Green Verges: Collected Poems) and
Selected Poems, 1967-1973. The folder for
the collected poems entitled
Ten Summers: Poems, 1933-1943 includes only
notes and correspondence. Manuscripts for early and/or unpublished later (post-Spandrels) poems, 1926-1968, as well as later
individual poems (1960-1961) are also found here. Proofs for war and post-war
chapbooks, such as
Beyond this Disregard (1943) and
South of Forty (1943), as well as the more
recent
Spandrels: Poems and Ballads (1969) and
Living in a One-Sided House (1976), are
present in this collection.
Several manuscripts of Pudney's fiction, often found here in bound
notebooks, include
The Accomplice (1950),
Shuffley Wanderers: An Entertainment (1948),
and
Sleadley (nd). Materials for
The Net (1952), one of Pudney's most
successful novels and
Trespass in the Sun (1957), include only
critical notes and correspondence. Among the unpublished works is the holograph
manuscript of a play entitled
The Break Through (1974-75).
Non-fiction materials include the proposal and correspondence for
Home and Away: An Autobiographical Gambit
(1960) and the manuscript of Pudney's critical study,
Lewis Carroll and His World (1976). The
material for
The Thomas Cook Story (1953) consists of the
mid-19th century correspondence and ephemera of Thomas Cook, George Cruikshank,
and Emily Ellis. These letters, collected by Pudney, include a few signed
sketches by George Cruikshank and concern the British temperance movement. The
materials for his humorous non-fiction,
The Smallest Room (1954), a history of
sanitation and water closets, includes working files, research material,
correspondence, and an annotated bound copy with printer's marks used for a
1959 revised edition.
Several diaries and notebooks created by Pudney are present in this
series including a World War II diary entitled
Duty Run that details his daily military
routine during 1942-1943. This diary also includes numerous poems copied at the
end. Also included here is a commonplace book, Working
notebook used on travel, 1947 which Pudney used during his research on
the history of the British Royal Air Force. In the folder entitled
Juvenile Pieces are also found three untitled
notebooks (1968, nd) that contain drafts of poems, general notes, and
addresses.
The bulk of the Correspondence series, divided into incoming and
outgoing and chronologically arranged, concerns the publication and revision of
The Smallest Room. Other correspondence
helps to describe the nature of his literary endeavors and editorial duties.
Letters from George Barker and H. E. Bates are, however, of a more personal
nature. Another series of letters from Jules Roy concerns the translation of
his poetry into French. Letters from representatives of Queen Elizabeth and of
Queen Mary acknowledge receipt of Pudney's book,
His Majesty, King George VI: A Study (1952),
as well as to offer several suggestions and criticism.
Other significant correspondents include Kingsley Amis, Malcolm Arnold,
John Betjeman, Benjamin Britten, Jocelyn Brooke, Sir Winston Churchill, Cynthia
Coville (Secretary to Queen Mary), Oliver Dawney (Secretary to H. M. Queen
Elizabeth, the Queen Mother), C. Day Lewis, T. S. Eliot, John Lehmann, Compton
Mackenzie, Wolf Mankowitz, Lady Ottoline Morrell, Laurence Olivier, J. B.
Priestley, Frederic Prokosch, Herbert Edward Read, Michael Redgrave, Vita
Sackville-West, Edith Sitwell, Stephen Spender, Henry Treece, and Evelyn
Waugh.