Edward Upward

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

Life

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

Upward 1938 published his first novel, Journey to the Border, in which he describes the rebellion of a private teacher against his employer and the world of the 30s in poetic prose. The main character comes to realize that only their connection to the labor movement can solve the dilemma. Published in 1994, Upward, a revised version of the novel, which was translated into German in 2005 ( trip to the border, translated by Karin Rausch, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, ​​2005, ISBN 3-518-22390-9 ).

In the 60s and 70s Upward published the autobiographical novel -inspired trilogy The Spiral Ascent. In 1961 he was retired and moved to Sandown on the Isle of Wight. He was very active against the nuclear arms race. At the age he wrote numerous short stories.

2005 Upward received the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature.