Ruth Pitter

Ruth Pitter CBE ( born November 7, 1897 in Ilford, Essex, † February 29, 1992 in Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire ) was a British poet. It was 1955, the first woman of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry was awarded. In 1974 she was appointed a Companion of Literature, thus accounting for the highest award presented by the Royal Society of Literature. Since 1979, she was at her numerous contributions to English literature because of " Commander of the British Empire".

Life

Under the influence of her parents, a teacher pair Pitter began to write poetry early. The first experience with the literature was the regular recitation of memorized poems at the Sunday family gathering. Another experience was the country life, should be determinative for all their work and their more meant as human relationships.

She has published more during their time at school the first poems. A first selection was published 1920. With A Mad Lady's Garland ( 1934), whose preface Hilaire Belloc wrote, she had her real breakthrough. Your following books reached both the consent of literary criticism as well as a success in the book market. In 1937 she was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for A Trophy of Arms. In order to secure their livelihood, she worked with her ​​partner Kathleen O'Hara initially in the two belonging cabinetmaking, after a bomb attack on the workshop in a munitions factory before they bought a country house where Pitter went about her two passions, writing and gardening.

At this time, their public recognition strengthened as a poet. In 1954 she won the William E. Heinemann Award for dates. As one of the first women writers, she performed for the BBC radio and television, including on The Brains Trust, one of the first talk shows of British television. For the archive of the BBC Pitter also read some of their works as sound recordings.

Ruth Pitter was to discover traditional poet. She avoided experimental spellings and instead used the versification and rhyme schemes of the 19th century. Therefore, their work was often overlooked by the leading literary critics of her time. Was not until her later years Pitter as an important representative of the British poetry. The recognition of fellow poet Philip Larkin gave her a larger echo as he picked up four of her poems in the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse.

The circle of their friends were writers, inter alia, Walter de la Mare, Hugh MacDiarmid, Siegfried Louvain Sassoon and Kathleen Raine, William Butler Yeats, Robin Skelton, David Cecil and Thom Gunn. A particularly close friendship she joined with Clive Staples Lewis, who admired her poetry high, they often met with her and held a long-term correspondence. Pitter has influenced Lewis' work in the 1940s and 1950s. He led her to convert to the Church of England.

Works (selection)

  • First Poems. London 1920
  • First & Second Poems 1912-1925. London 1927
  • A Mad Lady's Garland. London 1934
  • A Trophy of Arms. London 1936
  • The Spirit Watches. London 1939
  • The Rude Potato. London 1941
  • The Bridge. London 1945
  • On cats. London 1947
  • The Ermine. London 1953
  • Still by choice. London 1966
  • Poems, 1926-1966. London 1968
  • End of drought. London 1975. ISBN 0214200868
  • A heaven to find. London 1987. ISBN 0905289692
  • Collected Poems. Petersfield 1990. ISBN 1870612116
W. B. Yeats Lord David Cecil Integrated Authority File
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