Wikipedia

Mervyn Peake

Mervyn Laurence Peake(9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as theGormenghastbooks. The four works were part of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, the completion of which was prevented by his death. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporaryJ. R. R. Tolkien,but Peake's surreal fiction was influenced by his early love forCharles DickensandRobert Louis Stevensonrather than Tolkien's studies ofmythologyandphilology.

Mervyn Peake
Peake in the 1930s
Born
Mervyn Laurence Peake

(1911-07-09)9 July 1911
Kuling,Jiu gian g,Qing China(modern-day Kuling is located on top ofMount Lu)
Died17 November 1968(1968-11-17)(aged 57)
Burcot, Oxfordshire,England
EducationEltham College;Croydon School of Art;Royal Academy Schools
Occupation(s)Writer, artist, poet, illustrator
Notable workGormenghastseries
SpouseMaeve Gilmore
Children3
RelativesJack Peñate(grandson)[1]
Signature

Peake also wrote poetry andliterary nonsensein verse form, short stories for adults and children (Letters from a Lost Uncle,1948), stage and radio plays, andMr Pye(1953), a relatively tightly structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.

Peake first made his reputation as a painter and illustrator during the 1930s and 1940s, when he lived in London, and he was commissioned to produce portraits of well-known people. For a short time at the end ofWorld War IIhe was commissioned by various newspapers to depict war scenes. A collection of his drawings is still in the possession of his family. Although he gained little popular success in his lifetime, his work was highly respected by his peers, and his friends includedDylan ThomasandGraham Greene.His works are now included in the collections of theNational Portrait Gallery,theImperial War MuseumandThe National Archives.

In 2008,The Timesnamed Peake among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[2]

Early life

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Mervyn Peake was born of British parents inKulinglocated on top ofMount LuinJiu gian gin 1911, only three months before the revolution and the founding of theRepublic of China.His father,Ernest Cromwell Peake,was amedical missionarydoctor with theLondon Missionary Societyof theCongregationalist tradition,and his mother, Amanda Elizabeth Powell, had come to China as a missionary assistant. Ernest and Amanda met in July 1903 atKuling(from the English word "cooling" ), a summer European missionary resort inMount Luabout the Yangtze River inJiu gian g.They got married in Hong Kong in December of that same year.[3]

The Peakes were given leave to visit England just beforeWorld War Iin 1914 and returned to China in 1916. Mervyn Peake attendedTientsinGrammar School until the family left for England in December 1922 via theTrans-Siberian Railway.He would later write a novella about this time, titledThe White Chief of the Umzimbooboo Kaffirs.Peake never returned to China but it has been noted that Chinese influences can be detected in his works, not least in the castle of Gormenghast itself, which in some respects echoes his birthplaceKuling,the ancient walled city ofBeijing,as well as the enclosed compound where he grew up inTianjin.[citation needed]It is also likely that his early exposure to the contrasts between the lives of the Europeans and of the Chinese, and between the poor and the wealthy in China, also exerted an influence on the Gormenghast books.[citation needed]

His education continued atEltham College,Mottingham(1923–29), where his talents were encouraged by his English teacher, Eric Drake. Peake completed his formal education atCroydon School of Artin the autumn of 1929, and then from December 1929 to 1933 at theRoyal Academy Schools,where he first painted in oils. By this time he had written his first long poem,A Touch o' the Ash.In 1931, he had a painting accepted for display by theRoyal Academyand exhibited his work with the so-called "SohoGroup ".

Career

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His early career in the 1930s was as a painter in London, although he lived on the Channel Island ofSarkfor a time. He first moved to Sark in 1932 where his former teacher Eric Drake was setting up an artists' colony.[4]In 1934, Peake exhibited with the Sark artists both in the Sark Gallery built by Drake and at the Cooling Galleries in London, and in 1935 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Leger Galleries in London.

In 1936, he returned to London and was commissioned to design the sets and costumes forThe Insect Play,and his work was acclaimed inThe Sunday Times.He also began teachinglife drawingatWestminster School of Artwhere he met the painterMaeve Gilmore,whom he married in 1937. They had three children: Sebastian (1940–2012), Fabian (born 1942), and Clare (born 1949).

Peake had a very successful exhibition of paintings at the Calmann Gallery in London in 1938 and his first book, the self-illustrated children's pirate romanceCaptain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor(based on a story he had written around 1936), was first published in 1939 byCountry Life.In December 1939, he was commissioned byChatto & Windusto illustrate a children's book,Ride a Cock Horse and Other Nursery Rhymes,published for the Christmas market in 1940.

Enlistment

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Glass-blowers "Gathering" from the Furnace(1943) (Art.IWM ART LD 2851)

At the outbreak ofWorld War II,he applied to become awar artist,for he was keen to put his skills at the service of his country. He imaginedAn Exhibition by the Artist, Adolf Hitler,in which horrific images of war with ironic titles were offered as "artworks" by the Nazi leader.[5]Although the drawings were bought by the BritishMinistry of Information,Peake's application was turned down and he wasconscriptedinto the Army, where he served first with theRoyal Artillery,then with theRoyal Engineers.He began writingTitus Groanat this time.

In April 1942, after his requests for commissions as a war artist – or even leave to depict war damage in London – had been consistently refused, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to Southport Hospital. That autumn he was taken on as a graphic artist by the Ministry of Information for a period of six months to work on propaganda illustrations. The next spring he was invalided out of the Army. In 1943 he was commissioned by theWar Artists' Advisory Committee,WAAC, to paintglassblowersat theChance Brothersfactory inSmethwickwhere cathode ray tubes for early radar sets were being produced.[6]Peake was next given a full-time, three-month WAAC contract to depict various factory subjects and was also asked to submit a large painting showing RAF pilots being debriefed.[7][8]Some of these paintings are on permanent display in Manchester Art Gallery whilst other examples are in theImperial War Museumcollection.[9]

Illustration and writing

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The five years between 1943 and 1948 were some of the most productive of his career. He finishedTitus GroanandGormenghastand completed some of his most acclaimed illustrations for books by other authors, includingLewis Carroll'sThe Hunting of the Snark(for which he was reportedly paid only £5) andAlice in Wonderland,Samuel Taylor Coleridge'sThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner,theBrothers Grimm'sHousehold Tales,All This and Bevin ToobyQuentin CrispandRobert Louis Stevenson'sStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,as well as producing many original poems, drawings, and paintings.

Peake designed the logo forPan Books.The publishers offered him either a flat fee of £10 or a royalty of onefarthingper book. On the advice ofGraham Greene,who told him that paperback books were a passing fad that would not last, Peake opted for the £10.[10]

A book of nonsense poems,Rhymes Without Reason,was published in 1944 and was described byJohn Betjemanas "outstanding". Shortly after the war ended in 1945,Edgar Ainsworth,the art editor ofPicture Post,commissioned Peake to visit France and Germany for the magazine.[11]With writerTom Pocock,Peake was among the first British civilians to witness the horrors of theNaziconcentration campatBelsen,where the remaining prisoners, too sick to be moved, were dying before his very eyes. He made several drawings, but not surprisingly he found the experience profoundly harrowing, and expressed in deeply felt poems the ambiguity of turning their suffering into art.[12]

In 1946, the family moved toSark,where Peake continued to write and illustrate, and Maeve painted.Gormenghastwas published in 1950,[13][14]and the family moved back to England, settling inSmarden,Kent. Peake taught part-time at theCentral School of Art,began his comic novelMr Pye,and renewed his interest in theatre. His father died that year and left his house in Hillside Gardens inWallington,Surrey to Peake.[15]Mr Pyewas published in 1953, and he later adapted it as a radio play. TheBBCbroadcast other plays of his in 1954 and 1956.

Later life

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In 1956, Mervyn and Maeve visited Spain, financed by a friend who hoped that Peake's health, which was already declining, would be improved by the holiday. That year his novellaBoy in Darknesswas published beside stories byWilliam GoldingandJohn Wyndhamin a volume calledSometime, Never.On 18 December theBBCbroadcast his radio playThe Eye of the Beholder(later revised asThe Voice of One), in which an avant-garde artist is commissioned to paint a church mural. Peake placed much hope in his playThe Wit to Woo,which was finally staged in London's West End in 1957, but it was a critical and commercial failure.[16]This affected him greatly – his health degenerated rapidly and he was again admitted to hospital with a nervous breakdown. During this period he was published primarily inNew WorldsbyMichael Moorcocka consistent supporter since the mid-1950s.

Declining health

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He was showing unmistakable early symptoms of dementia, for which he was givenelectroconvulsive therapy,to little avail. Over the next few years he gradually lost the ability to draw steadily and quickly, although he still managed to produce some drawings with the help of his wife. Among his last completed works were the illustrations forBalzac'sDroll Stories(1961) and for his own poemThe Rhyme of the Flying Bomb(1962), which he had written some 15 years earlier.

Titus Alonewas published in 1959 and was revised in 1970 by Langdon Jones, an editor ofNew Worlds,to remove apparent inconsistencies introduced by the publisher's careless editing. Jones, also a composer, setThe Rhyme of the Flying Bombto music. A 1995 edition of all three completed Gormenghast novels includes a very short fragment of the beginning of what would have been the fourth Gormenghast novel,Titus Awakes,as well as a listing of events and themes he wanted to address in that and later Gormenghast novels.

Death

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Throughout the 1960s, Peake's health declined into physical and mental incapacitation, and he died on 17 November 1968 at a care home run by his brother-in-law, atBurcot,nearOxford.He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in the village ofBurpham,West Sussex.

A 2003 study published inJAMA Neurologyassessed that Peake's death was the result ofdementia with Lewy bodies(DLB).[17]

His work, especially theGormenghastseries, became much better known and more widely appreciated after his death. They have since been translated into more than two dozen languages.

Publications

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Six volumes of Peake's verse were published during his lifetime;Shapes & Sounds(1941),Rhymes without Reason(1944),The Glassblowers(1950),The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb(1962),Poems & Drawings(1965), andA Reverie of Bone(1967). After his death cameSelected Poems(1972), followed byPeake's Progressin 1979 – though the Penguin edition of 1982, with many corrections, including a whole stanza inadvertently omitted from the hardback edition.The Collected Poems of Mervyn Peakewas published byCarcanet Pressin June 2008. Other collections includeThe Drawings of Mervyn Peake(1974),Writings and Drawings(1974), andMervyn Peake: the man and his art(2006). A limited edition of the collected works, issued to celebrate Peake's centenary year, was published byQueen Anne Press.

Archive

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In 2010 an archive consisting of 28 containers of material, which included correspondence between Peake andLaurie Lee,Walter de la MareandC. S. Lewis,plus 39 Gormenghast notebooks and original drawings for bothAlice Through the Looking GlassandAlice's Adventures in Wonderland,was acquired by theBritish Library.[18]Access to the Archive is available through the British Library website.[19]In July 2020, the British Library acquired from the Peake Estate a visual archive consisting of 300 of Peake's original illustrations for children's stories,Gormenghast,and other works includingTreasure Island.[20]

Commemoration

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Peake's three children presented onBBC Radio Fourin 2018 a half-hour memoir of their father's life, emphasizing the importance of the island ofSark.[21]

The first blue plaque on Sark was unveiled in Peake's honour at the Gallery Stores in the Avenue on 30 August 2019.[22]

Dramatic adaptations of Peake's work

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In 1983, theAustralian Broadcasting Corporationbroadcast eight hour-long episodes for radio dramatising the complete Gormenghast Trilogy. This was the first to include the third bookTitus Alone.

In 1984,BBC Radio 4broadcast two 90-minute plays based onTitus GroanandGormenghast,adapted byBrian Sibleyand starringStingasSteerpikeandFreddie Jonesas the Artist (narrator). A slightly abridged compilation of the two, running to 160 minutes, and entitledTitus Groan of Gormenghast,was broadcast on Christmas Day, 1992.BBC 7repeated the original versions on 21 and 28 September 2003.

In 1986,Mr Pyewas adapted as a four-partChannel 4miniseries starringDerek Jacobi.

In 2000, theBBCandWGBH Bostonco-produced a lavish miniseries, titledGormenghast,based on the first two books of the series. It starredJonathan Rhys-Meyersas Steerpike,Neve McIntoshas Fuchsia,June Brownas Nannie Slagg,Ian Richardsonas Lord Groan,Christopher Leeas Flay,Richard Griffithsas Swelter,Warren Mitchellas Barquentine,Celia Imrieas Countess Gertrude,Lynsey BaxterandZoë Wanamakeras the twins Cora and Clarice, andJohn Sessionsas Dr Prunesquallor. The supporting cast includedOlga Sosnovska,Stephen FryandEric Sykes,and the series is also notable as the last screen performance by comedy legendSpike Milligan(as the Headmaster).

A 30-minute TV short film entitledA Boy in Darkness(also made in 2000 and adapted from Peake's novella) was the first production from the BBC Drama Lab. It was set in a "virtual" computer-generated world created by young computer game designers, and starredJack Ryder(fromEastEnders) as Titus, withTerry Jones(Monty Python's Flying Circus) narrating.

Irmin Schmidt,founder of seminal GermanKrautrockgroupCan,wrote an opera calledGormenghast,based on the novels; it was first performed inWuppertal,Germany, in November 1998. A number of early songs by New Zealand rock groupSplit Enzwere inspired by Peake's work. The song "The Drowning Man",by British bandThe Cure,is inspired by events inGormenghast,and the song "Lady Fuchsia" by another British band,Strawbs,is also based on events in the novels.

Peake's playThe Cave,which dates from the mid-1950s, was given a first public reading at theBlue Elephant TheatreinCamberwell(London) in 2009, and had its world premiere in the same theatre, directed by Aaron Paterson, on 19 October 2010.

In 2011 Brian Sibley adapted the story again, this time as six one-hour episodes broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as theClassic Serialstarting on 10 July 2011. The serial was titledThe History of Titus Groanand adapted all three novels written by Mervyn Peake and the recently discovered concluding volume,Titus Awakes,completed by his widow,Maeve Gilmore.[23]It starredLuke Treadawayas Titus,David Warneras the Artist andCarl Prekoppas Steerpike. It also starredPaul Rhys,Miranda Richardson,James Fleet,Tamsin Greig,Fenella Woolgar,Adrian ScarboroughandMark Bentonamong others.[24]

Stingowned the film rights to theGormenghastnovels for a brief period in the 1980s, during which he discussed the possibility of adapting the novels into a series ofconcept albums,but he abandoned the idea after declaring the Radio 4 audio drama as ideal. As of 2015, authorNeil Gaimanwas in talks to adapt the novels for the big screen.[25]

Legacy

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Authors who have cited Peake as influences on their work include:Neil Gaiman,[26]Joanne Harris,[27]Simon Maginn,[28]Christopher Fowler[29]andSusannah Clarke.[30]

Bibliography

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Gormenghast

  1. Titus Groan(1946)[31]
  2. Gormenghast(1950)[32]
  3. Boy in Darkness(corrupt text 1956, corrected text 2007)
  4. Titus Alone(1959)[33]
  5. Titus Awakes(2011, completed byMaeve Gilmore)[34]

Boy in Darknessand other stories(2007, the correct text and five other pieces)

Other works

Illustrated books

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References

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  1. ^"Mervyn Peake biography – 1911–1968".mervynpeake.org.2013.Retrieved29 August2015.
  2. ^The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.5 January 2008.The Times.Retrieved on 2022-08-02.
  3. ^Winnington, Peter G. (2000).Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake.London: Peter Owen.ISBN0720613418.
  4. ^Foote, Stephen (2019).Mervyn Peake: Son of Sark.Guernsey: Blue Ormer.ISBN9781999891381.
  5. ^Eleanor Johnson Ward (8 September 2017)."Art in the Archives / The horrors of war".The National Archives.Retrieved15 September2017.
  6. ^Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss (2016).WWII War Pictures by British Artists.Liss Llewellyn Fine Art.ISBN978-0-9930884-2-1.
  7. ^Brain Foss (2007).War paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939–1945.Yale University Press.ISBN978-0-300-10890-3.
  8. ^Imperial War Museum."War artists archive Mervyn Peake".Imperial War Museum.Retrieved11 August2014.
  9. ^Art from the Second World War.Imperial War Museum. 2007.ISBN978-1-904897-66-8.
  10. ^As recounted by Clare Peake on the BBC Radio 4 programmeMidweek,22 June 2011.
  11. ^Sarah Colegrave Fine Art."Edgar Ainsworth (1905–1975)".Sarah Colegrave Fine Art.Archived fromthe originalon 1 December 2017.Retrieved2 July2016.
  12. ^"Gormenghast's Mervyn Peake 'influenced by death camp'".BBC News. 5 July 2011.Retrieved13 August2014.
  13. ^Robert Irwin,"Peake, Mervyn (Laurence)",St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers,ed.David Pringle,London, St. James Press, 1996,ISBN1-55862-205-5,pp. 469–70.
  14. ^John Clute,"The Titus Groan Trilogy", in Frank N. Magill (ed.),Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature,Vol. 4. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, Inc., 1983 (pp. 1947–1953).ISBN0-89356-450-8.
  15. ^"Mervyn Peake – Drayton Gardens, London, UK – Blue Plaques on Waymarking".waymarking.Retrieved4 August2019.
  16. ^Stevens, Christopher (2010).Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams.John Murray. p. 367.ISBN978-1-84854-195-5.
  17. ^Demetrios J. Sahlas (2003)."Dementia With Lewy Bodies and the Neurobehavioral Decline of Mervyn Peake".Arch. Neurol.60(6): 889–92.doi:10.1001/archneur.60.6.889.PMID12810496.
  18. ^Vanessa Thorpe (4 April 2010)."How the devastation caused by war came to inspire an artist's dark images of Alice".The Observer.Retrieved12 August2014.
  19. ^Mervyn Peake Archive,archives and manuscripts catalogue, the British Library. Retrieved 13 May 2020
  20. ^"Visual Archive of Mervyn Peake acquired for the nation, including original illustrations, preliminary drawings and unpublished early works".
  21. ^"A Hundred Years of Mervyn Peake",Sounds,BBC, 7 July 2011.
  22. ^"Channel Islands Live: Breaking news and local stories".BBC News. 8 August 2019.Retrieved8 August2019.
  23. ^"Classic Serial: The History of Titus Groan".BBC Radio 4.Retrieved12 June2012.
  24. ^"Radio 4 Programmes – Classic Serial, The History of Titus Groan, Titus Arrives".BBC.Retrieved12 June2012.
  25. ^Flood, Allison (14 December 2015)."Neil Gaiman in talks to adapt Gormenghast for cinema".The Guardian.Retrieved21 December2016.
  26. ^Gaiman, Neil (10 July 2022)."Neil Gaiman: I left my heart in Gormenghast".The Telegraph.ISSN0307-1235.Retrieved5 July2024.
  27. ^"Books that changed me: Joanne Harris".The Sydney Morning Herald.6 October 2012.Retrieved5 July2024.
  28. ^"An Interview With Simon Maginn".THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR.5 July 2012.Retrieved5 July2024.
  29. ^Holland, Steve (20 March 2023)."Christopher Fowler obituary".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved5 July2024.
  30. ^Preston, Alex (4 October 2020)."Piranesi by Susanna Clarke review – byzantine and beguiling".The Observer.ISSN0029-7712.Retrieved5 July2024.
  31. ^Peake, Mervyn Laurence (1968).Titus Groan.Eyre & Spottiswoode.Retrieved9 August2019.
  32. ^Peake, Mervyn Laurence; Peake, Mervyn, 1911–1968. Gormenghast trilogy. 2 (1998).Gormenghast.Vintage.ISBN978-0-7493-9482-0.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  33. ^Peake, Mervyn Laurence (1970).Titus alone(revised ed.). Penguin.ISBN978-0-14-003091-4.
  34. ^Gilmore, Maeve; Peake, Mervyn Laurence, 1911-1968 (2011).Titus awakes: the lost book of Gormenghast.Vintage.ISBN978-0-09-955276-5.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

Further reading

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  • Clements, Warren (ed.),Peake Performance: The Magnificent Drawings of Mervyne Peake.Toronto: Nestlings Press, 2020.ISBN9781775343691
  • Elber-Aviram, Hadas (2021). "Chapter 3: The bells of lost London: Orwell's and Peake's anti-fantasies".Fairy Tales of London: British Urban Fantasy, 1840 to the Present.Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 95–130.ISBN9781350110694.
  • Elber-Aviram, Hadas (2015)."Dark and Deathless Rabble of Long Shadows: Peake, Dickens, Tolkien, and" this dark hive called London ".Peake Studies.14(2): 7–32.doi:10.1515/peakest-2015-0002.S2CID199487750.
  • Gardiner-Scott, Tanya (1989).Mervyn Peake: The Evolution of a Dark Romantic.Peter Lang.ISBN9780820409436.
  • Gifford, James (2018). "Peake's Romantic Gormenghast".A Modernist Fantasy: Modernism, Anarchism, & the Radical Fantastic.ELS. pp. 122–144.ISBN9781550583939.
  • Gilbert, Charles (1998). "Mervyn Peake and Memory".Peake Studies.5(4): 5–20.
  • Le Cam, Pierre-Yves (1994). "Peake's Fantastic Realism in the Titus Books".Peake Studies.3(4): 5–15.
  • Manlove, Colin (1975). "Mervyn Peake (1911-1968-The 'Titus' Trilogy".Modern Fantasy: Five Studies.Cambridge University Press. pp. 207–257.ISBN9780521293860.
  • Smith, Gordon (1984).Mervyn Peake: A Personal Memoir.Gollancz.ISBN9780575034310.
  • Watney, John (1976).Mervyn Peake.Joseph.ISBN9780312530259.
  • Winnington, G. Peter (ed.) (2006),Mervyn Peake: the man and his art(London: Peter Owen)
  • Winnington, G. Peter (2000),Vast Alchemies: the life and work of Mervyn Peake.Revised and enlarged in 2009 asMervyn Peake's Vast Alchemies(London: Peter Owen)
  • Winnington, G. Peter (2006),The Voice of the Heart: the working of Mervyn Peake's imagination(Liverpool University Press / Chicago University Press)
  • Winnington, G. Peter. "Mervyn Peake's Lonely World".WormwoodNo 3 (Autumn 2004), 1–21.
  • Yorke, Malcolm (2000).Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold, a Life.Murray.ISBN9781585672110.
  • Peake, Mervyn (ca.1950), "Notes towards a Projected Autobiography", printed in Maeve Gilmore (ed.),Peake's Progress: Selected Writings and Drawings of Mervyn Peake(London: Allen Lane, 1978)
  • "Peake in Print"is a full primary and secondary bibliography.
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