An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center
Creator:
Hobsbaum, Philip, 1932-
Title:
Philip Hobsbaum
Collection of Correspondence and Manuscripts of The Group
Dates:
ca. 1955-1968
Extent:
1 box (.42 linear feet)
Abstract:
This collection
contains letters received by Philip Hobsbaum from other founder-members of The
Group writer's workshop–Martin Bell, Alan Brownjohn, Edward Lucie-Smith,
George MacBeth, Peter Porter, and Peter Redgrove–as well as critical and
personal correspondence. Other papers include typescript and handwritten
manuscripts of poems by The Group members, typescripts of letters to the editor
sent to Hobsbaum for proofreading, and a "Group Address List" of members and
advisors to The Group.
Philip Hobsbaum, poet, critic, and
teacher, was born in London on 29 June 1932 and raised in North and West
Yorkshire. He attended Downing College at Cambridge under his mentor F. R.
Leavis and did research at Sheffield University under William Empson. In 1962,
Hobsbaum taught at Queen's University in Belfast, but left in 1966 when
Northern Ireland was on the verge of civil war–a time and place that pervades
his poetry. Hobsbaum was lecturer and reader at the University of Glasgow from
1966 to 1985, and later Professor of English Literature there, from 1985 to
1997. He was instrumental in beginning Glasgow University's M.A. in Creative
Writing. His four published collections of poetry are
The Place's Fault (1964),
In Retreat (1966),
Coming Out Fighting (1969), and
Women and Animals (1972). Hobsbaum's main
influence, however, has been his two major works of literary criticism,
A Theory of Communication (1970) and
Tradition and Experiment in English Poetry
(1979). He resides in Glasgow, Scotland.
Hobsbaum is perhaps most famously known as the originator of several
writing workshops in Cambridge, London, Belfast, and Glasgow. The first of
these poetry forums originated as a verse-speaking group while Hobsbaum was at
Cambridge in 1955. Eventually the group developed into a kind of writer's
workshop, focusing on, but not limited to, poetry. Typically meetings of The
Group were held on Friday evenings at either Hobsbaum's flat or Edward
Lucie-Smith's home, and often preceded by a visit to the pub. Each meeting
focused on an individual writer. The writer for that week would read aloud
generally six or seven poems, which had been cyclostyled and dispersed
throughout The Group's membership the week before. This procedure allowed for
intense and lively discussion of the poems, as members could prepare specific
textual criticism beforehand and then participate in an open dialogue at the
meeting with the poems right in front of them. In the epilogue to
A Group Anthology (1963), Hobsbaum argues
for the importance of discussion to any writer, and the writer's need for
"community to keep him in touch with his
audience."
The Group had no manifesto per se and was not tied to
traditional formalism, but Hobsbaum and consequently The Group itself were
influenced by a university approach to close readings of the text. Lucie-Smith
characterized The Group as one of diversity and freedom:
"This is a group of poets who find it possible to
meet and discuss each other's work helpfully and without backbiting or
backscratching...we have no axe to grind–this isn't a gang and there's no
monolithic body of doctrine to which everyone must subscribe"
(Lucie-Smith to Hobsbaum, Nov. 1961). Hobsbaum later established a similar
group in Belfast, one that has been credited with facilitating the emergence
of, among others, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, and Seamus Heaney.
Sources:
Levenson, Christopher.
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 40: Poets
of Great Britain and Ireland Since 1960. The Gale Group, 1985:
216-226.
Lucie-Smith, Edward and Philip Hobsbaum, eds.
A Group Anthology. Oxford University
Press, 1963: 115-123.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains primarily
letters received by Philip Hobsbaum between 1955 and 1966. The bulk of the
letters are from other founder-members of The Group, namely Martin Bell, Alan
Brownjohn, Edward Lucie-Smith, George MacBeth, Peter Porter, and Peter
Redgrove. These letters focus predominantly on members' poetry and professional
careers, the affairs of The Group, as well as specific, often line-by-line
criticism of each other's work. The collection is arranged alphabetically in a
single series.
Edward Lucie-Smith's correspondence is the most consistent and
frequent, and includes editorial communications to Hobsbaum from 1961 to 1963
concerning their work to put together a collection of poems by members of The
Group,
A Group Anthology (1963). Yet
Lucie-Smith's often very warm letters also convey the sense of a strong and
intimate friendship between the two men, and their mutual love for poetry. On a
similar level of intimacy, Peter Redgrove and Martin Bell's letters reveal
Hobsbaum's role as advisor and loyal friend, and also his importance to the
mission of The Group. Matters concerning
Delta, a literary magazine started by
Redgrove and for which Hobsbaum was second editor, are also included in letters
from Redgrove.
A. Alvarez's correspondence is largely in the critical
vein, as he responds to several letters from Hobsbaum and others in The Group,
particularly in response to his review of
A Group Anthology for
The London Observer. David Holbrook and
George Fraser's letters center around professional advice and
friendship.
Also included in the papers are some typescripts and
handwritten manuscripts of poems by Lucie-Smith, Bell, Holbrook, and Redgrove.
Most of the poems are contained within letters: "I
like letters leavened with poems, and I expect you do too" (Redgrove to
Hobsbaum, 29 June 1958). This finding aid includes an index of the works
present in the collection. Other points of interest include typescripts of
letters to the editor sent to Hobsbaum for proofreading, and a
"Group Address List" logging nearly
ninety members and advisors to The Group.
Of the writers represented in
this collection, the Ransom Center has extensive holdings of papers by George
MacBeth, Edward Lucie-Smith, and Peter Redgrove, and smaller collections by
Martin Bell, George Fraser, and Peter Porter. The Bell papers contain
additional information about the history of The Group and copies of a majority
of the poems duplicated for discussion during its existence.
