Edward William Frank James (1907–1984) was a British
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
known for his
patronagePatronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
of the
surrealistSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
art movement.
Early life and marriage
Edward James was born August 16, 1907, the only son of William James, an American railroad magnate who moved to England and married Evelyn Forbes, a Scots socialite, who was reputedly fathered by the
Prince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...
(later Edward VII). He had four older sisters: Audrey, Millicent, Xandra, and Silvia. James was educated briefly at
EtonEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent boarding school for boys aged approx. 13 to 19. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, and then at
Le RoseyInstitut Le Rosey, established in 1880, is the oldest private boarding school in Switzerland and one of the most exclusive educational institutions in the world...
in Switzerland, then at
Christ Church, OxfordThis article is about the Oxford college. For other uses, see Christ Church or Christchurch .Christ Church , is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, where he was a contemporary of
Evelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was an English writer, best known for such darkly humorous and satirical novels as Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, Scoop, A Handful of Dust, and The Loved One, as well as for serious works, such as Brideshead Revisited and the Sword of Honour trilogy that clearly...
and
Harold ActonSir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton CBE was a British writer, scholar and dilettante who is probably most famous for being believed, incorrectly, to have inspired the character of "Anthony Blanche" in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited...
. In 1912 he inherited the
West Dean HouseWest Dean House is a large flint-faced manor house situated in West Dean, West Sussex, near the historic City of Chichester. This country estate has approximately of land and dates back to 1086, with various royal connections throughout the years...
in
SussexSussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, on the death of his father.
James' first sponsorship of note was in publishing
John BetjemanSir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack". He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
's first book of poems when at Oxford. He worked with Brian Howard on the Glass Omnibus. After Oxford, James had a brief career as a trainee diplomat at the embassy in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
. He was asked to send a coded message to London that the Italians had laid the keels for three destroyers, but got the code wrong; the message said "300 destroyers". Shortly after this he was sent "on indefinite leave".
In the early 1930s, James married
Tilly LoschOttilie Ethel Leopoldine "Tilly" Losch, Countess of Carnarvon was an Austrian-born dancer, choreographer, actress and painter who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and United Kingdom....
, an Austrian dancer choreographer, actress and painter. He had several productions created expressly for her, the most notable of which was
Les Ballets 1933, which included
Kurt WeillKurt Julian Weill , was a German, and in his later years American, composer active from the 1920s until his death. He was a leading composer for the stage...
,
Lotte LenyaLotte Lenya was an Austrian singer and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In popular culture, she is widely recognized for her performance as Rosa Klebb in From Russia with Love...
and
George BalanchineGeorge Balanchine , born Giorgi Melitonis dze Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to Georgian parents, was one of the 20th century's foremost choreographers, a pioneer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet: his work created modern ballet, based...
. He and
Boris KochnoBoris Kochno was a Russian poet, dancer and librettist. He was a lover of Karol Szymanowski while a schoolboy of fifteen in Elisavetgrad in 1919, and he received as a gift a Russian translation of the chapter The Symposium from Efebos, the composer's unpublished novel on pederasty...
commissioned that year
Brecht' was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner...
and
Weill'sKurt Julian Weill , was a German, and in his later years American, composer active from the 1920s until his death. He was a leading composer for the stage...
last collaboration,
The Seven Deadly SinsThe Seven Deadly Sins is a satirical ballet chanté in seven scenes composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933 under a commission from Boris Kochno and Edward James. It was translated into English by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman...
, which Balanchine produced, directed and choreographed.
James divorced Losch in 1934, accusing her of adultery with
Prince Serge ObolenskySergei Platonovich 5th Knyaz Obolensky-Neledinsky-Meletzky was a Russian Prince and Vice Chairman of the Board of Hilton Hotels Corporation.-Biography:...
, an American hotel executive; her countersuit, in which she made it clear that James was homosexual, failed. James was in fact bisexual. After the divorce, James joined a social set in England which included the Mitford sisters and the composer Lord Berners.
Surrealism
James is best known as a passionate and early supporter of
SurrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, a movement that was born from the political uncertainty and upheaval between the wars. Rejecting the bourgeois' dominating rationality, surrealists escaped into a world of fantasy and irrationality. He sponsored Salvador
DalíDALI may refer to:* Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries* The "Distance-matrix ALIgnment" algorithm used in the FSSP database on structurally similar proteins* Digital Addressable Lighting Interface* Dartmouth Assessment of Lifestyle Index...
for the whole of 1938 and his collection of paintings and art objects that subsequently came to be accepted as the finest collection of surrealist work in private hands. He also provided practical help, supporting
DalíDALI may refer to:* Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries* The "Distance-matrix ALIgnment" algorithm used in the FSSP database on structurally similar proteins* Digital Addressable Lighting Interface* Dartmouth Assessment of Lifestyle Index...
for about two years and allowing Magritte to stay in his London house to do some paintings.
James appeared in three famous surrealist paintings:
- Swans Reflecting Elephants
Swans Reflecting Elephants is a painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. This painting is from Dalí's Paranoiac-critical period...
by Dalí.
- La Reproduction Interdite by René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte
[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
http://www.ac-amiens.fr/pedagogie/arts_plastiques/capes04/magritte2.jpg
- The Pleasure Principle: Portrait of Edward James also by René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte
[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
Each suggests an alienated person. In the first, James looks away from the centre; in the second he looks into a mirror which shows the back of his head; in the third James's head is a fireball.
As well as Dalí and Magritte, his art collection included works by
BoschHieronymus Bosch was an Early Netherlandish painter of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries...
, De Chirico,
Paul KleePaul Klee was a Swiss painter of German nationality. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually mastered color...
,
Leonora CarringtonLeonora Carrington is a British-born artist, a surrealist painter and a novelist who now lives in Mexico.-Early life:Carrington was born in Clayton Green, South Lancaster, Lancashire, England. Her father was a wealthy industrialist, her mother was Irish. She also had an Irish nanny, Mary...
,
Pavel TchelitchewPavel Tchelitchew was a Russian-born surrealist painter. He left Russia in 1920, lived in Berlin from 1921 to 1923, and moved to Paris in 1923. His first U.S...
,
Pablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Commonly known simply as Picasso, he is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art...
, Giacometti,
Max ErnstMax Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
and
Paul DelvauxPaul Delvaux was a Belgian painter, famous for his surrealist paintings with female nudes.-Biography:...
, amongst others. Most were sold at a well-publicized sale at Christies two years after his death.
His intellectual interest in surrealism is demonstrated by his sponsorship of
MinotaureMinotaure, published between 1933 and 1939, was a Surrealist-oriented publication founded by Albert Skira in Paris. The editors were André Breton and Pierre Mabille. It was a luxurious publication, sporting original artworks on its cover by prestigious artists like Pablo Picasso...
, a lavish Surrealist magazine published in Paris. His refurbishment of Monkton House, in a part of the
West Dean EstateWest Dean may refer to:*West Dean, Gloucestershire*West Dean, West Sussex*West Dean, Wiltshire*Westdean, East Sussex...
, was a Surrealist dream. It was done in collaboration with the pioneering British decorator, Syrie Maugham, and has some of the most iconic Surrealist works on display, including the large
sofaThe Mae West Lips Sofa is a surrealist sofa by Salvador Dalí. The wood-and-satin sofa was shaped after the lips of actress Mae West, whom Dalí apparently found fascinating. It measures 86.5 x 183 x 81.5 cm. Edward James, a rich British patron of the Surrealists in the 1930's, commissioned this...
to which
DalíSalvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres....
gave the form and colour of
Mae WestMae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol.Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry...
's lips, and his
Lobster TelephoneLobster Telephone is a surrealist object, created by Salvador Dalí in 1936 with surrealist artist and patron Edward James...
in white. His most fantastic surrealist creation was realised in the Mexican rain forest, a surrealist Sculpture garden, "Las Pozas" (see below).
New Mexico
In 1940, James showed up in
Taos, New MexicoTaos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico. In New Mexico, a municipality may call itself a village, town, or city . Taos calls itself the "Town of Taos" and was incorporated as such in 1934...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as a guest of
Mabel Dodge LuhanMabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan , née Ganson was a wealthy American patron of the arts. She is particularly associated with the Taos art colony.-Early life:...
, where he was known for his amusing, clever eccentricity and effeminate manner. In Taos, he met the Hon.
Dorothy BrettDorothy Brett English born American painter, remembered as much for her social life as for her art. Born into an aristocratic British family she associated with such notables and Virginia Woolf, John Huxley, Gilbert Cannan, and George Bernard Shaw. In 1924 "Brett", as she was known, moved to...
, an impoverished British aristocrat and painter, who in 1941 sold him nine paintings for $580. He later invited the 70 year-old Brett (as she was known) to return to England and reside at West Dean, but she declined.
Las Pozas
Las Pozas ("the Pools") is a sculpture garden built by James, more than above sea level, in a tropical rain forest in the mountains of
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. It includes more than of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering Surrealist sculptures in concrete.
Las Pozas is near the village of Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, a seven-hour drive north of Mexico City. In the early 1940s, James went to
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
, and then decided that he "wanted a Garden of Eden set up . . . and I saw that Mexico was far more romantic” and had "far more room than there is in crowded Southern California.” In Cuernavaca, he hired Plutarco Gastelum, then a young manager of a telegraph office, as a guide. The two found Xilitla in November 1945.
In Xilitla, Plutarco married a local woman and had four children. They all lived with "Uncle Edward", as the children called James, in a house Plutarco had built, a mock-Gothic cement castle, now a hotel - La Posada El Castillo. James owned hundreds of birds and about 40 dogs, and once took his pet boa constrictors to the Hotel Francis in
Mexico CityMexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country, and the most populous city, with about 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008...
.
Between 1949 and 1984, James built thirty-six concrete follies - palaces, temples and pagodas, including the House on Three Floors Which Will in Fact Have Five or Four or Six, the House with a Roof like a Whale, and the Staircase to Heaven.There were also plantings and beds full of tropical plants, including orchids - there were, apparently, 29,000 at Las Pozas at one time - and a variety of small casas (homes), niches, and pens that held exotic birds and wild animals from the world over. Massive sculptures up to four stories tall punctuate the site. The many trails throughout the garden site are composed of steps, ramps, bridges and narrow, winding walkways that traverse the valley walls.Construction of Las Pozas cost more than $5 million. To pay for it, James sold his collection of Surrealist art at auction.
In the summer of 2007, the Fundación Pedro y Elena Hernández, the company
CemexCEMEX S.A. de C.V. is the world's largest building materials supplier and third largest cement producer. Founded in Mexico in 1906, the company is based in Monterrey, Mexico...
, and the government of
San Luis PotosíThe Mexican state of San Luis Potosí has an area of .It is in the central part of the Mexican republic, It borders Coahuila to the north, Nuevo Leon to the north-east, Tamaulipas to the east, Veracruz to the east, Hidalgo, Queretaro, and Guanajuato to the south, and Zacatecas to the north-west...
paid about $2.2 million for Las Pozas and created
Fondo Xilitla, a foundation that will oversee the preservation and restoration of the site. There are plans not only to restore the garden to its former glory, but to put it on the world art map. In November 2007, those behind the revival met at the garden to discuss the plans for restoration, and to celebrate the centenary of James's birth.
West Dean
In 1964, James gave his English estate which included
West Dean HouseWest Dean House is a large flint-faced manor house situated in West Dean, West Sussex, near the historic City of Chichester. This country estate has approximately of land and dates back to 1086, with various royal connections throughout the years...
at
West DeanWest Dean is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located north of Chichester on the A286 road just west of Singleton. The parish includes the hamlets of Binderton and Chilgrove....
to a charitable trust. The Edward James Foundation comprises
West Dean CollegeWest Dean College is situated in the West Dean Estate, near Chichester. The Estate was formerly the home of the poet and patron of the arts, Edward James. In 1939 Edward wrote to Aldous Huxley expressing his fear that after the war, certain arts, and particularly the techniques of the craftsmen...
, a centre for the preservation of traditional arts and crafts, through short courses and full-time Diplomas and MAs. One of only two professional Tapestry Weaving studios in the UK, an Art Gallery are all housed on a estate which is open to the public through the West Dean Gardens.
West Dean CollegeWest Dean College is situated in the West Dean Estate, near Chichester. The Estate was formerly the home of the poet and patron of the arts, Edward James. In 1939 Edward wrote to Aldous Huxley expressing his fear that after the war, certain arts, and particularly the techniques of the craftsmen...
is part of the Edward James Foundation set up in 1971 in response to James' vision of establishing “an educational foundation where creative talents can be discovered and developed, and where one can spread culture through the teaching of crafts and the preservation of knowledge that might otherwise be destroyed or forgotten”.
Edward James is buried in the St Roche's Arboretum at
West DeanWest Dean is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located north of Chichester on the A286 road just west of Singleton. The parish includes the hamlets of Binderton and Chilgrove....
, with the simple inscription
Edward James 1907 - 1984 Poet. The stone was carved by
John SkeltonJohn Skelton MBE was the nephew of Eric Gill and was also noted as an important letterer and sculptorHis public work includes the headstone to Edward James at West Dean and the font at Chichester Cathedral....
.
Writings
I have seen such beauty as one man has seldom seen;
therefore will I be grateful to die in this little room,
surrounded by the forests, the great green gloom
of trees my only gloom - and the sound, the sound of green.
Here amid the warmth of the rain, what might have been
is resolved into the tenderness of a tall doom
who says: 'You did your best, rest - and after you the bloom
of what you loved and planted still will whisper what you mean.
And the ghosts of the birds I loved, will attend me each a friend;
like them shall I have flown beyond the realm of words.
You, through the trees, shall hear them, long after the end
calling me beyond the river. For the cries of birds
continue, as - defended by the cortege of their wings -
my soul among strange silences yet sings.
Edward James, Poet 1907 - 1984
- E. James, "The Bones of my Hand", privately printed, London 1930.
- E. James,
The Glass Omnibus,
privately printed, London 1934.
E. James, The Gardener Who Saw God
, 1937
George Melly (ed), Swans Reflecting Elephants, My Early Years
, Autobiography of Edward James (Weidenfeld, London 1982).
Portrait Sculpture
An early marble portrait sculpture of Edward James exists, by the sculptor Isamu Noguchiwas a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces,...
.
External links
Edward James, Builder of Dreams
, documentary film by Avery Danziger
Surreal Eden: Edward James & Las Pozas, by Margaret Hooks