Ruthven Campbell Todd (14 June 1914 – 1978) was a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
poet and novelist, known also as an editor of
William BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the...
, and as an artist. (Ruthven is pronounced 'riven'.)
He was born in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
, and educated at
Fettes CollegeFettes College is an independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is often referred to as a public school in common with the traditional independent schools in the UK.-History:...
and Edinburgh School of Art. After a short spell in the office of his father, an architect, he worked as an agricultural labourer on
MullThe Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....
, for two years. He then started a career in copy-writing and journalism, while writing poetry and novels, based in Edinburgh, London, and Tilty Mill near
DunmowDunmow may refer to:*Great Dunmow, a town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England*Little Dunmow, a village located about 3 miles outside the town of Great Dunmow...
in
EssexEssex is a county in the East of England region of the United Kingdom. The county town of Essex is Chelmsford.-History:In pre-Roman Britain the territories of Suffolk and Essex were home to the Trinovantes tribe, which had grown wealthy through intensive trade with the Roman Empire, contemporary...
(later rented to
Elizabeth SmartElizabeth Smart was a Canadian poet and novelist. Her book, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, detailed her romance with the poet George Barker...
).
He was involved with the surrealists at the time of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition.
Ruthven Campbell Todd (14 June 1914 – 1978) was a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
poet and novelist, known also as an editor of
William BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the...
, and as an artist. (Ruthven is pronounced 'riven'.)
He was born in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
, and educated at
Fettes CollegeFettes College is an independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is often referred to as a public school in common with the traditional independent schools in the UK.-History:...
and Edinburgh School of Art. After a short spell in the office of his father, an architect, he worked as an agricultural labourer on
MullThe Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....
, for two years. He then started a career in copy-writing and journalism, while writing poetry and novels, based in Edinburgh, London, and Tilty Mill near
DunmowDunmow may refer to:*Great Dunmow, a town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England*Little Dunmow, a village located about 3 miles outside the town of Great Dunmow...
in
EssexEssex is a county in the East of England region of the United Kingdom. The county town of Essex is Chelmsford.-History:In pre-Roman Britain the territories of Suffolk and Essex were home to the Trinovantes tribe, which had grown wealthy through intensive trade with the Roman Empire, contemporary...
(later rented to
Elizabeth SmartElizabeth Smart was a Canadian poet and novelist. Her book, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, detailed her romance with the poet George Barker...
).
He was involved with the surrealists at the time of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition. In London in the late 1930s he was on good terms with
Wyndham LewisPercy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...
, contributing to the Lewis issue of
Julian SymonsJulian Gustave Symons was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.- Life and Work :...
's
Twentieth Century Verse, and being brought in to keep awake the dozing
Ezra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist movement in the first half of the 20th century. He is generally considered the poet most responsible for defining and promoting a modernist aesthetic in poetry...
, whose portrait Lewis was painting. (Symons includes a character based on Todd in his first detective story,
The Immaterial Murder Case.)
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was a
conscientious objectorA conscientious objector is an individual who, on religious, moral or ethical grounds, refuses to participate as a combatant in war or, in some cases, to take any role that would support a combatant organization armed forces. In the first case, conscientious objectors may be willing to accept...
.
Julian Maclaren-RossJulian MacLaren-Ross was a British novelist, described by John Betjeman as "One of our very best writers". His reputation as a dandy in post-war London bohemia to some extent exceeds the actual stature of his recognised works. His turbulent life and pivotal role in the Fitzrovian milieu has...
in his
Memoirs of the Forties tells the story of their encounter in the
Highlander pub, in Dean Street, London, in 1943. The meeting got off to a sticky start, Maclaren-Ross having misheard 'Ruthven' as 'Reverend'.
- But before I could apologize for having misheard the introduction, Ruthven Todd who now held a whisky in his hand said: 'I didn't get your name either. Who the hell are you anyway'?
- I gave my name, Todd's whisky went down the wrong way, and when I'd patted him on the back he spluttered 'But I discovered you!.'
- I thought Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer.-Early life:Cyril Connolly was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, the only child of Matthew William Kemble Connolly, an officer in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, by his wife Muriel Maud Vernon, daughter of an...
discovered me.'
- On my recommendation.'
He moved to the USA in 1947. There he had a position at a university in New York (detail needed), and ran a
small pressSmall press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
, the
Weekend Press, during the 1950s.
In 1958, he settled in Majorca, Spain. He spent the remainder of his life there until his death in 1978.
He was married to Joellen Rapee (1921-2006), a sculptor.
He wrote also under the
pseudonymA pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or sometimes, a group.Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other...
R. T. Campbell; he contributed to
children's literatureChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve and is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes exclude young-adult fiction, comic books, or other genres. Books specifically for children existed by the 17th century...
with the
Space Cats series.
Works
- Poems (1938)
- The Laughing Mulatto (1939)
- Over the Mountain (1939)
- Poets of Tomorrow (1939)
- Ten Poems (1940)
- Until Now (1942) Fortune Press, poems
- Life of William Blake by Alexander Gilchrist
Alexander Gilchrist was the biographer of William Blake. Gilchrist's biography is still a standard reference work on the poet....
(1942) editor
- Poems for a Penny (1942)
- The Acreage of the Heart (1943) poems
- The Lost Traveller (1943)
- The Planet in my Hand (1944, Grey Walls Press) poems
- Tracks in the Snow (Grey Walls Press) (1946) criticism of William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the...
, Fuseli and John Martin-In the Arts:*John Martin , American actor in TV soap operas One Life to Live and Sunset Beach*John Martin , English-born Canadian broadcaster*John Martin , dance critic at the New York Times...
- Unholy Dying (1945) as R. T. Campbell
- First Animal Book (1946) Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick was an English wood engraver and ornithologist.Bewick was born at Cherryburn House in the village of Mickley, in the parish of Ovingham, Northumberland, England, near Newcastle upon Tyne on 12 August 1753. His father rented a small colliery at Mickley Bank, and sent his son to school...
engravings
- Take thee a Sharp Knife (1946) as R. T. Campbell
- Adventure with a Goat (1946) as R. T. Campbell
- Bodies in a Bookshop (1946) as R. T. Campbell
- Death for Madame (1946) as R. T. Campbell
- The Death Cup (1946) as R. T. Campbell
- Swing Low Sweet Death (1946) as R. T. Campbell
- William Blake: America, a prophecy (1947) editor
- William Blake: Poems (1947) editor
- Richard and Samuel Redgrave: A Century of British Painters (1947) editor
- Christopher Smart: A Song to David (1947) editor
- In Other Worlds (1951)
- Love Poems for the New Year (1951)
- Space Cat (1952)
- Loser's Choice (1953) as R. T. Campbell
- The Tropical Fish Book (1953)
- Indian Spring (1954)
- A Mantelpiece of Shells (1954)
- Trucks, Tractors, and Trailers (1954)
- Indian Pipe (1955)
- Space Cat Visits Venus (1955)
- Space Cat Meets Mars (1957)
- Space Cat and the Kittens (1958)
- Tan's Fish (1958)
- Selected Poems of William Blake (1960) editor
- Funeral of a Child (1962)
- Garland for the Winter Solstice (1961) selected poems
- The Geography of Faces (1964)
- Blake's Dante Plates (1968) editor
- William Blake: The Artist (1971)
- John Berryman
John Allyn Berryman was an American poet, born in McAlester, Oklahoma. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and often considered one of the founders of the Confessional school of poetry. He was the author of The Dream Songs, which are playful, witty, and...
1914-1972 (1972) broadsheet
- Lament of the Cats of Rapallo (1973)
- McGonagall Remembers Fitzrovia in the 1930s (1973)