Table Of ContentModern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics
Barry MacSweeney
and the Politics of
Post-War British
Poetry
Seditious Th ings
Luke Roberts
Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics
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Luke Roberts
Barry MacSweeney
and the Politics of
Post-War British
Poetry
Seditious Things
Luke Roberts
King’s College London
London, United Kingdom
Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics
ISBN 978-3-319-45957-8 ISBN 978-3-319-45958-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45958-5
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facts are
seditious things
Barry MacSweeney, Black Torch (1978)
A N A s
ote oN rchives ANd ources
After his death in 2000, Barry MacSweeney’s personal library was donated
to the University of Newcastle and housed in a dedicated room at the
School of English. Since I spent time with this material in 2013, some of
the contents has been removed and is no longer accessible to researchers.
A handlist is still available. For reasons of method, I have, where possible,
used the editions of secondary texts that were in MacSweeney’s library.
When quoting from his inscriptions or annotations, I use the acronym
‘BMPL’ [Barry MacSweeney Personal Library].
When quoting from The English Intelligencer, I use the transcriptions
to be found in Certain Prose of the English Intelligencer, edited by Neil
Pattison, Reitha Pattison, and Luke Roberts (Cambridge: Mountain,
2012; 2nd rev. ed., 2014). In each case, details of publication are given in
full in the bibliography. The divisions between series and individual issues
of the Intelligencer differ in the sets held at different institutions. The
copy I routinely consulted is held in the Cambridge University Library.
MacSweeney spelled his name ‘McSweeney’ at this time. I have silently
changed it.
Materials from the Barry MacSweeney Papers, Robinson Library Special
Collections, Newcastle University, are given with the catalogue reference
‘BM’, with folder and document number following. When referring to
MacSweeney’s journalism, the material is drawn from his scrapbooks and
portfolios held in this archive, and is indicated as such.
Materials from the English Intelligencer Archive, Fales Library
and Special Collections, New York University, are indicated by ‘TEI
Archive’, with box and folder numbers following. The catalogue at Fales
vii
viii A NOTE ON ARCHIVES AND SOURCES
lists MacSweeney’s contributions incorrectly, under the name ‘Brian
McSweeney’.
Materials from the Eric Mottram Archive, King’s College London, are
given with the catalogue reference ‘Mottram’, with folder and contents
numbers following.
I consulted, though do not cite in this book, MacSweeney’s manu-
scripts and notebooks held in the Sir Joseph Gold Literary Manuscript
Collection, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Delaware.
In the chapter ‘From Green Cabaret to Black Torch’ I examine two
publications with the same title, The Boy from the Green Cabaret Tells of
His Mother. To differentiate, ‘Cabaret’ refers to the sequence of thirteen
poems circulated privately in 1967; Cabaret refers to the trade paperback
issued by Hutchinson in 1968, which collected the title sequence and
other poems.
I have provided a separate bibliography for poetry magazines, political
magazines, and political newspapers, giving details of the editors, place
of publication, and duration of existence where known. Almost all of this
material was consulted in the Cambridge University Library. This bibliog-
raphy includes poetry magazines not directly mentioned in this study but
in which MacSweeney published.
A
ckNowledgemeNts
My first debt of gratitude is to Rod Mengham, who supervised the doc-
toral research this book is based on and whose encouragement over the
years has been indispensable. Ian Patterson and Drew Milne offered
helpful comments on early chapters, and John Kerrigan and Carol Watts
did so for the whole book. Part of Chap. 3 was presented as a paper for
the ‘Legacies of Modernism’ conference, Université Paris-Diderot, June
2011, and I thank Abigail Lang and David Nowell Smith for organising it,
and the participants for their lively discussion.
I was supported in my research by an award from the Arts and
Humanities Research Council (AHRC), who also supplied me with a
travel grant to visit archives in the USA. St John’s College and the Faculty
of English, University of Cambridge, also gave me financial assistance.
I conducted most of my research at the Cambridge University Library
and the Robinson Library, Newcastle University. The staff and workers of
both institutions were always helpful. At Palgrave, Rachel Blau DuPlessis,
Paloma Yannakakis, and my anonymous readers provided advice and
encouragement.
I was glad to speak to and correspond with many of MacSweeney’s
friends, acquaintances, and publishers, all of whom answered questions
and helped me to locate materials and verify facts. The list is long: Neil
Astley, Ian Brinton, Clive Bush, David Caddy, Andrew Duncan, Allen
Fisher, John Hall, John Harvey, John James, the late Terry Kelly, Peter
Manson, Maggie O’Sullivan, Tom Pickard, Connie Pickard, Robin Purves,
J.H. Prynne, Tom Raworth, Peter Riley, the late Stephen Rodefer, William
Rowe, Anthony Rudolf, John Temple, Tony Wild, and John Wilkinson.
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Elaine Randell was particularly generous with her time; she has my sin-
cere admiration. MacSweeney’s mother, the late Lillian McSweeney, was
kind enough to correspond with me in 2011. I am immensely grateful
to Barry MacSweeney’s brother, Paul, representing the Estate of Barry
MacSweeney, for his generosity and enthusiasm.
With my friends, some of whom I am happy to have already listed, I
argued and talked about poetry and politics and much else besides. There
are too many to mention, but I owe particular debts to: Sean Bonney,
Eleanor Careless, Sara Crangle, Jackqueline Frost, Peter Gizzi, David
Grundy, Owen Holland, Justin Katko, Laura Kilbride, Sam Ladkin,
Joe Luna, Marianne Morris, Richard Owens, Reitha Pattison, Connie
Scozzaro, Josh Stanley, Keston Sutherland, Amy Tobin, and Tomas Weber.
I am especially glad for the long conversations I had with Neil Pattison
throughout the writing of this book. His comments on an early draft of
the whole manuscript were invaluable, and his friendship kept the whole
thing going on more than one occasion.
Finally, my family—my sister, Felicity; her partner, Matthew; and my par-
ents, Mark and Daphne—provided all kinds of untiring support. Without
them this work would never have been started, still less completed.
