The Unreturning Spring - Critical reception

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Appendix (draft pages from HW's introduction)

Critical reception:

The first review here is out of chronological sequence – but as it reflects an overview vision of the book it makes a useful 'introduction'.

Homes and Gardens, July 1951:

farrar rev homes

The Tatler (Gordon Beckles), 22 November 1950:

farrar review tatler

Liverpool Daily Post (J.C.R.), 29 November 1950:

farrar rev liverpool

The Observer (Denis Thomas), 3 December 1950:

farrar rev observer

John O'London's Weekly, 8 December 1950:

farrar rev johnolondon

New Statesman & Nation (Nigel Nicolson), 9 December 1950:

farrar rev statesman

Daily Herald, 11 December 1950:

This review, under heading 'Time was short', gives just basic details about the book. Interestingly, the text was copied by the following rather unusual source:

Egyptian Gazette (Cairo), 19 December 1950:

farrar rev egyptian

Punch (H.P.E.), 20 December 1950:

farrar review punch

The Spectator, 22 December 1950:

farrar review spectator

Public Opinion (Howard Sergeant), 12 January 1951:

farrar rev public

Sheffield Telegraph (C. A. Renshaw), 26 January 1951:

farrar rev sheffield

Everywoman (Lyn Arnold), February 1951:

farrar rev everywoman

He was a good boy, in the true sense of the word. He was keen, he worked hard, he strove for truth, he kept himself fit for his work, he lived in the sense of his own humility. He lost his life in a Mosquito aircraft over the English channel on the twenty-sixth day of July, 1944, three months short of his twenty-first birthday.

So in his preface Henry Williamson speaks of James Farrar . . . whose now published [writings] are his epitaph. . . .

If the critics have overpraised him, how understandable, and how right, when a poet paints a whole countryside under wind with his four short perfect words “the mad meadow-grass”; when a write makes the very silence pulsate in the still, dark orchard where two boys stand and wait “breathing as if slyly stealing the air”. . . .

Truth, 8 February 1951:

farrar rev truth

The Scotsman, 8 February 1951:

farrar rev scotsman

The Cambridge Review (P. M. Green), 10 February 1951:

farrar rev cambridge1

farrar rev cambridge2

farrar rev cambridge3

The Times, 23 March 1951:

farrar review times

Poetry Review (E. H. W. Meyerstein), April 1951:

farrar rev poetry

The Times Literary Supplement, 23 March 1951:

farrar rev tls

*************************

1968 edition:

Country Life (Richard Church), 12 December 1968 (column of reviews headed 'Fundamental Values')

The first paragraph of the reviews reads:

farrar rev countrylife1

The section on James Farrar follows:

farrar rev countrylife2

Irish Independent (Monk Gibbon), 1 February 1969 (quirky – an interesting comparison with Henry James):

farrar rev irish

Daily Mail, 18 April 1969:

farrar rev mail

Lincolnshire Echo, 11 August 1969 (an interesting selection of books):

farrar rev lincolnshire

*************************

Poetry Review, April 1959:

That HW tried to promote Farrar's work whenever he could is evinced by the following article published in the Poetry Review:

farrar rev poetryreview1

farrar rev poetryreview2

farrar rev poetryreview3

farrar rev poetryreview4

Further, there is the following letter from HW which does not have a source or date (other than the date of the letter, 21 September), but is probably from the Western Morning News. There is unfortunately no cutting of the 'publicity' material to which he refers:

farrar hwletter