Forrest Reid
Encyclopedia
Forrest Reid was an Irish
novelist, literary critic and translator. He was, along with Hugh Walpole
and J.M. Barrie, a leading pre-war British
novelist of boyhood. He is still acclaimed as the greatest of Ulster
novelists and was recognised with the award of the 1944 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
for his novel Young Tom.
family of twelve, six of whom survived. His mother, his father's second wife, came from an aristocratic Shropshire
family. Although proud of this ancestry, he found the strict Protestant ethics of his immediate family constricting. Reid was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
, after which he was initially apprenticed into the Belfast tea-trade before going to Christ's College, Cambridge
, where he read medieval and modern languages, and was influenced by the novelist E. M. Forster
. Despite this he described his Cambridge experience as 'a rather blank interlude' in life. Graduating in 1908, he returned to Belfast to pursue a writing career; his first book, The Kingdom of Twilight, had been published in 1904. After graduation Forster continued to visit Reid, who was then settled back in Belfast. In 1952 Forster travelled to Belfast to unveil a plaque commemorating Forrest Reid's life (at 13 Ormiston Crescent).
(Greek Authors (Faber, 1943)). His study of the work of W.B. Yeats (W.B. Yeats: A Critical Study (1915)) has been acclaimed as one of the best critical studies of that poet. He also wrote the definitive work on the English woodcut artists
of the 1860s (Illustrators of the Sixties); his collection of original illustrations from that time are housed in the Ashmolean Museum
, Oxford
.
He was a close friend of Walter de la Mare
, whom he first met in 1913, and about whose fiction he published a perceptive book in 1929. Reid was also an influence on novelist Stephen Gilbert (novelist)
, and had good connections to the Bloomsbury Group
of writers. Reid was a founding member of the Imperial Art League (later the Artists League of Great Britain). Reid was also a close friend of Arthur Greeves, the artist known to be C. S. Lewis
's best friend. Greeves painted several of Reid's portraits, now all in the possession of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.
He published articles in many magazines, including Uladh, the Westminster Review
and the Ulster Review, and he reviewed books for the Manchester Guardian
. Apostate, an autobiography, was published in 1926, and its sequel, Private Road, was published in 1940. He was a founder member of the Irish Academy of Letters.
's seminal novel of growing up in Catholic
Dublin, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(1924). Reid's fiction, which often uses submerged narratives to explore male beauty and love, can be placed within the historical context of the emergence of a more explicit expression of homosexuality in English literature in the 20th century.
A 'Forrest Reid Collection' is held at the University of Exeter
, consisting of first editions of all his works and books about Reid. Many of his original manuscripts are in the archives of the Belfast Central Library
. Queen's University Belfast catalogued in 2008 a large collection of Forrest Reid documentary material it had recently acquired including many letters from E.M. Forster.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
novelist, literary critic and translator. He was, along with Hugh Walpole
Hugh Walpole
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs. His skill at scene-setting, his vivid plots, his high profile as a lecturer and his driving ambition brought him a large...
and J.M. Barrie, a leading pre-war British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
novelist of boyhood. He is still acclaimed as the greatest of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
novelists and was recognised with the award of the 1944 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for his novel Young Tom.
Early life and education
Born in Belfast, he was the youngest son of a ProtestantProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
family of twelve, six of whom survived. His mother, his father's second wife, came from an aristocratic Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
family. Although proud of this ancestry, he found the strict Protestant ethics of his immediate family constricting. Reid was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution
Royal Belfast Academical Institution
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution, is a Grammar School in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Locally referred to as Inst, the school educates boys from ages 11–18...
, after which he was initially apprenticed into the Belfast tea-trade before going to Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...
, where he read medieval and modern languages, and was influenced by the novelist E. M. Forster
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...
. Despite this he described his Cambridge experience as 'a rather blank interlude' in life. Graduating in 1908, he returned to Belfast to pursue a writing career; his first book, The Kingdom of Twilight, had been published in 1904. After graduation Forster continued to visit Reid, who was then settled back in Belfast. In 1952 Forster travelled to Belfast to unveil a plaque commemorating Forrest Reid's life (at 13 Ormiston Crescent).
Works and influences
As well as his fiction, Reid also translated poems from the Greek AnthologyGreek Anthology
The Greek Anthology is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature...
(Greek Authors (Faber, 1943)). His study of the work of W.B. Yeats (W.B. Yeats: A Critical Study (1915)) has been acclaimed as one of the best critical studies of that poet. He also wrote the definitive work on the English woodcut artists
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
of the 1860s (Illustrators of the Sixties); his collection of original illustrations from that time are housed in the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
He was a close friend of Walter de la Mare
Walter de la Mare
Walter John de la Mare , OM CH was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and the poem "The Listeners"....
, whom he first met in 1913, and about whose fiction he published a perceptive book in 1929. Reid was also an influence on novelist Stephen Gilbert (novelist)
Stephen Gilbert (novelist)
Stephen Gilbert was born at Newcastle, County Down . He worked for the Northern Whig until the mid-1930s when he joined the family firm of McCausland in Belfast. In 1939 he joined the Supplementary Reserve and served with the 3rd Ulster Searchlight Regiment in France...
, and had good connections to the Bloomsbury Group
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
of writers. Reid was a founding member of the Imperial Art League (later the Artists League of Great Britain). Reid was also a close friend of Arthur Greeves, the artist known to be C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
's best friend. Greeves painted several of Reid's portraits, now all in the possession of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.
He published articles in many magazines, including Uladh, the Westminster Review
Westminster Review
The Westminster Review was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until 1828....
and the Ulster Review, and he reviewed books for the Manchester Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. Apostate, an autobiography, was published in 1926, and its sequel, Private Road, was published in 1940. He was a founder member of the Irish Academy of Letters.
Critical standing
Though his books are not necessarily well known today, he has been labelled 'the first Ulster novelist of European stature', and comparisons have been drawn between his own coming of age novel of Protestant Belfast, Following Darkness (1912), and James JoyceJames Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's seminal novel of growing up in Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
Dublin, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917...
(1924). Reid's fiction, which often uses submerged narratives to explore male beauty and love, can be placed within the historical context of the emergence of a more explicit expression of homosexuality in English literature in the 20th century.
A 'Forrest Reid Collection' is held at the University of Exeter
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....
, consisting of first editions of all his works and books about Reid. Many of his original manuscripts are in the archives of the Belfast Central Library
Belfast Central Library
Belfast Central Library is a public library in Royal Avenue, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opened in 1888, it was one of the first major public library buildings in Ireland....
. Queen's University Belfast catalogued in 2008 a large collection of Forrest Reid documentary material it had recently acquired including many letters from E.M. Forster.
Fiction
- The Kingdom of Twilight (1904).
- The Garden God - a Tale of Two Boys (1905).
- The Bracknels - a Family Chronicle (1911), revised as Denis Bracknel (1947).
- Following Darkness (1912) (An inspiration for James JoyceJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man). - The Gentle Lover - A Comedy of Middle Age (1913).
- At the Door of the Gate (1915).
- The Spring Song (1916).
- A Garden by the Sea (1918). (Stories).
- Pirates of the Spring (1919).
- Pender among the Residents (1922).
- Demophon - a Traveller's Tale (1927).
- Uncle Stephen (1931).
- Brian Westby (1934).
- The Retreat (1936).
- Peter Waring (1937).
- Young Tom (1944).
Further reading
- Paul Goldman and Brian Taylor. Retrospective Adventures: Forrest Reid, Author and Collector (Scholar Press, 1998).
- Colin Cruise. 'Error & ErosEros (love)Eros is one of the four words in Ancient Greek which can be rendered into English as “love”. The other three are storge, philia and agape...
: The Fiction of Forrest Reid',Sex, Nation & Dissent (Cork University Press, 1997) - Brian Taylor. The Green Avenue: the life and writings of Forrest Reid, (Cambridge UniversityUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
Press, 1980). - Russell Burlingham. Forrest Reid: A Portrait & a Study (Faber, 1953);
- Apostate (1926), and Private Road (1940). (Reid's two-part autobiography).
- Eamonn Hughes. Ulster of the Senses, (an essay about Reid's autobiography), Fortnight 306 (May 1992).
- Forrest Reid, The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys (1905), edited with a foreword, introduction and notes by Michael Matthew Kaylor (Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, 2007)http://www.valancourtbooks.com/thegardengod.html
- Catalogue from the Forrest Reid/Stephen Gilbert exhibition (Queen's University Belfast, 2008)