An appreciation by FRAN BAKER, (then) Archivist
at the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester
Norman Nicholson’s archive was one of the foundation collections on which the University of Manchester Library’s outstanding Modern Literary Archives Programme was built. Along with his own archive and personal book collection, the Library holds a multitude of smaller collections relating to Nicholson which have been acquired by gift, deposit and purchase over the years; the Library continues to actively collect papers relating to Nicholson and his work.
The archive stands as a testament to Nicholson’s range as a writer; whilst best known for his poetry, he also wrote novels, biographies, critical works, topographical works and an autobiography. All of this is reflected in the archive, which also reveals the respect in which he was held by other writers, and the breadth of his acquaintance – there are letters from Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Geoffrey Hill, John Betjeman and Seamus Heaney among hundreds of others. T.S. Eliot championed his work, and Nicholson was published by Faber and Faber – probably the most important poetry publishing house in the UK. He was the recipient of many honorary degrees and awards, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and an OBE for services to literature. Even during his lifetime his work was translated into multiple languages, including Italian, Danish and Norwegian.
There has always been interest in Nicholson’s work, but in recent years this has seen a resurgence, boosted in part by the publication of the first two full-length biographies. Having sometimes been categorised dismissively as ‘religious’ and ‘provincial’ in a negative sense, his work is now being reinterpreted for a new generation. An environmentalist ahead of his time, his poetry and verse drama is being viewed through the lens of ecology, and his work reassessed as part of the growing interest in the poetry of place. Recent archival research has included a study of Nicholson’s reception in non-Anglophone cultures, and an innovative project in the field of digital humanities: using computational tools developed in the fields of geography and corpus linguistics, researchers have analysed and mapped Nicholson’s correspondence network, demonstrating its global reach and confirming his position as a writer on the international stage. The range of Nicholson’s writing, and the direct language of his poetry, also gives his work an appeal far beyond the academic.
For Nicholson being ‘provincial’ – rooted in the culture of his native region – was only ever a positive thing, and the Cumbrian people and post-industrial landscape are central to his work. His home town of Millom, and more importantly the house where he was born and lived for virtually his whole life, are crucial to understanding and appreciating his life and work. His most famous poem, ‘The Pot Geranium’, is set in his attic bedroom but looks outwards to the world beyond, fusing the local and the global.
The Norman Nicholson Society has done a superb job of promoting Nicholson’s work and bringing it to a wider audience, via its informative website, programme of events, and journal Comet; the latter contains an engaging mix of incisive critical articles and reinterpretations of Nicholson’s work by academic researchers, along with creative work, contributions by school children engaging with Nicholson’s poetry, and personal reminiscences from people who knew him. It is a well-organised and flourishing literary society.
Fran Baker, Archivist
The University of Manchester Library
2017
The archive stands as a testament to Nicholson’s range as a writer; whilst best known for his poetry, he also wrote novels, biographies, critical works, topographical works and an autobiography. All of this is reflected in the archive, which also reveals the respect in which he was held by other writers, and the breadth of his acquaintance – there are letters from Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Geoffrey Hill, John Betjeman and Seamus Heaney among hundreds of others. T.S. Eliot championed his work, and Nicholson was published by Faber and Faber – probably the most important poetry publishing house in the UK. He was the recipient of many honorary degrees and awards, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and an OBE for services to literature. Even during his lifetime his work was translated into multiple languages, including Italian, Danish and Norwegian.
There has always been interest in Nicholson’s work, but in recent years this has seen a resurgence, boosted in part by the publication of the first two full-length biographies. Having sometimes been categorised dismissively as ‘religious’ and ‘provincial’ in a negative sense, his work is now being reinterpreted for a new generation. An environmentalist ahead of his time, his poetry and verse drama is being viewed through the lens of ecology, and his work reassessed as part of the growing interest in the poetry of place. Recent archival research has included a study of Nicholson’s reception in non-Anglophone cultures, and an innovative project in the field of digital humanities: using computational tools developed in the fields of geography and corpus linguistics, researchers have analysed and mapped Nicholson’s correspondence network, demonstrating its global reach and confirming his position as a writer on the international stage. The range of Nicholson’s writing, and the direct language of his poetry, also gives his work an appeal far beyond the academic.
For Nicholson being ‘provincial’ – rooted in the culture of his native region – was only ever a positive thing, and the Cumbrian people and post-industrial landscape are central to his work. His home town of Millom, and more importantly the house where he was born and lived for virtually his whole life, are crucial to understanding and appreciating his life and work. His most famous poem, ‘The Pot Geranium’, is set in his attic bedroom but looks outwards to the world beyond, fusing the local and the global.
The Norman Nicholson Society has done a superb job of promoting Nicholson’s work and bringing it to a wider audience, via its informative website, programme of events, and journal Comet; the latter contains an engaging mix of incisive critical articles and reinterpretations of Nicholson’s work by academic researchers, along with creative work, contributions by school children engaging with Nicholson’s poetry, and personal reminiscences from people who knew him. It is a well-organised and flourishing literary society.
Fran Baker, Archivist
The University of Manchester Library
2017
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