Stevie Smith
16 Feb, 2023
820 English and Old English literatures
In 1957 Stevie Smith published a poetry collection called Not Waving But Drowning - and its title poem gave us a phrase which has entered the language. Its success has overshadowed her wider work as the author of more than half a dozen collections of poetry and three novels, mostly written while she worked as a secretary. Her poems, printed with her pen and ink sketches, can seem simple and comical, but often beneath the surface lurk themes of melancholy, loneliness, love and death.
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Guests
- Jeremy Noel-Tod
2 episodes
Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia -
Noreen Masud No other episodes
Lecturer in Twentieth Century Literature at the University of Bristol -
Will May No other episodes
Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of Southampton
Reading list
-
A History of Twentieth-Century British Women's Poetry
Jane Dowson and Alice Entwistle (Cambridge University Press, 2005) Google Books → -
Rhythms of Feeling in Edward Lear, T.S. Eliot and Stevie Smith
Jasmine Jagger (Oxford University Press, 2022) Google Books → -
British Women's Writing, 1930 to 1960: Between the Waves
Sue Kennedy and Jane Thomson (eds.) (Liverpool University Press, 2023) Google Books → -
Stevie Smith and the Aphorism: Hard Language
Noreen Masud (Oxford University Press, 2022) Google Books → -
Stevie Smith and Authorship
Will May (Oxford University Press, 2010) Google Books → -
Stevie Smith: A Selection
Stevie Smith (ed. Hermione Lee) (Faber and Faber, 2019) Google Books → -
The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith
Stevie Smith (ed. Will May) (Faber and Faber, 2015) Google Books → -
Me Again: The Uncollected Writings of Stevie Smith
Stevie Smith (ed. Jack Barbera and William McBrien) (Virago, 1983) Google Books → -
Novel on Yellow Paper
Stevie Smith (Virago, 1980) Google Books → -
Over the Frontier
Stevie Smith (Virago, 1980) Google Books → -
The Holiday
Stevie Smith (Virago, 1979) Google Books → -
Stevie Smith: A Biography
Frances Spalding (Sutton, 2002) Google Books → -
Stevie Smith: A Critical Introduction
Frances Spalding (Faber and Faber, 1988) -
In Search of Stevie Smith
Sanford Sternlicht (ed.) (Syracuse University Press, 1991) Google Books →
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Programme ID: m001j45h
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001j45h
Auto-category: 821.914 (English poetry, 1945-1999)
Hello (First sentence from this episode)
Hello. In 1957, Stevie Smith published a poetry collection called Not Waving But Drowning, and its title poem gave us a phrase which success has overshadowed her wider work as the author of more than half a dozen collections of poetry and three novels, mostly written while she worked as a secretary.