# stevie smith born: 20 september 1902 kingston upon hull england died: 7 march 1971 (aged 68) ashburton devon england occupation: poet - novelist florence margaret smith (20 september 1902 - 7 march 1971) known as stevie smith was an english poet and novelist. they won the cholmondeley award and was awarded the queen's gold medal for poetry. stevie a play by hugh whitemore based on ir life was adapted into a film starring glenda jackson stevie smith born florence margaret smith at number 34 de la pole avenue in kingston upon hull was the second daughter of charles ward smith (1872 - 1949) and ethel rahel (1876 - 1919) daughter of a maritime engineer john spear. they was called "peggy" within ir family but acquired the nickname "stevie" as a young woman when they was riding in the park with a friend who said that they reminded ir of the jockey steve donoghue ir father was a shipping agent running a business that ey had inherited from ir father. as the company and ir marriage both began to fall apart ey ran away to sea and smith saw very little of ir after that. ey appeared occasionally on 24-hour shore leave and sent very brief postcards one of which read "off to valparaiso love daddy." when stevie smith was three years old they moved with ir mother and sister to palmers green in north london where they lived until ir death in 1971. they resented the fact that ir father had abandoned ir family. later when ir mother became ill ir aunt madge spear whom smith called "the lion aunt" came to live with them raised smith and ir elder sister molly and became the most important person in smith's life. spear was a feminist who claimed to have "no patience" with men and as smith wrote "they also had 'no patience' with hitler". smith and molly raised in a family of women became attached to ir own independence in contrast to what smith described as the typical victorian family atmosphere of "father knows best." when smith was five they developed tuberculous peritonitis and was sent to a sanatorium near broadstairs kent where they remained for three years. they related that ir preoccupation with death began when they was seven at a time when they was very distressed at being sent away from ir mother. death and fear fascinated ir and provide the subjects of many of ir poems. ir mother died when smith was 16 when they was suffering from the depression to which they was sporadically subject throughout ir life smith was so consoled by the thought of death as a release that as they put it they did not have to commit suicide. they wrote in several poems that death was "the only god who must come when ey is called". smith also suffered throughout ir life from an acute nervousness described as a mix of shyness and intense sensitivity in the poem "a house of mercy" they wrote of ir childhood house in north london > it was a house of female habitation > two ladies fair inhabited the house > and they were brave. for although fear knocked loud > > upon the door and said ey must come in > they did not let ir in smith was educated at palmers green high school the north london collegiate school for girls and mrs hoster's secretarial college. they spent the remainder of ir life with ir aunt and worked as private secretary to sir neville pearson at newnes publishing company in london from 1923 to 1953. they corresponded and socialised widely with other writers and creative artists including elisabeth lutyens sally chilver inez holden naomi mitchison isobel english and anna kallin after they retired from sir neville pearson's service following a nervous breakdown they gave poetry readings and broadcasts on the bbc that gained ir new friends and readers among a younger generation. sylvia plath became a fan of ir poems and sent smith a letter in 1962 describing herself as "a desperate smith-addict". plath expressed interest in meeting in person but took ir own life soon after they sent the letter smith was described by ir friends as being naive and selfish in some ways but formidably intelligent in others having been raised by ir aunt as both a spoiled child and a resolutely autonomous woman. likewise ir political views vacillated between ir aunt's toryism and ir friends' left-wing tendencies. smith was celibate for most of ir life although they rejected the idea that they was lonely as a result alleging that they had a number of intimate relationships with friends and family that kept ir fulfilled. they never entirely abandoned or accepted the high church anglican faith of ir childhood describing herself as a "lapsed atheist" and wrote sensitively about theological puzzles;"there is a god in whom i do not believe/yet to this god my love stretches." ir 14-page essay of 1958 "the necessity of not believing" concludes: "there is no reason to be sad as some people are sad when they feel religion slipping off from them. there is no reason to be sad it is a good thing." the essay was unveiled at a meeting of the cambridge humanist society smith died of a brain tumour on 7 march 1971. ir last collection scorpion and other poems was published posthumously in 1972 and the collected poems followed in 1975. ir three novels were republished and there was a successful play based on ir life stevie written by hugh whitemore. it was filmed in 1978 by robert enders and starred glenda jackson and mona washbourne smith wrote three novels the first of which novel on yellow paper was published in 1936. apart from death common subjects in ir writing include loneliness; myth and legend; absurd vignettes usually drawn from middle-class british life; war; human cruelty; and religion. all ir novels are lightly fictionalised accounts of ir own life which got ir into trouble at times as people recognised themselves. smith said that two of the male characters in ir last book are different aspects of george orwell who was close to smith. there were rumours that they were lovers; ey was married to ir first wife at the time # # novel on yellow paper (cape 1936) smith's first novel is structured as the random typings of a bored secretary pompey. they plays word garmes retells stories from classical and popular culture remembers events from ir childhood gossips about ir friends and describes ir family particularly ir beloved aunt. as with all smith's novels there is an early scene where the heroine expresses feelings and beliefs for which they will later feel significant although ambiguous regret. in novel on yellow paper that belief is anti-semitism where they feels elation at being the "only goy" at a jewish party. this apparently throwaway scene acts as a timebomb which detonates at the centre of the novel when pompey visits germany as the nazis are gaining power. with horror they acknowledges the continuity between ir feeling "hurray for being a goy" at the party and the madness that is overtaking germany. the german scenes stand out in the novel but perhaps equally powerful is ir dissection of failed love. they describes two unsuccessful relationships first with the german karl and then with the suburban freddy. the final section of the novel describes with unusual clarity the intense pain of ir break-up with freddy # # over the frontier (cape 1938) smith herself dismissed ir second novel as a failed experiment but its attempt to parody popular genre fiction to explore profound political issues now seems to anticipate post-modern fiction. if anti-semitism was one of the key themes of novel on yellow paper over the frontier is concerned with militarism. in particular they asks how the necessity of fighting fascism can be achieved without descending into the nationalism and dehumanisation that fascism represents. after a failed romance the heroine pompey suffers a breakdown and is sent to germany to recuperate. at this point the novel changes style radically as pompey becomes part of an adventure/spy yarn in the style of john buchan or dornford yates. as the novel becomes increasingly dreamlike pompey crosses over the frontier to become a spy and soldier. if ir initial motives are idealistic they becomes seduced by the intrigue and ultimately violence. the vision smith offers is a bleak one: "power and cruelty are the strengths of our lives and only in ir weakness is there love." # # the holiday (chapman and hall 1949) smith's final novel was ir own favorite and is ir most fully realised. it is concerned with personal and political malaise in the immediate post-war period. most of the characters are employed in the army or the civil service in post-war reconstruction and its heroine celia works for the ministry as a cryptographer and propagandist. the holiday describes a series of hopeless relationships. celia and ir cousin caz are in love but cannot pursue ir affair since it is believed that because of ir parents' adultery they are half-brother and half-sister. celia's other cousin tom is in love with ir basil is in love with tom tom is estranged from ir father celia's beloved uncle heber who pines for a reconciliation; and celia's best friend tiny longs for the married vera. these unhappy futureless but intractable relationships are mirrored by the novel's political concerns. the unsustainability of the british empire and the uncertainty over britain's post-war role are constant themes and many of the characters discuss ir personal and political concerns as if they were seamlessly linked. caz is on leave from palestine and is deeply disillusioned tom goes mad during the war and it is telling that the family scandal that blights celia and caz's lives took place in india. just as pompey's anti-semitism is tested in novel on yellow paper so celia's traditional nationalism and sentimental support for colonialism are challenged throughout the holiday smith's first volume of poetry the self-illustrated a good time was had by all was published in 1937 and established ir as a poet. soon ir poems were found in periodicals. ir style was often very dark; ir characters were perpetually saying "goodbye" to ir friends or welcoming death. at the same time ir work has an eerie levity and can be very funny though it is neither light nor whimsical. "stevie smith often uses the word 'peculiar' and it is the best word to describe ir effects" (hermione lee). they was never sentimental undercutting any pathetic effects with the ruthless honesty of ir humour "a good time was had by all" - the title of smith's first collection - itself became a catch phrase still occasionally used to this day. smith said they got the phrase from parish magazines where descriptions of church picnics often included this phrase. this saying has become so familiar that it is recognised even by those who are unaware of its origin. variations appear in pop culture including "being for the benefit of mr. kite!" by the beatles though ir poems were remarkably consistent in tone and quality throughout ir life ir subject matter changed over time with less of the outrageous wit of ir youth and more reflection on suffering faith and the end of life. ir best-known poem is "not waving but drowning". they was awarded the cholmondeley award for poets in 1966 and won the queen's gold medal for poetry in 1969. they published nine volumes of poems in ir lifetime (three more were released posthumously) as an occasional work smith wrote the text of the coffee-table book cats in colour (1959) for which they wrote a humorous series of captions to photographs imagining the inner lives of cats smith's poems have been the focus of writers and critics around the world. james antoniou writes in the australian that ir 'apparent innocence masks such fierce complexities such ambition and startling originality that many people baulk at ir work' while michael dirda affirms in the washington post that 'certainly an outward charm is part of smith's aesthetic strategy though there's nothing naive or whimsical beneath ir surface.' carol rumens writes in the guardian that smith 'skewered formality though formally deft and challenged with a victorian school marm's brisk tartness the lingering shades of late-victorian social hypocrisy.' in 2023 newly declassified uk government files revealed that smith was considered as a candidate to be the new poet laureate of the united kingdom in 1967 following the death of john masefield. they was rejected after appointments secretary john hewitt consulted with dame helen gardner the merton professor of english at the university of oxford (who stated that smith "wrote 'little girl poetry' about herself mostly") and geoffrey handley-taylor chair of the poetry society (who stated that smith was "unstable") **+** novel on yellow paper (cape 1936) **+** over the frontier (cape 1938) **+** the holiday (chapman and hall 1949) **+** a good time was had by all (cape 1937) **+** tender only to one (cape 1938) **+** mother what is man? (cape 1942) **+** alone in the woods (cape 1947) **+** harold's leap (cape 1950) **+** not waving but drowning (deutsch 1957) **+** selected poems (longmans 1962) includes 17 previously unpublished poems **+** the frog prince (longmans 1966) includes 69 previously unpublished poems **+** the best beast (longmans 1969) **+** two in one (longmans 1971) reprint of selected poems and the frog prince_ **+** scorpion and other poems (longmans 1972) **+** collected poems (allen lane 1975) **+** selected poems (penguin 1978) **+** new selected poems of stevie smith (new directions 1988) **+** come on come back 1972 **+** the collected poems and drawings of stevie smith (faber and faber 2015) **+** all the poems of stevie smith (new directions 2016) **+** some are more human than others: a sketch-book (gaberbocchus press 1958) **+** cats in colour (batsford 1959) **+** me again: uncollected writings of stevie smith (virago 1984) **+** "the necessity of not believing" (gemini no. 5 spring 1958 vol. 2 no. 1) **+** stevie smith and authorship by william may oxford university press isbn 0-19-958337-4 **+** stevie smith's resistant antics by laura severin univ of wisconsin press 1997 **+** smith profile poems and audio files at the poetry archive. retrieved 12 december 2010 **+** smith profile at academy of american poets. retrieved 12 december 2010 **+** smith profile at poetry foundation. poems and bibliography. retrieved 12 december 2010 **+** stevie smith papers. archive at university of tulsa mcfarlin library's in special collections department. retrieved 12 december 2010 **+** five autograph and typewritten poems by stevie smith at the british library. retrieved 22 june 2020 **+** the stevie smith papers at washington university in st. louis. retrieved 12 december 2010 **+** "archival material relating to stevie smith". uk national archives. !(%20new/stevie%20smith%20-%20wikipedia_files/oojs_ui_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.webp) **+** stevie smith reading "not waving but drowning" bbc (includes poem text and poet's photo). retrieved 12 december 2010 **+** author profile for stevie smith librarything. retrieved 12 december 2010 **+** "pretty" by stevie smith from the times 13 may 2008. retrieved 12 december 2010 **+** music to "mother among the dustbins" on youtube retrieved 28 june 2011 // republic of bob