Stevie Smith
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the writer best known for her poem Not Waving But Drowning, whose success has arguably overshadowed her wider work as a poet and novelist.
In 1957 Stevie Smith published a poetry collection called Not Waving But Drowning 鈥� 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.
With
Jeremy Noel-Tod
Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia
Noreen Masud
Lecturer in Twentieth Century Literature at the University of Bristol
and
Will May
Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of Southampton
The photograph above shows Stevie Smith recording her story Sunday at Home, a finalist in the 麻豆官网首页入口 Third Programme Short Story competition in 1949.
Last on
LINKS AND FURTHER READING
CONTRIBUTORS
READING LIST
Jane Dowson and Alice Entwistle, A History of Twentieth-Century British Women鈥檚 Poetry (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Jasmine Jagger, Rhythms of Feeling in Edward Lear, T.S. Eliot and Stevie Smith (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Sue Kennedy and Jane Thomson (eds.), British Women鈥檚 Writing, 1930 to 1960: Between the Waves (Liverpool University Press, 2023)
Noreen Masud, Stevie Smith and the Aphorism: Hard Language (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Will May, Stevie Smith and Authorship (Oxford University Press, 2010)
Stevie Smith (ed. Hermione Lee), Stevie Smith: A Selection (Faber and Faber, 2019)
Stevie Smith (ed. Will May), The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith (Faber and Faber, 2015)
Stevie Smith, The Spoken Word (British Library CD, 2009)
Stevie Smith (ed. Jack Barbera and William McBrien), Me Again: The Uncollected Writings of Stevie Smith, (Virago, 1983)
Stevie Smith, Novel on Yellow Paper (first published 1936; Virago, 1980)
Stevie Smith, Over the Frontier (first published 1938; Virago, 1980)
Stevie Smith, The Holiday (first published 1949; Virago, 1979)
Frances Spalding, Stevie Smith: A Biography (Sutton, 2002)
Frances Spalding, Stevie Smith: A Critical Introduction (Faber and Faber, 1988)
Sanford Sternlicht (ed.), In Search of Stevie Smith (Syracuse University Press, 1991)聽聽
RELATED LINKS
WH Auden and Stevie Smith in the pub in 1965 - 麻豆官网首页入口 Arts
Broadcasts
- Thu 16 Feb 2023 09:00麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 4
- Thu 16 Feb 2023 21:30麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 4
Featured in...
![]()
20th Century—In Our Time
Browse the 20th Century era within the In Our Time archive.
![]()
Culture—In Our Time
Popular culture, poetry, music and visual arts and the roles they play in our society.
In Our Time podcasts
Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive.
The In Our Time Listeners' Top 10
If you鈥檙e new to In Our Time, this is a good place to start.
Arts and Ideas podcast
Download the best of Radio 3's Free Thinking programme.
Podcast
-
![]()
In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.
