Mervyn Peake's Vast Alchemies The Definitive Illustrated Biography

by Winnington, G. Peter

• ISBN13: 9780720613414
• ISBN10: 0720613418
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-01
• Publisher: AMAZON

Summary

This book is the result of twenty-five years of research into Peake's life and work. It follows Peake, the son of missionary parents, from China to art school in London and his time in an artists' colony in the Channel Islands. It covers in detail his experiences in the army during the Second World War - an unhappy period during which he wrote Titus Groan and the huge influence that his visit to the newly liberated concentration camp at Belsen had on his work. The next ten years of his life were without doubt his most productive but by the mid-1950s he was beginning to show signs of the degenerative illness that eventually killed him in 1968. Previously published in hardback in 1999, this radically revised edition examines the novels, poems, illustrations, and plays and discusses how Peake's life and experiences were channeled through his unique imagination into his work.

Author Biography

G. Peter Winnington is the leading authority on Peake's life and work, in addition to editing Peake Studies he has published a study of the working of Peake's imagination, The Voice of the Heart (2006), and edited Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art (also published by Peter Owen). He lives in Switzerland.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the New Edition	p. 7
Foreword	p. 9
Acknowledgements	p. 13
Preface	p. 15
Abbreviations and Editions Employed	p. 18
China, 1898-1922
Dr Peake and Bessie Powell, 1898-1911	p. 25
Growing Up in Tientsin, 1912-1922	p. 37
Education, 1923-1934
Eltham College, 1923-1929	p. 53
Art Schools, 1929-1933	p. 61
Sark, 1933-1934	p. 75
Making a Reputation, 1935-1939
Mr Slaughterboard, 1935	p. 93
Maeve, 1936	p. 103
Engagement, 1937	p. 117
Married Life, 1938-1939	p. 125
The Golden Decade, 1940-1949
Warningcamp, 1940	p. 139
Dartford and Blackpool, 1940-1941	p. 151
Blackpool to Clitheroe, 1941-1942	p. 163
Southport, 1942	p. 181
London, 1942-1945	p. 185
Belsen, 1945	p. 199
Tims Groan, 1946	p. 209
Sark, 1946-1949	p. 221
Losing die Struggle, 1950-1968
Smarden, 1950-1952	p. 233
Wallington, 1953-1960	p. 243
Chelsea, 1960-1968	p. 267
Notes	p. 273
Bibliography	p. 291
Index	p. 299
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.