Ruthven Todd

2024-11-29T05:45:30Z

2001:8003:2742:3800:D84E:11DF:D6D9:7EB0: /* References */

{{Short description|Scottish poet, artist and novelist}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ruthven Todd
| image = Photo of Ruthven Todd.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|6|14|df=y}}
| birth_place = Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| death_date = {{death date and age|1978|10|11|1914|6|14|df=y}}
| death_place = Galilea, Spain
| nationality = Scottish-American
| alma_mater = Fettes College, Edinburgh College of Art
| other_names = R. T. Campbell
| occupation = writer, artist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse =
}}
'''Ruthven Campbell Todd''' (pronounced 'riven') (14 June 1914 – 11 October 1978) was a Scottish poet, artist and novelist, best known as an editor of the works of [[William Blake]], and expert on his printing techniques. During the 1940s he also wrote [[detective fiction]] under the pseudonym R. T. Campbell<ref name="jc">[[John Clute]],
"Todd, Ruthven", in ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'', edited by Clute and [[Peter Nicholls (writer)|Peter Nicholls]]. London, Orbit,1994. {{ISBN|1-85723-124-4}} (pp. 1299–1300).</ref>
<ref name="rtc">Peter Main, "The Novels of R.T. Campbell", in R.T. Campbell, ''Take Thee a Sharp Knife''. Stirling, Lomax Press, 2011, pp. 13–25. {{ISBN|978-0-9560288-4-6}}</ref> and children's fiction during the 1950s.

==Biography==
===Edinburgh and the early years===

Born in [[Edinburgh]],<ref name="pm" /><ref name="jg">Gordon Jarvie, "Ruthven Todd", ''Zed20 Magazine'', 23, pp. 46-53.</ref>
Todd was the eldest of the ten children of Walker Todd (an architect) and Christian Todd (née Craik). He was educated at [[Dalhousie School|Dalhousie Preparatory School]], [[Fettes College]] and [[Edinburgh College of Art]]. His short spell at art college convinced him that he had no creative talent as an artist and he thereafter pursued his ambition to become a poet and writer. At Fettes and at art college he had proved to be a rebellious teenager and he left college prematurely to be sent by his parents to work for two years as an agricultural labourer on the [[Isle of Mull]].<ref name="ftl">David Goldie and Roderick Watson, ''From the Line: Scottish War Poetry 1914–1945''. Glasgow; Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2014. {{ISBN|1906841160}} (p. 204)</ref> He then returned to Edinburgh to begin a career in copy-writing and journalism, while writing poetry and novels. He left Edinburgh for London in 1935.

===London and Essex===
He lived in a variety of types of accommodation in central London until the flat he was renting in Bloomsbury was hit by a flying bomb in 1944. He then moved to Tilty Mill House near [[Great Dunmow|Dunmow]] in Essex (later rented to poet and novelist [[Elizabeth Smart (author)|Elizabeth Smart]]).

During the 1930s, he had become friendly with [[Dylan Thomas]], [[Louis MacNeice]], [[Geoffrey Grigson]],<ref name="gg">Geoffrey Grigson, "Ruthven Todd", in Geoffrey Grigson, ''Recollections: Mainly of Artists and Writers''. London, Chatto and Windus, 1984, pp. 43-46. {{ISBN|978-0701127916}}</ref> [[Norman Cameron (poet)|Norman Cameron]], [[David Gascoyne]]<ref>Robert Fraser, ''Night Thoughts: The Surreal Life of the Poet David Gascoyne'' Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-19-955814-8}} (p. 245-6)</ref> and [[Len Lye]]. He became a life-long friend of [[Julian Symons]],<ref name="js">Julian Symons, "Ruthven Todd: Some Details for a Portrait", in Julian Symons, ''Critical Observations''. London, Faber and Faber, 1981, pp. 181-197. {{ISBN|0-571-11688-4}}</ref> and a character based on Todd was included in Symons' first detective story, ''[[The Immaterial Murder Case]]''. He also knew [[Wyndham Lewis]], contributing to the Lewis issue of [[Julian Symons]]'s ''Twentieth Century Verse''.<ref name="ftl" /> Lewis recruited Todd to keep awake the dozing [[Ezra Pound]], whose portrait Lewis was painting. He was secretary to the 1936 [[International Surrealist Exhibition]], during which he was memorably required to rescue [[Salvador Dalí]] from suffocating inside a heavy diving suit. In 1937 he worked for a period for [[Mass-Observation]] where he developed lasting friendships with [[Humphrey Jennings]] and [[Kathleen Raine]]. During this period, and throughout his life, Todd struggled to keep afloat financially and had to supplement a meagre and uncertain income from writing poetry and novels by writing reviews, tutoring and copy-writing.

Todd's two [[allegorical]] novels ''Over the Mountain'' (1939) and ''The Lost Traveller'' (1943) both feature protagonists on symbolic journeys; Todd acknowledged the influence of Lewis and [[Rex Warner]] on the latter novel.<ref name="jc" /> ''Over the Mountain'', a satire on fascism, has its hero travel to a [[dystopian]] nation with an oppressive government.<ref>Petra Rau, ''English Modernism, National Identity and the Germans: 1890 – 1950'' Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009. {{ISBN|0754656721}}, (p. 150).</ref> During [[World War II]] he was a [[conscientious objector]].<ref name="ftl" /> Near the start of the war, he began work on an ambitious project in collaboration with the William Blake expert [[Geoffrey Keynes|Sir Geoffrey Keynes]] to compile a [[catalogue raisonné]] of the artworks of William Blake. The project was to be abandoned in 1947, after Todd moved to New York, but not before a great deal had been achieved.

===United States===
Todd moved to the [[United States]] in 1947, where he lived for the next twelve years, becoming a US citizen in 1959. He resided initially in New York where he became friendly with the writers [[Alastair Reid (poet)|Alastair Reid]] and Howard Schoenfeld. He worked in the summer of 1947 at [[Stanley William Hayter]]'s [[Atelier 17]] printing workshop, where he collaborated with [[Joan Miró]] and other artists in experiments relating to William Blake's printing methods. He founded and ran the Weekend Press during the early 1950s, and received friendship and some financial support from [[W. H. Auden]]. He was one of the main participants in the events surrounding [[Dylan Thomas]]'s death in 1953.<ref name="pm">Peter Main, ''A Fervent Mind: The Life of Ruthven Todd''. Stirling, Lomax Press, 2018. {{ISBN|978-0-9929160-6-0}}</ref> In 1954 he moved to live on the island of Martha's Vineyard where he began to write children's fiction, with the launch of the ''Space Cat'' series.<ref name="jc" /> In 1959 he was commissioned by the Trustees of the Dylan Thomas Estate to write the official biography of Thomas. However, he was forced to abandon the work three years later {{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} and the job passed to [[Constantine Fitzgibbon]].

===Mallorca===
In 1960, Todd moved to [[Mallorca]], briefly living in the village of [[Deià]], where he became a friend of [[Robert Graves]], before settling at El Terreno in [[Palma de Mallorca]]. He moved in 1965 to the mountain village of Galilea where he spent the remainder of his life. During the 1970s he visited the US on a number of occasions to give lecture courses on Creative Writing and William Blake at the Universities of Buffalo and Maryland. He died in Galilea from [[emphysema]] in 1978.

The first biography of Ruthven Todd was published in 2018,<ref name="pm" /> and a bibliography of his works was published in 2020.<ref name="ct">Christopher Todd, rev. Peter Main and Forbes Gibb, ''Ruthven Todd (1914-1978) : A Finding List''. Stirling, Lomax Press, 2020. {{ISBN|978-0-9929160-7-7}}</ref>

==Personal life==

In 1937, Todd married Cicely Crew, daughter of the geneticist [[Francis Albert Eley Crew|Professor Francis Crew]]. They had one son, Christopher, born in 1939. The couple separated in 1943 and were divorced three years later. While living in New York in 1949, Todd was briefly and unsuccessfully married to Paula Norworth, before a third marriage to the artist and sculptor Joellen Hall in 1952.<ref>Horrocks, Roger (2001) ''Len Lye: A Biography'', Auckland University Press p250</ref> They divorced in 1956.

Todd had a lifelong interest in the natural world,<ref name="rtc2">Peter Main, "Ruthven Todd: Writer and Naturalist", in R.T. Campbell, ''The Death Cap''. Stirling, Lomax Press, 2013, pp. 9–20. {{ISBN|978-0-9560288-8-4}}</ref> particularly in plants and fungi, and was a knowledgeable amateur mycologist. He was also a highly skilled illustrator of wild flowers and fungi. He made some money from selling his drawings, but most were given away to friends.

From his teenage years and throughout his life, Todd was a chronic alcoholic. He underwent treatment for addiction in 1965, but this was only partially successful. He was also a chain-smoker and suffered from frequent bouts of pulmonary illness.<ref name="pm" />

==Bibliography==
===Novels===
*''Over the Mountain'' (Harrap, 1939)
*''The Lost Traveller'' ([[Grey Walls Press]], 1943)
*''Loser's Choice'' (Hermitage House, 1953)

===Poetry===
*''Ten Poems'' (privately printed, 1940)
*''Poems for Penny'' (privately printed, 1942)
*''Until Now'' (1942) [[Fortune Press]]
*''The Acreage of the Heart'' (William Maclellan, 1944)
*''The Planet in my Hand'' (privately printed, 1944)
*''The Planet in my Hand'' (Grey Walls Press, 1946) (different selection from 1944 version)
*''Two Poems: Christmas 1951'' (Weekend Press, 1951)
*''In Other Worlds'' (The Piper's Press, 1951)
*''Poem: 1954'' (privately printed, 1954)
*''A Mantelpiece of Shells'' (Bonacio and Saul, 1954)
*''Monotropa Uniflora'' (privately printed, 1955)
*''Funeral of a Child'' (privately printed, 1962)
*''Garland for the Winter Solstice'' (Dent, 1961)
*''The Geography of Faces'' (privately printed, 1965)
*''[[John Berryman]] 1914–1972'' (Poem of the Month Club, 1972)
*''Lament of the Cats of Rapallo'' (privately printed, 1973)
*''A Short Happy Poem for Marianne Moore'' (University of Buffalo, 1973)
*''A Godson Born in the 70s'' (privately printed, 1973)

===Detective fiction written under the pen-name of "R.T. Campbell"===
*''[[Unholy Dying]]'' (John Westhouse, 1945)
*''Take thee a Sharp Knife'' (John Westhouse, 1946)
*''Adventure with a Goat'' (John Westhouse, 1946)
*''Apollo Wore a Wig'' (John Westhouse, 1946)
*''[[Bodies in a Bookshop]]'' (John Westhouse, 1946)
*''[[Death for Madame]]'' (John Westhouse, 1946)
*''[[The Death Cap]]'' (John Westhouse, 1946)
*''[[Swing Low, Swing Death]]'' (John Westhouse, 1946)

===Children's books===
*''First Animal Book'' (Peter Lunn, 1946) juvenile verses accompanying [[Thomas Bewick]] engravings
*''Space Cat'' (Scribner's, 1952)
*''Trucks, Tractors, and Trailers'' (Putnam, 1954)
*''Space Cat Visits Venus'' (Scribner's, 1955)
*''Space Cat Meets Mars'' (Scribner's, 1957)
*''Space Cat and the Kittens'' (Scribner's, 1958)
*''Tan's Fish'' (Little, Brown and Co., 1958)

===Works as editor and contributor===
*''Proems'' ([[Fortune Press]], 1938) as contributor
*''Poets of Tomorrow'' ([[Hogarth Press]], 1939) as contributor
*''The Life of William Blake by [[Alexander Gilchrist]]'' (Dent, 1942) as editor
*''Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' (United Book Guild, 1947) as editor
*''William Blake: America, a prophecy'' (United Book Guild, 1947) as editor
*''A Century of British Painters'' (Phaidon Press, 1947) as editor, original authors [[Richard Redgrave]] and [[Samuel Redgrave]]
*''Christopher Smart: A Song to David and other poems'' (Grey Walls Press, 1947) as editor
*''William Blake: Poems'' (Grey Walls Press, 1949) as editor
*''Blake: Selected Poetry'' (Dell, 1960) as editor
*''Poetry of the Thirties'' (Penguin Books, 1964) as contributor

===Biographies, essays and miscellaneous===
*''The Laughing Mulatto'' (Rich and Cowan, [1940]) biography of [[Alexandre Dumas]]
*''Tracks in the Snow'' (Grey Walls Press, 1946) essays on [[William Blake]], [[Henry Fuseli]] and [[John Martin (painter)|John Martin]]
*''William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' (privately printed, 1941) folio of prints
*''The Tropical Fish Book'' (Fawcett, 1953)
*''Blake's Dante Plates'' (Book Collecting and Library Monthly, 1968)
*''William Blake: The Artist'' (Studio Vista, 1971)
*''The Ghost of Dylan Thomas'' (Happenstance Press, 2014) posthumously published memoir

== External links ==

* Archival Material at [https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/167092/ruthven_todd_correspondence_and_papers_relating_to Leeds University Library]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Ruthven}}
[[Category:Scottish novelists]]
[[Category:Scottish mystery writers]]
[[Category:Scottish science fiction writers]]
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:British conscientious objectors]]
[[Category:Scottish conscientious objectors]]
[[Category:People educated at Fettes College]]
[[Category:Surrealist poets]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art]]
[[Category:British anti-fascists]]
[[Category:Writers from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish poets]]
[[Category:Scottish male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish male writers]]
[[Category:Atelier 17 alumni]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]

Vero - Wikipedia - User contributions [en]

Ruthven Todd