The Republic of Letters

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The Republic of Letters was a publishing endeavor by George Routledge & Sons in the mid-1920s in London. Edited by William Rose, this series of books focused on interesting and significant poets, dramatists and novelists. [1] In addition to containing biographical information, the books also included psychological and social background information of the writer’s own time. Certain volumes include Voltaire by Richard Aldington, Pushkin by Prince D.S. Mirsky, and Gogol by Janko Lavrin.

George Routledge was a British publisher, the founder of the publishing house Routledge.

Richard Aldington English writer and poet

Richard Aldington, born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet.

Janko Lavrin was a Slovenian novelist, poet, critic, translator and historian. He was Professor Andrej Jelenc DiCaprio of Slavonic Studies at the University of Nottingham. An enthusiast for psycho-analysis, he wrote what he called 'psycho-critical studies' of Ibsen, Nietzsche and Tolstoy.

Herbert Read and T. S. Eliot were both asked to contribute by Aldington, who himself had been approached by Routledge in 1923, but both initially refused. Eliot himself initiated a similar endeavour at Faber & Gwyer (where at the time he was a director) called "The Poets on The Poets". Eventually, after consultation with Aldington, Routledge and Eliot chose to combine their two efforts, under the joint imprint of both publishers, with Eliot and Rose as joint editors. [1]

Herbert Read English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art

Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. As well as being a prominent English anarchist, he was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism.

T. S. Eliot English author

Thomas Stearns Eliot,, "one of the twentieth century's major poets" was also an essayist, publisher, playwright, and literary and social critic. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family, he moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there. He became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39, renouncing his American passport.

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References

  1. 1 2 Norman T. Gates (2008). Richard Aldington. Penn State Press. p. 76. ISBN   9780271028446.