Norman Nicholson - Beyond Lakeland
| Dates: | 9 February 2016 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 17:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | John Rylands Research Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Alumni, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Dr Antoinette Fawcett |
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Norman Nicholson (1914-1987) was an English poet and writer who was known for his lifelong connection to the small industrial town of Millom on the west coast of Cumbria. Although his work is clearly rooted in the local, he is far from being a merely local poet. His books of poetry, his dramas, and his charmingly written autobiography Wednesday Early Closing were all published by Faber and Faber; his topographical works by the publishers Robert Hale; and his many critical reviews and essays by a range of leading journals, including the Times Literary Supplement, The Church Times, The Listener and John O’London’s. Nicholson was also the recipient of a number of prestigious awards and prizes, amongst these the Heinemann Award, the Cholmondeley Award, the Queen’s Medal, an OBE, and several honorary degrees, including one from Manchester University. It is not surprising, therefore, that his work was also known abroad, not only in English-speaking countries such as Canada or the US, but also in non-Anglophone countries.
The John Rylands Library has important and extensive collections of materials relating to the life and work of Norman Nicholson, including The Norman Nicholson Papers, Papers from the Norman Nicholson Book Collection, Papers of Doreen Cornthwaite relating to Norman Nicholson, The Matt Simpson Collection of Norman Nicholson Letters, and the Norman Nicholson Book Collection itself. Many of these materials are recent acquisitions and have not yet been studied in any real detail, while even the original deposits remain relatively unexamined.
Dr. Antoinette Fawcett will introduce the audience to Nicholson’s work and then focus on two major aspects of the materials she has already examined in the Norman Nicholson Archive and the Norman Nicholson Book Collection: the evidence for the reception of Nicholson’s poetic drama The Old Man of the Mountains in Denmark; and the evidence for Nicholson’s relationship with the Italian language and culture and his reception in Italy.
Antoinette has been working on archival materials in the John Rylands Library since mid-January 2016, so the research she presents is very much a work in progress, but it is fresh and exciting in extending the range of what is commonly known about Nicholson’s work, and should help to contribute to the recent upsurge of academic and general interest in Nicholson’s life and writings.
Speaker
Dr Antoinette Fawcett
Role: Visiting Research Fellow
Biography: Antoinette Fawcett is an independent scholar with links to the Universities of East Anglia and Newcastle and a lifetime of professional involvement with English and World Literature. She obtained her PhD in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2014 with a study of the process involved in her translation of poems by the Dutch Modernist poets Martinus Nijhoff (1894-1953) and Gerrit Achterberg (1905-1962). She is a founding member of the Norman Nicholson Society and editor of Comet, its newsletter-journal.
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
Christie Room
John Rylands Research Institute and Library
150 Deansgate
Manchester
Gtr Manchester
