Part I: Youth. From the Royal College of Music to the army, 1911-1916. 1. The young genius ; 2. A waste of spirit in an expense of shame -- Part II: War. 3. First time in ; From Flanders to the Somme, 1916. 4. Most grand to die? ; The Somme, Rouen and back to Flanders, 1917. 5. The fool at arms ; 6. Even such is time ; Convalescence in Edinburgh, 1917. 7. A touch of gas -- Part III: Civilian. Season Delaval, Warrington and St Albans, 1917-1918. 8. To his love ; 9. Rather dead than mad ; The Royal College and Gloucester, 1919-1922. 10. A revenge of joy ; 11. Despairing work is the noblest refuge ; 12. Below the horizon -- Part IV: Asylum. Barnwood to Dartford, 1922-1924. 13. Praying for death ; 14. Asylum-made lunatics ; 15. Dark fire ; Dartford to Twigworth, 1925-1937. 16. The patient believes he is Shakespeare ; 17. A fear of obscurity (my own) ; 18. Afterword -- Appendices. Appendix A: A chronological catalogue of Gurney's musical works ; Appendix B: A chronological catalogue of Gurney's literary works.
Summary:
"Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) was a composer and poet. Originally a student of music, he took up poetry in the trenches of the First World War, and was working on what would be his first volume of verse when, in 1917, he suffered wounds to the shoulder; and it was just before publication of this volume, Severn & Somme, that he was gassed at Passchendaele. After his return to Britain he resumed his musical studies, availing himself briefly of the tutelage of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and quickly found outlets for his compositions. There is some debate about whether or not his subsequent mental illness was a consequence of the horrors and sufferings of the war; but mental illness marked the rest of his life, and indeed from about 1922 until his death he was institutionalised. In his last years he literally believed that he was William Shakespeare. He nevertheless continued to produce poems and musical compositions in prolific fashion, and his works in both areas are read and performed, respectively, to this day"-- Provided by publisher. Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) wrote some of the most anthologized poems of the First World War and composed some of the greatest works in the English song repertoire, such as "Sleep." Yet his life was shadowed by the trauma of the war and mental illness, and he spent his last fifteen years confined to a mental asylum. In Dweller in Shadows, Kate Kennedy presents the first comprehensive biography of this extraordinary and misunderstood artist. A promising student at the Royal College of Music, Gurney enlisted as a private with the Gloucestershire regiment in 1915 and spent two years in the trenches of the Western Front. Wounded in the arm and subsequently gassed during the Battle of Passchendaele, Gurney was recovering in hospital when his first collection of poems, Severn and Somme, was published. Despite episodes of depression, he resumed his music studies after the war until he was committed to an asylum in 1922. At times believing he was Shakespeare and that the "machines under the floor" were torturing him, he nevertheless continued to write and compose, leaving behind a vast body of unpublished work when he died of tuberculosis. Drawing on extensive archival research and spanning literary criticism, history, psychiatry and musicology, this compelling narrative sets Gurney's life and work against the backdrop of the war and his institutionalisation, probing the links between madness, suffering and creativity. Facing death in the trenches, Gurney hoped that history might not "forget me quite." This definitive account of his life and work helps ensure that he will indeed be remembered.
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