Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator.
His works are now included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum and The National Archives. In 2008, The Times named Peake among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". ==Early life== Mervyn Peake was born of British parents in Kuling (Lushan) in Jiangxi Province of central China in 1911, only three months before the revolution and the founding of the Republic of China.
His father, Ernest Cromwell Peake, was a medical missionary doctor with the London Missionary Society of the Congregationalist tradition, and his mother, Amanda Elizabeth Powell, had come to China as a missionary assistant. The Peakes were given leave to visit England just before World War I in 1914 and returned to China in 1916.
His father, Ernest Cromwell Peake, was a medical missionary doctor with the London Missionary Society of the Congregationalist tradition, and his mother, Amanda Elizabeth Powell, had come to China as a missionary assistant. The Peakes were given leave to visit England just before World War I in 1914 and returned to China in 1916.
Mervyn Peake attended Tientsin Grammar School until the family left for England in December 1922 via the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Peake completed his formal education at Croydon School of Art in the autumn of 1929 and then from December 1929 to 1933 at the Royal Academy Schools, where he first painted in oils.
In 1931 he had a painting accepted for display by the Royal Academy and exhibited his work with the so-called "Soho Group". ==Career== His early career in the 1930s was as a painter in London, although he lived on the Channel Island of Sark for a time.
In 1931 he had a painting accepted for display by the Royal Academy and exhibited his work with the so-called "Soho Group". ==Career== His early career in the 1930s was as a painter in London, although he lived on the Channel Island of Sark for a time.
He first moved to Sark in 1932 where his former teacher Eric Drake was setting up an artists' colony.
Peake completed his formal education at Croydon School of Art in the autumn of 1929 and then from December 1929 to 1933 at the Royal Academy Schools, where he first painted in oils.
In 1934 Peake exhibited with the Sark artists both in the Sark Gallery built by Drake and at the Cooling Galleries in London, and in 1935 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Leger Galleries in London. In 1936 he returned to London and was commissioned to design the sets and costumes for The Insect Play and his work was acclaimed in The Sunday Times.
In 1934 Peake exhibited with the Sark artists both in the Sark Gallery built by Drake and at the Cooling Galleries in London, and in 1935 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Leger Galleries in London. In 1936 he returned to London and was commissioned to design the sets and costumes for The Insect Play and his work was acclaimed in The Sunday Times.
In 1934 Peake exhibited with the Sark artists both in the Sark Gallery built by Drake and at the Cooling Galleries in London, and in 1935 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Leger Galleries in London. In 1936 he returned to London and was commissioned to design the sets and costumes for The Insect Play and his work was acclaimed in The Sunday Times.
1949). He had a very successful exhibition of paintings at the Calmann Gallery in London in 1938 and his first book, the self-illustrated children's pirate romance Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (based on a story he had written around 1936) was first published in 1939 by Country Life.
He also began teaching life drawing at Westminster School of Art where he met the painter Maeve Gilmore, whom he married in 1937.
1949). He had a very successful exhibition of paintings at the Calmann Gallery in London in 1938 and his first book, the self-illustrated children's pirate romance Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (based on a story he had written around 1936) was first published in 1939 by Country Life.
1949). He had a very successful exhibition of paintings at the Calmann Gallery in London in 1938 and his first book, the self-illustrated children's pirate romance Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (based on a story he had written around 1936) was first published in 1939 by Country Life.
In December 1939 he was commissioned by Chatto & Windus to illustrate a children's book, Ride a Cock Horse and Other Nursery Rhymes, published for the Christmas market in 1940. ===Enlistment=== At the outbreak of World War II he applied to become a war artist for he was keen to put his skills at the service of his country.
In December 1939 he was commissioned by Chatto & Windus to illustrate a children's book, Ride a Cock Horse and Other Nursery Rhymes, published for the Christmas market in 1940. ===Enlistment=== At the outbreak of World War II he applied to become a war artist for he was keen to put his skills at the service of his country.
He began writing Titus Groan at this time. In April 1942, after his requests for commissions as a war artist – or even leave to depict war damage in London – had been consistently refused, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to Southport Hospital.
In 1943 he was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, to paint glassblowers at the Chance Brothers factory in Smethwick where cathode ray tubes for early radar sets were being produced.
Some of these paintings are on permanent display in Manchester Art Gallery whilst other examples are in the Imperial War Museum collection. ===Illustration and writing=== The five years between 1943 and 1948 were some of the most productive of his career.
On the advice of Graham Greene, who told him that paperback books were a passing fad that would not last, Peake opted for the £10. A book of nonsense poems, Rhymes Without Reason, was published in 1944 and was described by John Betjeman as "outstanding".
without Reason 1944, The Glassblowers (1950), The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (1962), Poems & Drawings (1965), and A Reverie of Bone (1967).
His works are now included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum and The National Archives. In 2008, The Times named Peake among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". ==Early life== Mervyn Peake was born of British parents in Kuling (Lushan) in Jiangxi Province of central China in 1911, only three months before the revolution and the founding of the Republic of China.
Shortly after the war ended in 1945, Edgar Ainsworth, the art editor of Picture Post, commissioned Peake to visit France and Germany for the magazine.
He made several drawings, but not surprisingly he found the experience profoundly harrowing, and expressed in deeply felt poems the ambiguity of turning their suffering into art. In 1946 the family moved to Sark, where Peake continued to write and illustrate, and Maeve painted.
Some of these paintings are on permanent display in Manchester Art Gallery whilst other examples are in the Imperial War Museum collection. ===Illustration and writing=== The five years between 1943 and 1948 were some of the most productive of his career.
Gormenghast was published in 1950, and the family moved back to England, settling in Smarden, Kent.
Mr Pye was published in 1953, and he later adapted it as a radio play.
The BBC broadcast other plays of his in 1954 and 1956. ==Later life== In 1956 Mervyn and Maeve visited Spain, financed by a friend who hoped that Peake's health, which was already declining, would be improved by the holiday.
The BBC broadcast other plays of his in 1954 and 1956. ==Later life== In 1956 Mervyn and Maeve visited Spain, financed by a friend who hoped that Peake's health, which was already declining, would be improved by the holiday.
Peake placed much hope in his play The Wit to Woo, which was finally staged in London's West End in 1957, but it was a critical and commercial failure.
Among his last completed works were the illustrations for Balzac's Droll Stories (1961) and for his own poem The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (1962), which he had written some 15 years earlier. Titus Alone was published in 1959 and was revised in 1970 by Langdon Jones, editor of New Worlds, to remove apparent inconsistencies introduced by the publisher's careless editing.
A 1995 edition of all three completed Gormenghast novels includes a very short fragment of the beginning of what would have been the fourth Gormenghast novel, Titus Awakes, as well as a listing of events and themes he wanted to address in that and later Gormenghast novels. ==Death== Throughout the 1960s, Peake's health declined into physical and mental incapacitation, and he died on 17 November 1968 at a care home run by his brother-in-law, at Burcot, near Oxford.
Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator.
A 1995 edition of all three completed Gormenghast novels includes a very short fragment of the beginning of what would have been the fourth Gormenghast novel, Titus Awakes, as well as a listing of events and themes he wanted to address in that and later Gormenghast novels. ==Death== Throughout the 1960s, Peake's health declined into physical and mental incapacitation, and he died on 17 November 1968 at a care home run by his brother-in-law, at Burcot, near Oxford.
Among his last completed works were the illustrations for Balzac's Droll Stories (1961) and for his own poem The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (1962), which he had written some 15 years earlier. Titus Alone was published in 1959 and was revised in 1970 by Langdon Jones, editor of New Worlds, to remove apparent inconsistencies introduced by the publisher's careless editing.
After his death came Selected Poems (1972), followed by Peake's Progress in 1979 – though the Penguin edition of 1982, with many corrections, including a whole stanza inadvertently omitted from the hardback edition.
It also starred Paul Rhys, Miranda Richardson, James Fleet, Tamsin Greig, Fenella Woolgar, Adrian Scarborough and Mark Benton among others. Sting owned the film rights to the Gormenghast novels for a brief period in the 1980s, during which he discussed the possibility of adapting the novels into a series of concept albums, but he abandoned the idea after declaring the Radio 4 audio drama as ideal.
This idea of the infinite, of the unreal, of the innocence dying..." — Robert Smith, 2003 (about the Peake character that inspired the early Cure song "The Drowning Man" in 1980) ==References== ===Further reading=== Clements, Warren, ed.
After his death came Selected Poems (1972), followed by Peake's Progress in 1979 – though the Penguin edition of 1982, with many corrections, including a whole stanza inadvertently omitted from the hardback edition.
This was the first to include the third book Titus Alone. In 1984, BBC Radio 4 broadcast two 90-minute plays based on Titus Groan and Gormenghast, adapted by Brian Sibley and starring Sting as Steerpike and Freddie Jones as the Artist (narrator).
BBC 7 repeated the original versions on 21 and 28 September 2003. In 1986, Mr Pye was adapted as a four-part Channel 4 miniseries starring Derek Jacobi. In 2000, the BBC and WGBH Boston co-produced a lavish miniseries, titled Gormenghast, based on the first two books of the series.
A slightly abridged compilation of the two, running to 160 minutes, and entitled Titus Groan of Gormenghast, was broadcast on Christmas Day, 1992.
A 1995 edition of all three completed Gormenghast novels includes a very short fragment of the beginning of what would have been the fourth Gormenghast novel, Titus Awakes, as well as a listing of events and themes he wanted to address in that and later Gormenghast novels. ==Death== Throughout the 1960s, Peake's health declined into physical and mental incapacitation, and he died on 17 November 1968 at a care home run by his brother-in-law, at Burcot, near Oxford.
It was set in a "virtual" computer-generated world created by young computer game designers, and starred Jack Ryder (from EastEnders) as Titus, with Terry Jones (Monty Python's Flying Circus) narrating. Irmin Schmidt, founder of seminal German Krautrock group Can, wrote an opera called Gormenghast, based on the novels; it was first performed in Wuppertal, Germany, in November 1998.
BBC 7 repeated the original versions on 21 and 28 September 2003. In 1986, Mr Pye was adapted as a four-part Channel 4 miniseries starring Derek Jacobi. In 2000, the BBC and WGBH Boston co-produced a lavish miniseries, titled Gormenghast, based on the first two books of the series.
The supporting cast included Olga Sosnovska, Stephen Fry and Eric Sykes, and the series is also notable as the last screen performance by comedy legend Spike Milligan (as the Headmaster). A 30-minute TV short film A Boy in Darkness (also made in 2000 and adapted from Peake's novella) was the first production from the BBC Drama Lab.
He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in the village of Burpham, Sussex. A 2003 study published in JAMA Neurology assessed that Peake's death was the result of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). His work, especially the Gormenghast series, became much better known and more widely appreciated after his death.
BBC 7 repeated the original versions on 21 and 28 September 2003. In 1986, Mr Pye was adapted as a four-part Channel 4 miniseries starring Derek Jacobi. In 2000, the BBC and WGBH Boston co-produced a lavish miniseries, titled Gormenghast, based on the first two books of the series.
This idea of the infinite, of the unreal, of the innocence dying..." — Robert Smith, 2003 (about the Peake character that inspired the early Cure song "The Drowning Man" in 1980) ==References== ===Further reading=== Clements, Warren, ed.
His works are now included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum and The National Archives. In 2008, The Times named Peake among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". ==Early life== Mervyn Peake was born of British parents in Kuling (Lushan) in Jiangxi Province of central China in 1911, only three months before the revolution and the founding of the Republic of China.
The Collected Poems of Mervyn Peake was published by Carcanet Press in June 2008.
Revised and enlarged in 2009 as Mervyn Peake's Vast Alchemies.
An extremely expensive limited edition of the collected works, issued to celebrate Peake's centenary year, was published by Queen Anne Press, but the editing and reproduction of drawings did not match the price asked. ==Archive== In 2010 an archive consisting of 28 containers of material, which included correspondence between Peake and Laurie Lee, Walter de la Mare and C.
Toronto: Nestlings Press, 2020.
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