The Modern Novel

Biography

David Gascoyne was born in Harrow, Middlesex, in 1926. His father worked in a bank and often moved around. However, like the father in Opening Day, he eventually settled in Richmond, Surrey. Unlike the father in Opening Day, he accepted his son’s artistic leanings. After school and attending the Regent Street Polytechnic, Gascoyne spent some time in Paris. By that time, he had already published a collection of poetry and a novel. However, it was not till the late Thirties, after publications of further poems and his involvement in the Surrealist movement and publication of a history of surrealism, that his reputation rose, not least because of the small number of British writers involved in surrealism. At this time, he also joined the Communist Party. Breton expelled him from the Surrealist movement, when his poems took on a more religious tone. After the war, things were more difficult. He had a nervous breakdown and wrote little after that, spending the rest of his life on the Isle of Wight. Works that appeared had generally been written earlier, though Night Thoughts was commissioned by the BBC and well received. However, after marrying Judy Lewis, whom he met in hospital, some later work was written. He died in 2001. His work is now mainly forgotten.

Books about David Gascoyne

Robert Fraser: Night Thoughts: the Surreal Life of the Poet David Gascoyne

Other web sites

David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne, Surrealism and the Vanishing Muse
Night Thoughts: The Surreal Life of the Poet David Gascoyne by Robert Fraser (review of Fraser biography)
Obituary
Obituary
Obituary
Poems
French surrealist poetry in English translation by David Gascoyne