Andrew Young Correspondence

John Arlott

103 letters, 16 postcards, and 1 Christmas card from Young to Arlott, 1943-70 (E93.58, Folder 2)

Andrew Young first met John Arlott (1914-1991) in 1943, when Arlott requested permission to use some of his poems in the anthology First Time in America. Arlott soon became a firm family friend and a frequent visitor to Young’s home at Stonegate, Sussex. He devoted much time to assisting Young with his literary career, reading and commenting on manuscripts and proofs, writing enthusiastic reviews of Young’s works, and conducting negotiations with publishers on Young’s behalf. As a producer for the BBC Overseas (Eastern) Service, Arlott also arranged for Young to give talks on both literary topics (Robert Burns, Edward Thomas, W. H. Hudson, Beaumont and Fletcher) and botanical themes, and for his morning service in Stonegate Church to be broadcast on Christmas Day 1946. Arlott himself gave two BBC Radio talks on Young’s poetry in 1946 and 1947.

Many of the letters from Young to Arlott thank him for assistance in commenting on manuscripts, reading proofs, and arranging for the publication of his works. In particular, reference is made to Arlott’s help in persuading Jonathan Cape to publish Young’s A Prospect of Flowers (1944) and Collected Poems (1950), and in negotiating Young’s move to Hart-Davis when Cape turned down the long religious poem Into Hades (1952). In other letters, Young gives his opinion on books loaned or given to him by Arlott, and comments favourably on Arlott’s own publications and broadcasts. There are also discussions of arrangements for BBC radio broadcasts presented by Young and produced by Arlott, and for many personal and business visits. Mutual friends mentioned in the letters include John Betjeman, Richard Church, and Viola Meynell.

John Freeman

29 letters from Young to Freeman, 1924-28 (E93.58, Folder 2)

John Freeman (1880-1929) was a leading Georgian poet whom Andrew Young regarded as his literary mentor. Young made his acquaintance in the early 1920s when both belonged to a group of writers that frequented Tibbald Restaurant in London. Freeman helped Young in getting his work published in newspapers and journals, notably the London Mercury, to which Freeman was a regular contributor. Freeman was also an influential advocate of Young’s poetry, publishing a positive review of Young’s The Bird-Cage in The Bookman (March 1927). When Freeman died suddenly in 1929, Young conducted his funeral.

In his letters to Freeman, Andrew Young ask for comments on poems which would eventually be collected in The Bird-Cage (1926) and requests advice and assistance in publishing them in the periodical press. Young also comments favourably on Freeman's publications including A Portrait of George Moore (1922), Prince Absalom (1925), Solomon and Balkis (1926), and Collected Poems (1928). He discusses writers that both poets admire including Wordsworth, George Crabbe, Thomas Hardy, Robert Bridges, and Charles Doughty. Young also shares with Freeman religious doubts that would eventually see him convert from Presbyterianism to Anglicanism and sets out his belief that 'civilization' is a result of man's fall from grace with God. On a lighter note, there are accounts of holidays in the Lake District and Islay which reveal Young's growing passion for wild-flowers.