An on line discussion of books that have been or are currently being read by members of the Audubon Naturalist Society Conservation Philosophy Reading Group. We choose books, old and new, that collectively constitute the intellectual underpinnings of conservation philosophy.
The following two comments were contributed by Kent Minichiello:
Greetings All, This document is for those interested in the writings of Henry Williamson, who wrote the group’s June book Tarka the Otter. At recent group meetings I have advised those interested in HW’s life history to read the Wikipedia entry on him as that relieves me of the task of including it here; the article covers the basics of his life and lists his books. I believe that there is little overlap between that article and this, as I wish to write about his literary writings. Despite not having a university education HW became a professional writer, writing for newspapers and magazines and publishing over fifty novels during his life. His 15 volume autobiographical novel sequence A Chronical of Ancient Sunlight, written in the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s, differs from his life in major ways and in particular details. So reading for insights into HW’s character and particular actions, events, and experiences must be combined with information from other sources including the one full-length biography of him (Henry Williamson: Tarka and the Last Romantic, written by Anne Williamson, his youngest daughter-in-law). One seeking a broad experience (with a minimum of reading) of HW’s writing-style, subjects, philosophy, and attitudes should read his Tales of Moorland Estuary, 1953, which is a book about village life in Devon and contains some natural history vignettes and information. In 1927 HW published Tarka the Otter, the success of which gave him enduring fame; this was not all together a good thing, for he was constantly under pressure to repeat what was an unrepeatable achievement. Tarka won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 1928, what I view as a well-deserved tribute not only to the book and author but the genre of Nature Writing; I have read in multiple sources that say this prize was at the time England’s highest literary award. Supposedly HW went through 17 drafts before publication; years ago Marcia and I listened to a books-on-tape recording of Tarka with a text of the 1980 American edition in hand; there were several, minor differences (confined to word choice) thus showing that he continued to revise the text after first publication. In the text below I will discuss the following: 1. Williamson’s personal philosophies. 2. Genres in which he wrote; 3. Themes of his various nature writings; 4. Problems in reading HW’s novels.
1. Williamson’s Personal Philosophy: In 1919 he read Richard Jefferies’ The Story of My Heart, which is a lengthy philosophical essay. It presents a personal philosophy which Jefferies maintains is “above” deistic religions and appears to be founded on the existence of The Spirit which is a life force active throughout creation. HW often refers to this Spirit in his nature writing, ascribing actions and even existence to this force; he believes that it motivates animals to procreate and that this is a desire for immortality. HW follows Richard Jefferies in believing that emotions and desires are common to humans, other animals, and even inanimate things. He is quite clear and unembarrassed about this belief and animates {you knew that was coming} his writing by extreme anthropomorphism; readers must suspend disbelief and participate as far as they can to get the full pleasure out of HW’s books as we do with Kipling’s Jungle Books or Doctor Dolittle. (continued in next comment)
(continued from previous comment by Kent Minichiello)
2.Genres: Williamson wrote important and popular novels in several genres including 1] WWI Combat: the experience of First World War combat seen from the participant’s point of view. Some people think that these writings are among the finest of their kind; I agree, but read at risk to your emotional health: these books and chapters in other books describe the horrors of combat beyond what we have experienced in recent films. 2] Natural History Novels in which the main characters and many subsidiary characters are English animals. These novels all also include substantial episodes and characters of contemporary rural village life. 3] Stories of Village Life. HW wrote many, many articles for newspapers and magazines which were short stories, or impressions, or reportage about the villages that he lived in in both Devon and Norfolk; these he expanded and transformed into chapters of several books as well as several full-length books. They also provided characters for his other works of fiction. 4] Novels of Family Biography and Autobiography: According to HW himself, following his own antiwar goals in writing and Jefferies philosophy, his first novel sequence (The Flax of Dreams) and 15 volume sequence (A Chronical of Ancient Sunlight) are meant to show the world the Truth by revealing family history, and so to bring Peace to all. It is too bad it did not work. 3.Themes in Nature Writing: Williamson was opposed to war, in part because it destroyed nature and the natural order (that is, it was a force against Spirit). After WWI he was initially a pacifist and then became a believer that all European wars were avoidable. HW was a traditionalist and wished to restore England to national greatness and its people to physical and moral health by returning its agriculture to the yeoman, Medieval model. So: Throughout HW’s writings we find him explicitly taking people to task for despoiling nature though war, chemical pollution, and dumping unwanted refuse in the environment. Waste is also targeted as a general human fault. Modern agriculture, particularly chemical fertilizer and pesticides and field-edge-to-field-edge cropping are shown to have bad effects on humans, animals, and the soil. HW follows Jefferies in deriving love as a major theme from Jefferies’ concept of Spirit: from this it follows by a twisting path that “creative people” (that is creative men) are entitled to the love and support of late-teenage helpmates (note the plural) who may have been known to them as girls; hence, the girl in the last chapter of Tarka. [Don’t think either I or HW crazy: there is a short story in Mooreland making this clear to all his readers; as for HW not being crazy, he had such a helpmate, Ann Thomas, who got on well with his wife, worked her way up from copyist to managing agent and editor, and with whom he had a child. (Later she married someone else but continued a friendship with HW.)
4.Problems in Reading Williamson. I find HW is generally easy to read. However, he tended to introduce ideas as they struck him during otherwise cogent sentences; And although he often set these interpolations off with dashes, he sometimes used commas or even no punctuation at all, making the reader’s task somewhat irksome. Williamson’s Obstinacy: HW was exceptionally obstinate which caused him to maintain two contradictory ideas even in the same sentence; Just shake your head and read on. There are problems with HW’s use of dialects, his coinages and unusual usages, and his inventions which are not recognizable as new words (thus distinguished from coinages). The English Language of the first quarter of the 20 th Century and of the lower middle class English even more so. But I find no more a problem than, say, with Faulkner. Mistakes: HW was not a naturalist and so far as I know had no training or formal education in natural history. So one expects some errors.
3 comments:
Three chapters into this classic I thought I was watching a nature film. David Attenborough's voice was audible in the background of my mind.
The following two comments were contributed by Kent Minichiello:
Greetings All,
This document is for those interested in the writings of Henry Williamson, who wrote the group’s June book Tarka the Otter. At recent group meetings I have advised those interested in HW’s life history to read the Wikipedia entry on him as that relieves me of
the task of including it here; the article covers the basics of his life and lists his books. I believe that there is little overlap between that article and this, as I wish to write about his literary writings.
Despite not having a university education HW became a professional writer, writing for newspapers and magazines and publishing over fifty novels during his life. His 15 volume autobiographical novel sequence A Chronical of Ancient Sunlight, written in the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s, differs from his life in major ways and in particular details. So reading for insights into HW’s character and particular actions, events, and experiences must be combined with information from other sources including the one full-length biography of him (Henry Williamson: Tarka and the Last Romantic, written by Anne Williamson, his youngest daughter-in-law).
One seeking a broad experience (with a minimum of reading) of HW’s writing-style, subjects, philosophy, and attitudes should
read his Tales of Moorland Estuary, 1953, which is a book about village life in Devon and contains some natural history vignettes and information.
In 1927 HW published Tarka the Otter, the success of which gave him enduring fame; this was not all together a good thing, for he was constantly under pressure to repeat what was an unrepeatable achievement. Tarka won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 1928, what I view as a well-deserved tribute not only to the book and author but the genre of Nature Writing; I have read in multiple sources that say this prize was at the time England’s highest literary award. Supposedly HW went through 17
drafts before publication; years ago Marcia and I listened to a books-on-tape recording of Tarka with a text of the 1980 American edition in hand; there were several, minor differences (confined to word choice) thus showing that he continued to revise the text
after first publication.
In the text below I will discuss the following: 1. Williamson’s personal philosophies. 2. Genres in which he wrote; 3. Themes of his various nature writings; 4. Problems in reading HW’s novels.
1. Williamson’s Personal Philosophy: In 1919 he read Richard Jefferies’ The Story of My Heart, which is a lengthy philosophical essay. It presents a personal philosophy which Jefferies maintains is “above” deistic religions and appears to be founded on the existence of The Spirit which is a life force active throughout creation. HW often refers to this Spirit in his nature writing, ascribing actions and even existence to this force; he believes that it motivates animals to procreate and that this is a desire for immortality. HW follows Richard Jefferies in believing that emotions and desires are common to humans, other animals, and even inanimate things. He is quite clear and unembarrassed about this belief and animates {you knew that was coming} his writing by extreme anthropomorphism; readers must suspend disbelief and participate as far as they can to get the full pleasure out of HW’s books as we do with Kipling’s Jungle Books or Doctor Dolittle.
(continued in next comment)
(continued from previous comment by Kent Minichiello)
2.Genres: Williamson wrote important and popular novels in several genres including 1] WWI Combat: the experience of First World War combat seen from the participant’s point of view. Some people think that these writings are among the finest of their kind; I agree, but read at risk to your emotional health: these books and chapters in other books describe the horrors of combat beyond what we have experienced in recent films. 2] Natural History Novels in which the main characters and many subsidiary characters are English animals. These novels all also include substantial episodes and characters of contemporary rural village life. 3] Stories of Village Life. HW wrote many, many articles for newspapers and magazines which were short stories, or impressions, or reportage about the villages that he lived in in both Devon and Norfolk; these he expanded and transformed into chapters of several books as well as several full-length books. They also provided characters for his other works of fiction. 4] Novels of Family Biography and Autobiography: According to HW himself, following his own antiwar goals in writing and Jefferies philosophy, his first novel sequence (The Flax of Dreams) and 15 volume sequence (A Chronical of Ancient Sunlight) are meant to show the world the Truth by revealing family history, and so to bring Peace to all. It is too bad it did not work.
3.Themes in Nature Writing: Williamson was opposed to war, in part because it destroyed nature and the natural order (that is, it was a force against Spirit). After WWI he was initially a pacifist and then became a believer that all European wars were avoidable. HW was a traditionalist and wished to restore England to national
greatness and its people to physical and moral health by returning its agriculture to the yeoman, Medieval model. So: Throughout HW’s writings we find him explicitly taking people to task for despoiling nature though war, chemical pollution, and dumping unwanted refuse in the environment. Waste is also targeted as a general human fault. Modern agriculture, particularly chemical fertilizer and pesticides and field-edge-to-field-edge cropping are shown to have bad effects on humans, animals, and the soil. HW follows Jefferies in deriving love as a major theme from Jefferies’ concept of Spirit: from this it follows by a twisting path that “creative people” (that is creative men) are entitled to the love and support of late-teenage helpmates (note the plural) who may
have been known to them as girls; hence, the girl in the last chapter of Tarka. [Don’t think either I or HW crazy: there is a short story in Mooreland making this clear to all his readers; as for HW not being crazy, he had such a helpmate, Ann Thomas, who got on well with his wife, worked her way up from copyist to managing agent and editor, and with whom he had a child. (Later she married someone else but continued a friendship with HW.)
4.Problems in Reading Williamson. I find HW is generally easy to read. However, he tended to introduce ideas as they struck him during otherwise cogent sentences; And although he often set these interpolations off with dashes, he sometimes used commas or even no punctuation at all, making the reader’s task somewhat irksome.
Williamson’s Obstinacy: HW was exceptionally obstinate which caused him to maintain two contradictory ideas even in the same sentence; Just shake your head and read on. There are problems with HW’s use of dialects, his coinages and unusual usages, and his inventions which are not recognizable as new words (thus distinguished from coinages). The English Language of the first quarter of the 20 th Century and of the lower middle class English even more so. But I find no more a problem than, say, with Faulkner.
Mistakes: HW was not a naturalist and so far as I know had no training or formal education in natural history. So one expects some errors.
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