Forrest Reid (born 24 June 1875,

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, Ireland; d. 4 January 1947,

Warrenpoint Warrenpoint ( ga, An Pointe) is a small port town and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits at the head of Carlingford Lough, south of Newry, and is separated from the Republic of Ireland by a narrow strait. The town is beside t ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland) was an Irish novelist, literary critic and translator. He was, along with

Hugh Walpole Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (13 March 18841 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among th ...

and

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...

, a leading pre-war novelist of boyhood. He is still acclaimed as the greatest of

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

novelists and was recognised with the award of the 1944

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

for his novel ''Young Tom''.

Early life and education

Born in Belfast, he was the youngest son of a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

family of twelve, six of whom survived. He was educated at the

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...

. His father, Robert Reid (1825–1881), was the manager of a felt works, having failed as a shipowner at

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, and came from a well-established upper-middle-class Ulster family; his mother, Frances Matilda, was his father's second wife. She was the daughter of Captain Robert Parr, of the

54th Regiment of Foot The 54th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1755. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1881. History Early history The ...

, of the landed gentry Parr family of

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, related to

Catherine Parr Catherine Parr (sometimes alternatively spelled Katherine, Katheryn, Kateryn, or Katharine; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until ...

, last wife of

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...

After graduation Forster continued to visit Reid, who was then settled back in Belfast. In 1952, Forster traveled to Belfast to unveil a plaque commemorating Forrest Reid's life (at 13 Ormiston Crescent).

Works and influences

As well as his fiction, Reid also translated poems from the ''

Greek Anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' ( la, Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Pa ...

'' (''Greek Authors'' (Faber, 1943)). His study of the work of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

(''W. B. Yeats: A Critical Study'' (1915)) has been acclaimed as one of the best critical studies of that poet. He also wrote the definitive work on the English woodcut artists of the 1860s (''Illustrators of the Sixties'' (1928)); his collection of original illustrations from that time is housed in the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

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. He was a close friend of

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for a highly acclaimed selection of ...

, whom he first met in 1913, and about whose fiction he published a perceptive book in 1929. Reid was also an influence on novelist Stephen Gilbert, and had good connections to the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

of writers. Reid was a founding member of the Imperial Art League (later the Artists League of Great Britain). Reid was also a close friend of Arthur Greeves, the artist known to be

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

's best friend. Greeves painted several portraits of Reid, now all in the possession of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.

Critical standing

A "Forrest Reid Collection" is held at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

, consisting of first editions of all his works and books about Reid. Many of his original manuscripts are in the archives of the

Belfast Central Library Belfast Central Library is a public library in Royal Avenue, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opened in 1888, it was one of the first major public library buildings in Ireland. A competition for the design of the building was won by architect Will ...

. In 2008, Queen's University Belfast catalogued a large collection of Forrest Reid documentary material it had recently acquired, including many letters from E.M. Forster.Detailed listing of Forrest Reid Manuscripts held at Queen's University Belfast

Works

Fiction

''The Kingdom of Twilight''
(1904)
''The Garden God – A Tale of Two Boys''
(1905)
''The Bracknels – A Family Chronicle''
(1911), revised as ''Denis Bracknel'' (1947)
''Following Darkness''
(1912)
''The Gentle Lover – A Comedy of Middle Age''
(1913)
''At the Door of the Gate''
(1915)
''The Spring Song''
(1916)
''A Garden by the Sea''
(1918)(stories) * ''Pirates of the Spring'' (1919)
''Pender among the Residents''
(1922) * ''Demophon – a Traveller's Tale'' (1927) * ''Uncle Stephen'' (1931) * ''Brian Westby'' (1934) * ''The Retreat'' (1936) * ''Peter Waring'' (1937) * ''Young Tom'' (1944)

Autobiography

* ''Apostate'' (1926) * ''Private Road'' (1940)

Reissue editions

Beginning in 2007,

Valancourt Books Valancourt Books is an independent American publishing house founded by James Jenkins and Ryan Cagle in 2005. The company specializes in "the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction," in particular gay titles and Gothic and horr ...

began releasing editions of Reid's works, all containing new introductions by authors and scholars: * ''The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys'' (2007), edited with a foreword, introduction and notes by Michael Matthew Kaylor * ''The Tom Barber Trilogy'' (2011) hardcover two-volume set * ''The Spring Song'' (2013) * ''Following Darkness'' (2013) * ''Brian Westby'' (2013) * ''Denis Bracknel'' (2014) * ''Pender among the Residents'' (2014) * ''Uncle Stephen'' (2014) * ''The Retreat'' (2015) * ''Young Tom'' (2015)

References

* Paul Goldman and Brian Taylor, ''Retrospective Adventures: Forrest Reid, Author and Collector'' (Scholar Press, 1998) * Colin Cruise, "Error &

Eros In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the earli ...

: The Fiction of Forrest Reid", ''Sex, Nation & Dissent'' (

Cork University University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1 ...

Press, 1997) * Brian Taylor, ''The Green Avenue: The Life and Writings of Forrest Reid'', (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 1980) * Russell Burlingham, ''Forrest Reid: A Portrait & A Study'' (Faber, 1953) * John Wilson Foster, critical readings of Forrest Reid in ''Forces and Themes in Ulster Fiction'' (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield; Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1974), pp. 139–48, 197–211 * Eamonn Hughes, "Ulster of the Senses", ''Fortnight'' #306 (May 1992) – essay about Reid's autobiography

External links

* * * Forrest Rei
website
including biography, photographs and links
Catalogue from the Forrest Reid/Stephen Gilbert exhibition
(Queen's University Belfast, 2008)

at Valancourt Books * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Forrest 1875 births 1947 deaths Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge British gay writers Irish literary critics James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients LGBT writers from Northern Ireland Male writers from Northern Ireland Writers from Belfast