Laura Riding Jackson (born Laura Reichenthal; January 16, 1901 – September 2, 1991), best known as Laura Riding, was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer.

Early life

She was born in New York City to Nathaniel Reichenthal, a Jewish immigrant from Galicia, and Sadie (née Edersheim), and educated at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. She met historian Louis R. Gottschalk, then a graduate assistant at Cornell, and they married in 1920. She began to write poetry, publishing first (1923–26) under the name Laura Riding Gottschalk. She became associated with the

Fugitives A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also kno ...

through

Allen Tate John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944. Life Early years Tate was born near Winchester, ...

, and they published her poems in ''The Fugitive'' magazine. They awarded her the Nashville Prize in 1924. Her marriage with Gottschalk ended in divorce in 1925, at the end of which year she went to England at the invitation of

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...

and his wife Nancy Nicholson. She would remain in Europe for nearly fourteen years.

Poetic development and personal relationships

The excitement stirred by Laura Riding's poems is hinted at in Sonia Raiziss' later description: "When ''The Fugitive'' (1922–1925) flashed down the new sky of American poetry, it left a brilliant scatter of names: Ransom, Tate, Warren, Riding, Crane.... Among them, the inner circle and those tangent to it as contributors, there was no one quite like Laura Riding." ("An Appreciation," ''Chelsea 12'' 1962, 28.) Riding's first collection of poetry, ''The Close Chaplet'', was published in 1926, and during the following year she assumed the surname Riding. By this time the originality of her poetry was becoming ever more evident: generally she favoured a distinctive form of

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definit ...

over conventional metres. She, Robert Graves and Nancy Nicholson lived in London until Riding's

suicide attempt A suicide attempt is an attempt to die by suicide that results in survival. It may be referred to as a "failed" or "unsuccessful" suicide attempt, though these terms are discouraged by mental health professionals for implying that a suicide res ...

in 1929. It is generally agreed that this episode was a major cause of the break-up of Graves's first marriage: the whole affair caused a famous literary scandal. When Riding met the Irish poet,

Geoffrey Phibbs Jeoffrey "Geoffrey" Basil Phibbs (1900–1956) was an English-born Irish poet; he took his mother's name and called himself Geoffrey Taylor, after about 1930. Phibbs was born in Smallburgh, Norfolk. He was brought up in Sligo, and educated ...

, in 1929, she invited him to join the household that already contained herself, Graves, and Graves's wife, Nancy. Phibbs agreed, but after a few months changed his mind and returned to his wife, referring to Riding as "a

virago A virago is a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues. The word comes from the Latin word ''virāgō'' ( genitive virāginis) meaning vigorous' from ''vir'' meaning "man" or "man-like" (cf. virile and virtue) to which the suffix ''-ā ...

" in a letter to his friend

Thomas MacGreevy Thomas MacGreevy (born Thomas McGreevy; 26 October 1893 – 16 March 1967) was a pivotal figure in the history of Irish literary modernism. A poet, he was also director of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1950 to 1963 and served on the f ...

. When they failed to effect a reconciliation, he rejoined the household but rejected Laura and moved in with Nancy. This was one of the catalysts for the incident of 27 April 1929, when Riding jumped from a fourth-floor window at the lodgings she shared with Graves, at the height of an argument involving Graves, Phibbs and Nancy Graves; having failed to stop her, Graves also jumped (from a lower floor), but was unharmed, whilst Riding sustained life-threatening injuries. Following the break-up with Nancy, until the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

in 1936, Riding and Graves lived in

Deià Deià is a municipality and small coastal village in the Serra de Tramuntana, which forms the northern ridge of the Spanish island of Mallorca. It is located about north of Valldemossa, and it is known for its literary and musical residents. ...

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

, where they were visited by writers and artists including James Reeves, Norman Cameron,

John Aldridge John William Aldridge (born 18 September 1958) is a former football player and manager. He was a prolific, record-breaking striker best known for his time with English club Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in M ...

Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye (; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Mu ...

Jacob Bronowski Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-British mathematician and philosopher. He was known to friends and professional colleagues alike by the nickname Bruno. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to sc ...

and

Honor Wyatt Honor Ellen Wyatt (6 February 1910 – 23 October 1998) was an English journalist and radio presenter, known for her association with Barbara Pym, Robert Graves and Laura Riding as well as for her own work. She was the mother of the actor Jul ...

. The house is now a museum. Riding and Graves were highly productive from the start of their association, though after they moved to Majorca they became even more so. While still in London they had set up (1927) the

Seizin Press The Seizin Press was a small press, founded in 1927 by Laura Riding and Robert Graves in London from 1928 until 1935. From 1930 it was based in Majorca. Besides work by Graves and Riding, the Seizin Press published works by Gertrude Stein, Len L ...

, collaborated on ''A Survey of Modernist Poetry'' (1927) (which inspired

William Empson Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English literary critic and poet, widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, a practice fundamental to New Criticism. His best-known work is his first ...

to write ''Seven Types of Ambiguity'' and was in some respects the seed of the

New Criticism New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as ...

), ''A Pamphlet Against Anthologies'' (1928) and other works. ''Progress of Stories'' (1935) would later be highly esteemed by, among others,

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

and

Harry Mathews Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American writer, the author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. Mathews was also a translator of the French language. Life Born in New York City to an ...

. In Majorca, the Seizin Press was enlarged to become a publishing imprint, producing ''inter alia'' the substantial hardbound critical magazine ''Epilogue'' (1935–1938), edited by Riding with Graves as associate editor. Graves and Riding left Majorca in 1936, at the outbreak of the

. Between 1936 and 1939, Riding and Graves lived in England, France and Switzerland. Throughout their association both steadily produced volumes of major poetry, culminating for each with a ''Collected Poems'' in 1938. In 1939, they moved to the United States and took lodging in

New Hope, Pennsylvania New Hope is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,612 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. New Hope is located approximately north of Philadelphia, and lies on the west bank of the Delaw ...

. Their changing relationship is described by Elizabeth Friedmann in ''A Mannered Grace'', by Richard Perceval Graves in ''Robert Graves: 1927–1940, The Years with Laura'' and by

T. S. Matthews Thomas Stanley Matthews (January 16, 1901 – January 4, 1991) was an American magazine editor, journalist, and writer. He served as editor of ''Time'' magazine from 1949 to 1953. Background Thomas Stanley Matthews was born on January 16, 1901 ...

in ''Jacks or Better'' (1977; UK edition published as ''Under the Influence'', 1979) and also was the basis for

Miranda Seymour Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer. The lives she has described have included those of Robert Graves and Mary Shelley. Seymour, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, has in r ...

's novel '' The Summer of '39'' (1998). In 1939 Riding and Graves parted and in 1941 she married Schuyler B. Jackson, eventually settling in

Wabasso, Florida Wabasso is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Indian River County, Florida, United States. The population was 609 at the 2010 census, down from 918 at the 2000 census. It is located at the intersection of U.S. 1 and ...

, where she lived quietly and simply until her death in 1991, Schuyler having died in 1968. The vernacular cracker house in which they lived has been renovated and preserved by the Laura Riding Jackson Foundation at the

Vero Beach Vero Beach is a city in and the seat of Indian River County, Florida, United States. Vero Beach is the second most populous city in Indian River County. Abundant in beaches and wildlife, Vero Beach is located on Florida's Treasure Coast. It is thi ...

campus of

Indian River State College Indian River State College (IRSC) is a public college with a main campus in Fort Pierce, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and serves the counties of Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie on the Treasure Coast region ...

. According to Graves' biographer Richard Perceval Graves, Riding played a crucial role in the development of Graves' thoughts when writing his book ''

The White Goddess ''The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth'' is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, the book is based on earlier articles published in ''Wales'' magazi ...

'', despite the fact the two were estranged at that point. Laura (Riding) Jackson was later to say: "As to the ‘White Goddess’ identity: the White Goddess theme was a spiritually, literarily and scholastically fraudulent improvisation by Robert Graves into the ornate pretentious framework of which he stuffed stolen substance of my writings, and my thought generally, on poetry, woman, cosmic actualities and the history of religious conceptions." She had already written to the Editor of the ''Minnesota Review'', in 1967, about how Graves had used her as a source: "In my thinking, the categorically separated functions termed intellectual, moral, spiritual, emotional, were brought into union, into joint immediacy; other conceptions put the sun and moon in their right rational places as emblems of poetic emotionalism, and lengthened the perspective of Origin back from the skimpy historical heavens of masculine divinity through a spacious dominion of religious symbolism, pre-sided over, for the sake of poetic justice, by a thing I called mother-god."

Renunciation of poetry

In about 1941, Riding renounced poetry, but it was fifteen to twenty years before she felt able to begin explaining her reasons and exploring her unfolding findings. She withdrew from public literary life, working with Schuyler Jackson on a dictionary (published posthumously in 1997) that would lead them into an exploration of the foundations of meaning and language. In April 1962, she read "Introduction for a Broadcast" for the

BBC Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and intellectual f ...

, her first formal statement of her reasons for renouncing poetry (there had been a brief reference book entry in 1955). An expanded version of the piece was published that year in the New York magazine ''

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

'', which also published "Further on Poetry" in 1964, writings on the theme of women-and-men in 1965 and 1974 and in 1967, ''The Telling''.

Later writings

The 62 numbered passages of ''The Telling'', a "personal evangel", formed the "core part" of a book of the same title, thought by some to be her most important book alongside ''Collected Poems''. Writings and publications continued to flow throughout the sixties, seventies and eighties, as Laura (Riding) Jackson (her authorial name from 1963 onwards) explored what she regarded as the truth-potential of language, free from the artificial restrictions of poetic art. "My faith in poetry was at heart a faith in language as the elementary wisdom," she had written in 1976 ("The Road To, In, And Away From, Poetry", ''Reader'' 251). Her later writings attest to what she regarded as the truth-potential contained in language and in the human mind. She might be regarded as a spiritual teacher whose unusually high valuation of language, led her to choose literature as the locus of her work. Two issues of ''Chelsea'' were given over to new writings by her, ''It Has Taken Long'' (1976) and ''The Sufficient Difference'' (2001). She was awarded the

Bollingen Prize The Bollingen Prize for Poetry is a literary honor bestowed on an American poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.

in 1991. She died of cardiac arrest on September 2, 1991.

Reception and legacy

Publication of her work has continued since her death in 1991, including ''First Awakenings'' (early poems, 1992), ''Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words'' (1997), ''The Poems of Laura Riding, A Newly Revised Edition of the 1938/1980 Collection'' (2001), ''Under the Mind's Watch'' (2004), ''The Failure of Poetry, The Promise of Language'' (2007), and ''On the Continuing of the Continuing'' (2008). Trent Editions published a number of her works, beginning with the two-volume edition of her literary memoirs, ''The Person I Am'' (2011), following which four early collections of her poetry were edited and re-published with lengthy introductions: ''The Close Chaplet'' (1926), ''Love as Love, Death as Death'' (1928), ''Poet: A Lying Word'' (1933), and ''Poems: A Joking Word'' (1930). Ugly Duckling Presse has also re-published some of her work.

Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Broo ...

in the ''New York Review of Books'' called her "an important force of the international avant-garde". Her poems also had many detractors, such as

John Gould Fletcher John Gould Fletcher (January 3, 1886 – May 10, 1950) was an Imagist poet (the first Southern poet to win the Pulitzer Prize), author and authority on modern painting. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to a socially prominent family. After a ...

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

Louise Bogan Louise Bogan (August 11, 1897 – February 4, 1970) was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title. Throughout her life she wrote poetry, fiction, ...

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

and

Dudley Fitts Dudley Fitts (April 28, 1903 – July 10, 1968) was an American teacher, critic, poet, and translator. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard University, where he edited the ''Harvard Advocate''. He taught at The Choate S ...

. Her works have been translated to French, German, Spanish, Danish, Polish, Portuguese and Norwegian (by Terje Dragseth).

Selected bibliography

*''The Close Chaplet'' (London: Hogarth Press, ctober1926; New York: Adelphi Company, 1926; Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2017; New York: Ugly Duckling, 2020) *''A Survey of Modernist Poetry'' ith Robert Graves(London: Heinemann, 1927; New York: Doubleday, 1928) *''Voltaire: A Biographical Fantasy'' ith foreword, 1921(London: Hogarth Press, 1927). *''Anarchism Is Not Enough'' (London: Cape; New York: Doubleday, 1928; new ed. Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2001) *''Contemporaries and Snobs'' (London: Cape; New York: Doubleday, 1928) *''A Pamphlet Against Anthologies'' ith Robert Graves(London: Cape; New York: Doubleday, 1928) *''Love as Love, Death as Death'' (Hammersmith/London: Seizin Press, 1928; Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2018) *''Twenty Poems Less'' (Paris: Hours Press, 1930) *''Poems: A Joking Word'' ith Preface(London: Cape, 1930; Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2020) *''Four Unposted Letters to Catherine'' (Paris: Hours Press, n.d. 930 *''Experts Are Puzzled'' (London: Cape, 1930; New York: Ugly Duckling, 2018) *''Though Gently'' (Deya: Seizin Press, 1930)(reproduced, with responses from commentators and critics, in ''Delmar 8'', Winter 2002) *''Laura and Francisca: A Poem'' (Deya: Seizin Press, 1931) *''Everybody's Letters'' (London: Barker, 1933) *''The Life of the Dead'' ith Ten Illustrations by John Aldridge(London: Arthur Barker, 1933) *''Poet: A Lying Word'' (London: Barker, 1933; Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2017) *''Focus I – IV'' (periodical edited with Robert Graves and others, four vols published, Deya, Majorca, 1935) *''Progress of Stories'' (Deya: Seizin Press; London, Constable, 1935; The Dial Press, 1982; Persea, 1994) *''Epilogue: A Critical Summary'' (periodical edited with Graves) **''Volume I'' (Deya: Seizin Press; London: Constable, Autumn 1935) **''Volume II'' (Deya: Seizin Press; London: Constable, Summer 1936) **''Volume III'' (Deya: Seizin Press; London: Constable, Spring 1937) **''Volume IV: The World and Ourselves'' (London: Chatto & Windus, 1938) *''Convalescent Conversations'' (Deya: Seizin Press, 1936; New York: Ugly Duckling, 2018) *''A Trojan Ending'' (Deya: Seizin Press; London: Constable, 1937) *''Collected Poems'' (London: Cassell; New York: Random House, 1938) *''Lives of Wives'' (London: Cassell, 1939) *"The Telling" (''Chelsea'' 20/21, May 1967, pp. 114–162). This essay formed the core of ''The Telling'', 185 pp. (London: Athlone, 1972; New York: Harper & Row, 1973; Manchester: Carcanet, 2005) *''Selected Poems: In Five Sets'' (London: Faber, 1970; New York: Norton, 1973; New York: Persea, 1993) *''It Has Taken Long'' (''Chelsea'' 35 hole issue New York, 1976) *''The Poems of Laura Riding: A New Edition of the 1938 Collection'' (Manchester: Carcanet; New York: Persea 1980) *''Some Communications of Broad Reference'' (Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1983) *''First Awakenings'' (Manchester: Carcanet; New York: Persea, 1992) *''The Word 'Woman' and Other Related Writings'' (New York: Persea, 1993; Manchester: Carcanet, 1994) *''A Selection of the Poems of Laura Riding'', edited with an Introduction by Robert Nye (Manchester: Carcanet, 1994; New York: Persea, 1996) *''Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words'', with Schuyler B. Jackson; edited by William Harmon (University Press of Virginia, 1997) *''The Sufficient Difference: A Centenary Celebration of Laura (Riding) Jackson'', guest-edited by Elizabeth Friedmann (''Chelsea'' 69 hole issue New York, Dec. 2000) *''The Poems of Laura Riding'', newly revised edition, edited by Mark Jacobs, note on the text by Alan J. Clark (New York: Persea, 2001) *''Under The Mind's Watch: Concerning Issues Of Language, Literature, Life Of Contemporary Bearing'', edited by John Nolan and Alan J. Clark (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2004) *''The Failure of Poetry, The Promise of Language'', edited by John Nolan (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007) *''On the Continuing of the Continuing'' (London: Wyeswood Press, 2008) (fine-printed limited edition) *''The Person I Am'', in two volumes, edited by John Nolan and Carroll Ann Friedmann (Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2011) Translations * ''Anatole France at Home'', by Marcel Le Goff, translated by Laura Riding Gottchalk (New York: Adelphi, 1926) * ''Almost Forgotten Germany'', by Georg Schwarz, translated by Laura Riding and Robert Graves (Deyá, Majorca: Seizin Press; London: Constable, 1936)

References

External links

The Laura Riding Jackson Foundation

Nottingham Trent University Laura (Riding) Jackson webpage

An anthology of stories and poems by Laura Riding.

A story by Laura Riding

* ttp://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?item_id=3230 Further on MetaphorAn essay by Laura (Riding) Jackson.
Laura Riding fonds
at University of Victoria, Special Collections
Web oficial de "La Casa de Robert Graves" en Deià, Mallorca
De la Fundación Robert Graves.
Finding aid to Laura Riding letters at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
* Laura Riding Jackson papers, at the

University of Maryland libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an of ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Riding, Laura 1901 births 1991 deaths People from Indian River County, Florida American women poets Cornell University alumni Jewish American writers Bollingen Prize recipients 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Muses 20th-century American Jews