Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols (6 September 1893 – 17 December 1944) was an English writer, known as a war poet of the First World War, and a

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Life and career

The son of the poet

John Bowyer Buchanan Nichols John Bowyer Buchanan Nichols (13 November 1859 – 2 June 1939), known as Bowyer Nichols, was an English poet and artist. Nichols was the son of Francis Morgan Nichols, an editor and writer, and was paternally descended from the printer and wri ...

, Robert Nichols was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford. Commissioned into the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

in 1914, Nichols served on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

, including the Battle of Loos and the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

, until invalided home with shell shock in August 1916. He began to give poetry readings, in 1917. In 1918 he was a member of an official British propaganda mission to the USA, where he also gave readings. One of his best known poems of the conflict is ''The Assault'', which "evokes the destructive havoc and the emotional turbulence of an attack in verse of unusual freedom and energy" After the war he moved in social circles in London. He was a protege of Edith Sitwell, Aldous Huxley became a long-term friend and correspondent, and Nichols wooed Nancy Cunard with

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

s, but married Norah Denny in 1922 at St Martin-in-the-Fields. He was Professor of English Literature at the University of Tokyo from 1921 to 1924, and later worked in the theatre and cinema. The play ''Wings over Europe'' (1928), with Maurice Browne, was a Broadway hit. Nichols wrote several prose fictions, including ''The Smile of the Sphinx'', a fantasy set in the Middle East and ''Golgotha & co.'', a satirical fantasy featuring the Wandering Jew, the return of Christ and a future war.

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part o ...

, "Fantastica", in

Frank N. Magill Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cur ...

, ed. ''Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature'', Vol 2. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, Inc., 1983. (pp. 524-525). These fictions were collected in Nichols' book ''Fantastica''. He lived in Germany and Austria in 1933–34. He then settled in the south of France, leaving in June 1940. He died at the age of 51, and is buried at

St Mary's Church, Lawford St Mary's Church stands on Church Hill, Lawford, Essex, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Harwich, the archdeaconry of Colchester, and the diocese of Chelmsford. The church is recorded in the National Heritage Lis ...

, Essex, next to the family home, Lawford Hall. The grave of Robert Nichols in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, Lawford

On 11 November 1985, Nichols was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The inscription on the stone was written by a fellow Great War poet, Wilfred Owen. It reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."

Works

* ''Invocation'' (1915) * ''Ardours and Endurances'' (1917) * ''A Faun's Holiday & Poems & Phantasies'' (1917) * ''Sonnets to Aurelia'' (1920), poems * ''The Smile of the Sphinx'' (1920) * ''Guilty Souls'' (1922), play *
Fantastica : being the smile of the Sphinx and other tales of imagination
' (1923) * ''Twenty Below'' (1926) with

Jim Tully Jim Tully (June 3, 1886 – June 22, 1947) was an American vagabond, pugilist, and writer. He enjoyed critical and commercial success as a writer in the 1920s and 1930s. Biography Born near St. Marys, Ohio, to James Dennis and Bridget Marie L ...

* ''Under the Yew; or, The Gambler Transformed'' (1928) novel * ''Wings Over Europe'' (1928), play * ''Fisbo, or the Looking Glass Loaned'' (1934) verse satire aimed at Osbert Lancaster * ''A Spanish Triptych'' (1936) poems * ''Such was My Singing'' (1942) selected verse (includes fragments of the unfinished play ''Don Juan Tenorio the Great'').

Musical settings of plays and poetry

In 1919, the English composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji wrote ''Music to "The Rider by Night"'' (not extant in full). Peter Warlock (a close friend) composed a choral setting of ''The Full Heart'' in 1916, and a song setting of ''The Water Lily'' in 1922, along with others, now lost. ''The Naiads' Music'' and ''The Pigeon Song'' were set by Arthur Bliss (also a friend) in his ''Pastoral: (Lie Strewn White Flocks)'' of 1928, and Bliss also used ''Dawn on the Somme'' in his choral symphony '' Morning Heroes'' of 1930. E. J. Moeran set ''Blue-eyed Spring'' for voice and piano in 1932 and used poetry from the unfinished play ''Don Juan Tenorio the Great'' for his ''Nocturne'' for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra of 1935. Christian Darnton set five poems by Nichols in his 1938 work ''Swansong'', for soprano and orchestra.The LiederNet Archive
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References

Sources

''Author and Book Info.com''
*''Putting Poetry First: A Life of Robert Nichols, 1893-1944'' (2003) William and Anne Charlton

External links

*
Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center * *Archival Material a
Leeds University Library
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, Robert 20th-century English poets British Army personnel of World War I Royal Field Artillery officers 1893 births 1944 deaths English World War I poets 20th-century English male writers English fantasy writers People educated at Winchester College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford University of Tokyo faculty English male poets English male dramatists and playwrights English male short story writers English short story writers English male novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century British short story writers