Hugh Gordon Porteus (1906–1993) was an influential reviewer of art and literature in the London of the 1930s, and also a poet. He was an admirer of

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...

and wrote the first critical book on him, published in 1932. Lewis portrayed Porteus as the character "Rotter" Parkinson in his novel ''Self Condemned''.

Life

He trained as an artist, and had a particular interest in Chinese art. He dressed in an affected way, and sometimes in imitation of Wyndham Lewis, and was considered somewhat eccentric; but he was an engaging and interesting conversationalist. He was also a gossip, and the reason why George Orwell attacked Lewis as a Stalinist in ''

Partisan Review ''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affiliated Joh ...

'': Lewis had joked with Roy Campbell (another gossip) about writing a book on Stalin, Campbell had mentioned this to Porteus, and Porteus told this to Orwell as factual. A Lewis disciple, he was indiscreet about his teacher. As literary editor of ''The Twentieth Century'', monthly magazine of the Promethean Society in the early 1930s, he boosted the career of George Barker, about whom he wrote for ''Scrutiny''. The ''Twentieth Century'' was published from March 1931 to May 1933, and printed poetry by

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by th ...

and Michael Roberts. Porteus published a review there of Wyndham Lewis's ''Hitler'' (1931), that was "unqualified praise". Lewis gave a public reading of his ''One Way Song'' in 1933 in Kensington Gardens, to an audience of Porteus and a flock of sheep. He was also a long-time supporter and friend of

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial p ...

, whom he in 1946 compared to

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

and T. S. Eliot. He wrote in a hostile way about

Laura Riding 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 Nathan ...

; and he compared John Middleton Murry in 1933 to "a renegade freelance vicar", in ''Time and Tide''. He wrote on Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron and John Piper, amongst others. He was included in the Cairo poets

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

group, having been stationed with the RAF on the Suez Canal (miserably seasick on the journey out). At the end of the war Ezra Pound, held prisoner, asked for Porteus to be given the work of checking the ideograms in the '' Pisan Cantos''. Porteus wrote a 1950 essay ''Ezra Pound and His Chinese Character: A Radical Examination''. Jeffrey Meyers interviewed Porteus at length while researching his (1980) biography of Wyndham Lewis and published in 2016 a memoir of Porteus."The Devoted Disciple of Wyndham Lewis" in ''Standpoint'' Magazine, December/January 2016

/ref>

Works

*''Wyndham Lewis: A Discursive Exposition'' (1932) *''Background to Chinese Art'' (1935)

References

*''New Poems 1952'', edited by

Clifford Dyment Clifford Henry Dyment FRSL (20 January 1914 – 5 June 1971) was a British poet, literary critic, editor and journalist, best known for his poems on countryside topics. Born to Welsh parents, his mother was widowed when Dyment was four years old.P ...

, Roy Fuller and

Montagu Slater Charles Montagu Slater (23 September 1902 – 19 December 1956) was an English poet, novelist, playwright, journalist, critic and librettist. Life One of five children, Slater was born in the small mining port of Millom, Cumberland facing L ...

, short biography p. 164. *John McIlroy, ''The Establishment of Intellectual Orthodoxy and the Stalinization of British Communism 1928-1933'', Past & Present, Number 192, August 2006, pp. 187–230 (on the Promethean Society). {{DEFAULTSORT:Porteus, Hugh Gordon 1906 births British poets 1993 deaths British male poets