Janet Adam Smith
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Janet Buchanan Adam Smith OBE (9 December 1905 – 11 September 1999) was a writer, editor, literary journalist and champion of Scottish literature. She was active from the 1930s through to the end of the century and noted for her elegant prose, her penetrating judgement, her independence of mind – and her deep love of mountains and mountaineering.
Leonard Miall Rowland Leonard Miall (6 November 1914 – 24 February 2005) was a broadcaster and administrator at the BBC for 35 years, from 1939 to 1974. In retirement, he became a research historian, studying the history of broadcasting. Early life Miall ...
wrote: "Biographer, mountaineer, critic, literary editor, textual scholar, comic versifier, visiting professor, hostess, anthologist, traveller – there seemed to be nothing at which Janet Adam Smith did not shine. And she shone with an intensity that made others glow in response".


Family background and education

She was born into the old Scots intellectual elite. Her father, Sir
George Adam Smith :''Note in particular that this George Smith is to be distinguished from George Smith (Assyriologist) (1840–1876) who researched in some overlapping areas.'' Sir George Adam Smith (19 October 1856 – 3 March 1942) was a Scottish the ...
FBA (1856–1942), was a Biblical scholar, Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis, at the Free Church College in Glasgow, and then, from 1909 to 1935, Principal of
Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...
. Her mother was Lilian Adam Smith, daughter of Sir George Buchanan, FRS, in whose honour the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
's
Buchanan Medal The Buchanan Medal is awarded by the Royal Society "in recognition of distinguished contribution to the medical sciences generally". The award was created in 1897 from a fund to the memory of London physician Sir George Buchanan (1831–1895). It ...
was created. Janet was brought up in a tradition of high thinking and simple but certainly not austere living. In 1919 she went to
Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to pr ...
, and in 1923 went on to
Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...
, Oxford, where she read English, graduating in 1926.


Family life

In 1935 she married Michael Roberts, who was a poet, critic, editor, mathematician, and, like her, a passionate mountaineer. Roberts's anthologies of contemporary verse had already established him as, in
T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...
's phrase, "expositor and interpreter of the poetry of his generation". They lived in
Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
(where he taught at the Royal Grammar School), then from 1939 in Penrith (where the school was evacuated during the war). In 1945 the family moved to London, where Michael Roberts had become Principal of the College of St Mark and St John, in Chelsea (which later moved to
Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...
and became the
University of St Mark & St John Plymouth Marjon University, commonly referred to as Marjon, is the trading name of the University of St Mark and St John, a university based primarily on a single campus on the northern edge of Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom. Formerly named Univ ...
). They had four children: Andrew Roberts, Professor of the History of Africa at the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, b. 1937; Henrietta Dombey, Professor of Literacy in Primary Education at the
University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieve ...
, b. 1939; Adam Roberts, Professor of International Relations at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, b. 1940; and
John Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases, including ''Nati ...
, writer on energy issues and Middle East politics, b. 1947. Michael Roberts died on 13 December 1948. Shortly after, the family moved to a house in the
Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road M ...
area of London, which remained her home until her death in 1999. In 1965, she married John Dudley Carleton, headmaster of
Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...
from 1957 to 1970. He died on 6 November 1974. Janet is remembered on her parents' grave in
Currie Currie ( gd, Currach, IPA: kʰuːᵲəx is a village and suburb on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated south west of the city centre. Formerly within the County of Midlothian, it now falls within the jurisdiction of the City of Edi ...
churchyard, south-west of Edinburgh. The grave stands in the north-east corner of the modern cemetery extension south of the church.


Career and writing

She joined the BBC in 1928, and from 1930 to 1935 was assistant editor of '' The Listener''. The High Presbyterian ethos of
Lord Reith Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
's BBC was no doubt congenial, though she had a sense of humour and an awareness of social change that Reith lacked. As assistant editor, she dealt with articles on art, selected reviewers for literary books, and published new poetry, especially the work of
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 the ...
,
Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read ...
,
Louis MacNeice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely a ...
and Michael Roberts. Her work at ''The Listener'' has been widely praised. Dr Kate Murphy, Senior Lecturer in History at Bournemouth University, has said of Janet Adam Smith that "her six years on ''The Listener'' were without question of huge import to the journal and she left a legacy that was remembered for decades to come." In 1935 she published ''Poems of Tomorrow'', an anthology of poems from ''The Listener'', and in 1936 succeeded Michael Roberts as chief reviewer of poetry in T.S. Eliot's quarterly ''The Criterion''. Between 1936 and 1939 she wrote over a hundred reviews for London weeklies, of books by Scots writers or on Scottish subjects. Finding herself with three small children in Penrith during the war, while Michael worked in London for the BBC's European Service, she wrote ''Mountain Holidays'' (1946; reissued 1996), in which she recalled pre-war climbs in Scotland and the Alps. In London from 1945 onwards, Janet Adam Smith continued to write and edit. To the series ''Britain in Pictures'', she contributed ''Life among the Scots'' (1946) and ''Children's Illustrated Books'' (1948). Her short biography (1937) had already established her as an authority on
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
. She now edited the correspondence between Stevenson and
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
(1948) and prepared a scholarly edition of Stevenson's collected poems (1950), both published by
Rupert Hart-Davis Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis (28 August 1907 – 8 December 1999) was an English publisher and editor. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. As a biographer, he is remembered for his ''Hugh Walpole'' (1952), as an editor, f ...
. In 1948, left a widow with four young children to educate, she returned to a salaried position in journalism, becoming first assistant literary editor (1949–52), then literary editor (1952–60), of the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'', still the house magazine of the intellectual Left. It was sometimes described as a pantomime horse: its back half, over which she presided, was required reading even for many who disliked the paper's politics. She was a notably thorough literary editor. One of her successors,
Karl Miller Karl Fergus Connor Miller FRSL (2 August 1931 – 24 September 2014) was a Scottish literary editor, critic and writer. Miller was born in the village of Loanhead, Midlothian, and was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and Down ...
, recalled that "Janet used to take the trouble of writing to people to tell them what was wrong with their articles". Miller saw her – and himself – as "Edinburgh reviewers, latter-day examples of an auld Scots element in literary journalism". She still found time for her own work: almost 20 years after Michael Roberts had edited, at T.S. Eliot’s invitation, the classic anthology, the ''
Faber Book of Modern Verse The ''Faber Book of Modern Verse'' was a poetry anthology, edited in its first edition by Michael Roberts, and published in 1936 by Faber and Faber. There was a second edition (1951) edited by Anne Ridler, and a third edition (1965) edited by D ...
'', she matched his achievement with the ''Faber Book of Children's Verse'' (1953), an enchanting and enduring collection. All the poems were tried out on an extended family – her own children, her nephews and nieces, and the children of friends, among whom were the son and daughter of the poet
Kathleen Raine Kathleen Jessie Raine CBE (14 June 1908 – 6 July 2003) was a British poet, critic, and scholar, writing in particular on William Blake, W. B. Yeats and Thomas Taylor. Known for her interest in various forms of spirituality, most prominently P ...
. No poem was included, she said, that some child had not loved. She also edited Michael Roberts's ''Collected Poems'' (1958) and, with her friend and fellow climber
Nea Morin Nea Everilda Morin (née Barnard) (21 May 1905 – 12 July 1986) was a British rock climber and mountain climber. Morin climbed in the Alps in the 1920s, joined the Ladies Alpine Club, and met many climbers in the French . In 1928 she marri ...
, translated from the French several mountaineering books, notably
Maurice Herzog Maurice André Raymond Herzog (15 January 191913 December 2012) was a French mountaineer and administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the 1950 French Annapurna expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and r ...
's ''Annapurna'' (1952). In 1961 and 1964 she was
Virginia Gildersleeve Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (October 3, 1877 – July 7, 1965) was an American academic, the long-time dean of Barnard College, co-founder of the International Federation of University Women, and the only woman delegated by United States ...
Visiting Professor at
Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
, New York. When, at the request of the Buchan family, she came to write her magisterial biography of
John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...
(1965), her profound understanding of Buchan's temperament and habit of mind owed much to their common cultural background of the democratic and independent-minded
Free Church A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions from ...
. Most of her papers are in the
National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...
, at Edinburgh.


Public service

Imbued with the tradition of public service, she was a Trustee of the
National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...
from 1950 to 1985, a remarkable record, and president of the
Royal Literary Fund The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) is a benevolent fund that gives assistance to published British writers in financial difficulties. Founded in 1790, and granted a royal charter in 1818, the Fund has helped an extensive roll of authors through its long ...
from 1976 to 1984.


Honours and distinctions

She received an honorary degree (Hon. LL.D.) from Aberdeen University in 1962 and was made an OBE in the 1982 New Year Honours for services to Scottish literature.


Mountains and mountaineering

She was a keen and accomplished hill-walker and mountaineer. When working in London in her twenties, she would sometimes travel back to Aberdeen taking a night train to Aviemore, Kingussie or Blair Atholl, and then walking over the
Cairngorm Mountains The Cairngorms ( gd, Am Monadh Ruadh) are a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain Cairn Gorm. The Cairngorms became part of Scotland's second national park (the Cairngorms National Park) on 1 ...
to Braemar. In the 1950s she organized many parties of friends and older children to the Alps to climb and to enjoy the pleasures of mobile holidays. She did a number of classic
Alpine route An alpine route is a trail or climbing route through difficult terrain in high mountains such as the Alps, sometimes with no obvious path. In the Alps, the Alpine clubs define and mark an ''alpine route'', also called ''alpinweg'' or ''alpinwande ...
s, including the Mer de Glace face of the
Aiguille du Grépon The Aiguille du Grépon (literally the ''Needle of Grépon''), informally known as The Grepon, is a mountain in the Mont Blanc Massif in Haute-Savoie, France. The Grepon has a Southern (3,482 m) and Northern (3,478 m) peak, which are the highest p ...
(1955) and the traverse of the
Meije La Meije is a mountain in the Massif des Écrins range, located at the border of the Hautes-Alpes and Isère ''départements''. It overlooks the nearby village of La Grave, a mountaineering centre and ski resort, well known for its off-piste ...
(1958). She served as vice-president of the
Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of which ...
, 1978–80; and was elected to honorary membership of the club in 1993. Janet and Michael Roberts had built up a large collection of books on mountaineering, which, along with the collection of the Oxford University Mountaineering Club

provided a basis for establishment in December 1992 of th
Oxford Mountaineering Library
From 2019 this is based in the Geography collections in th
Social Science Library
which is in the Manor Road Building, Oxford OX1 3UQ.


Assessment of her literary contribution

In an obituary published in ''The Scotsman'' shortly after her death in September 1999, the Scottish novelist and journalist
Allan Massie Allan Johnstone Massie (born 16 October 1938) is a Scottish journalist, columnist, sports writer and novelist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for the last 25 years, and now lives in Se ...
wrote: “The critical study of Scottish literature owes much to Janet Adam Smith. … Ernest Mehew, the editor of the great Yale University edition of Stevenson's Letters, paid tribute to the ‘leading part’ she played ‘in the revival of critical interest in Stevenson's life and work at a time when he was largely ignored in academic circles’. He referred to the biography, her edition of Stevenson's correspondence with Henry James, and her two editions of Stevenson's poetry (1950 and 1971) – ‘a major work of scholarship which has not been superseded’. “Stevenson was not alone in benefiting from her enthusiastic and discriminating advocacy. Two lectures on
Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
and the Idea of Scotland, given at the University of Edinburgh in 1963, gave an impetus to the revival of academic interest in Scott. Her analysis of ''Waverley'' is unsurpassed. “But her masterpiece was her biography of John Buchan. It is probably hard for people today to realise just how low Buchan's reputation stood in the early Sixties. He was dismissed as a mere entertainer with disreputable political and social views. Janet Adam Smith corrected misconceptions and restored him to his proper status as a serious writer and public figure. Everyone who has written subsequently on Buchan is in her debt. Like all her work, the biography was written with a beautiful and authoritative lucidity. “Though she wrote no major work after Buchan, she remained an industrious literary journalist … She remained intellectually alert and eager to read new work into extreme old age. … “Based in England throughout her adult life, she nevertheless remained committed to Scotland and Scottish literature. Karl Miller was right in seeing her as being an heir of the Edinburgh Reviewers, for she was one of the last representatives of the Scottish Enlightenment, marrying clear and bold thinking to generous feeling."Allan Massie, obituary in ''The Scotsman'', 14 September 1999. This has been used extensively as a source for the present article. Minor amendments with the kind approval of the author.


Books by Janet Adam Smith

* (ed.) ''Poems of Tomorrow: An Anthology of Contemporary Verse chosen from The Listener'', Chatto & Windus, London, 1935; * ''Robert Louis Stevenson'', Duckworth, London, 1937; * ''Mountain Holidays'', Dent, London, 1946, 2nd edn., Ernest Press, Glasgow, 1996; * ''Life Among the Scots'', Collins, London, 1946; * ''Children's Illustrated Books'', Collins, London, 1948; * (ed.) ''Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson: A Record of Friendship and Criticism'', Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1948; * (ed.) ''Robert Louis Stevenson: Collected Poems'', Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1950; 2nd edn., 1971; * (ed.) ''Faber Book of Children’s Verse'', Faber and Faber, London, 1953; * (ed.) ''Michael Roberts: Collected Poems'', Faber and Faber, London, 1958; * (ed.) ''The Looking Glass Book of Verse'', Looking Glass Library, Random House, New York, 1959; * ''John Buchan: A Biography'', Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1965; * (ed.) ''The Living Stream: An Anthology of Twentieth-century Verse'', Faber and Faber, London, 1969; * ''John Buchan and his World'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1979; * ''An Autobiography, 1905–1926'', with preface by Andrew D. Roberts, privately printed, London, 2005.


Translations by Janet Adam Smith

* (trans.) R. Frison-Roche, ''First on the Rope: A Novel'', Methuen, London, 1949; 2nd edn., Vertebrate Publishing, Sheffield, 2019; * (trans. jointly with Nea Morin) R. Frison-Roche, ''The Last Crevasse'', Methuen, London, 1952; * (trans. jointly with Nea Morin) Maurice Herzog, ''
Annapurna Annapurna (; ne, अन्नपूर्ण) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficu ...
'', Cape, London, 1952; subsequent edns., various publishers, 1974, 1986, 1997 & 2011; * (trans. jointly with Nea Morin) Bernard Pierre, ''A Mountain Called Nun Kun'', Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1955; * (trans. jointly with Nea Morin) G. Gervasutti, ''Gervasutti's Climbs'', Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1957; 2nd edn., Diadem, Leicester, 1978.


See also

*
Michael Roberts (writer) Michael Roberts (6 December 1902 – 13 December 1948), originally named William Edward Roberts, was an English poet, writer, scientist, mathematician, critic and broadcaster, a true polymath who made his living as a teacher. Life He was bor ...
*
Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of which ...
* The Listener


Other sources

* Nicolas Barker, obituary: "Janet Adam Smith: A Woman of Substance in Literature and Mountaineering", ''The Guardian'', London, 14 September 1999. * Allan Massie, obituary, ''The Scotsman'', 14 September 1999. *
Leonard Miall Rowland Leonard Miall (6 November 1914 – 24 February 2005) was a broadcaster and administrator at the BBC for 35 years, from 1939 to 1974. In retirement, he became a research historian, studying the history of broadcasting. Early life Miall ...
, "Obituary: Janet Adam Smith", ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', London, 13 September 1999. * John D. Haigh, entry in the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition Oct. 2005.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Janet Adam 1905 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Scottish writers Scottish editors Scottish women editors Scottish women writers People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Officers of the Order of the British Empire New Statesman people 20th-century Scottish women