Robert Wilson Lynd (; 20 April 1879 – 6 October 1949) was an Irish writer, editor of poetry, urbane literary essayist,

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...

Early life

Lynd was born at 3 Brookhill Avenue in Cliftonville,

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

to Robert John Lynd, a Presbyterian minister, and Sarah Rentoul Lynd, the second of seven children. Lynd's paternal great-grandfather emigrated from Scotland to Ireland. Lynd was educated at

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 Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today ...

, where he befriended James Winder Good and Paul Henry, and studied at Queen's University. His father served a term as

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

Moderator as one of a long line of Presbyterian clergy in the family. A 2003 essayist on Lynd recounts that his "maternal grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather had all been Presbyterian clergymen."

Literary career

Lynd began as a journalist, with James Winder Good, on '' The Northern Whig'' in

. He moved to London in 1901, via

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, sharing accommodation with Paul Henry who was establishing himself as an artist. Firstly he wrote drama criticism, for ''Today'', edited by

Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue ''Three Men in a Boat'' (1889). Other works include the essay collections '' Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow'' (1886) an ...

. He also wrote for the '' Daily News'' (later the ''

News Chronicle The ''News Chronicle'' was a British daily newspaper. Formed by the merger of '' The Daily News'' and the '' Daily Chronicle'' in 1930, it ceased publication on 17 October 1960,''Liberal Democrat News'' 15 October 2010, accessed 15 October 2010 b ...

''), being its literary editor 1912–47. The Lynds were literary hosts, in the group including J. B. Priestley. They were on good terms also 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 ...

. Priestley, Walpole and Sylvia Lynd were founding committee members of the Book Society. Irish guests included

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta 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 influentia ...

and James Stephens. On one occasion reported by Victor Gollancz in Reminiscences of Affection, p. 90, Joyce intoned ''

Anna Livia Plurabelle ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was published on 4 May 1939. ...

'' to his own piano accompaniment. He used the pseudonym Y.Y (Ys, or ''wise'') in writing for the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''. According to C. H. Rolph's ''Kingsley'' (1973), Lynd's weekly essay, which ran from 1913 to 1945, was "irreplaceable". In 1941, editor

Kingsley Martin Basil Kingsley Martin (28 July 1897 – 16 February 1969) usually known as Kingsley Martin, was a British journalist who edited the left-leaning political magazine the ''New Statesman'' from 1930 to 1960. Early life He was the son of (Dav ...

decided to alternate it with pieces by

James Bridie James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor.Daniel Leary (1982) ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: ...

on Ireland, but the experiment was not at all a success.

Political activism

Attendance at a performance in London of

John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909), popularly known as J. M. Synge, was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, essayist, and collector of folklores. As an important driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, Ir ...

's play '' Riders to the Sea'' aroused Lynd's Irish Nationalist sympathie

These were further radicalised by the Home Rule crisis of 1912–14. He was appalled at the threat of the use of violence to deliver Ulster from Home Rule and the later decision to postpone the implementation of the

Third Home Rule Bill The Government of Ireland Act 1914 ( 4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 90), also known as the Home Rule Act, and before enactment as the Third Home Rule Bill, was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide home rule (self-gover ...

. He later wrote: "Then came August 1914 and England began a war for the freedom of small nations by postponing the freedom of the only small nation in Europe which it was within her power to liberate with the stroke of a pen." Of James Connolly, Lynd was to write: "among the sixteen men who were executed after the failure of the Irish Insurrection of 1916 there was no nobler or more heroic figure than James Connolly". He described Connolly as "a working-class leader and a Nationalist in almost equal Proportions. He was at once as patriotic as

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as (). In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as () or (). 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. H ...

and as revolutionary as

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

". At the request of the

Irish Transport and General Workers' Union The Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) was a trade union representing workers, initially mainly labourers, in Ireland. History The union was founded by James Larkin and James Fearon in January 1909 as a general union. Initially ...

, Lynd wrote an introduction to a new edition of James Connolly's Labour in Irish history, first published in 1910. He became a fluent Irish speaker, and

Gaelic League (; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it eme ...

member. As a

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

activist, he used the name Robiard Ó Flionn/Roibeard Ua Flionn. He nonetheless rejected an ethnic definition of what it is to be Irish:

The 'Real irishman' is neither essentially a Celt nor essentially a Catholic. He is merely a man who has the good or bad fortune to be born in Ireland or of Irish parents, and who is interested in Ireland more than any other country ... the Orange labourer of the north whose ancestors may have come from Scotland, has all the attributes of an Irishman no less than the Catholic labourer of the west, whose ancestors may have come from Greece, or from Spain, or from anywhere you care to speculate.

In Belfast he was a member both of the republican

Dungannon Clubs The Dungannon Clubs were founded in Belfast, Ireland, in 1905, by Bulmer Hobson and Dennis McCullough, whose goal was the eventual creation of an Irish Republic. They were named after the Dungannon Convention of 1782.Morgan (1989), p. 140 Se ...

and of the Belfast Socialist Society.

Personal life and death

Lynd married the writer Sylvia Dryhurst on 21 April 1909. They had met at Gaelic League meetings in London. Their daughters Máire and Sigle became close friends of

Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

. Máire married communist lawyer

Jack Gaster Jacob Gaster (6 October 1907 – 12 March 2007), known as Jack Gaster, was a British communist solicitor and politician. Biography Born in Maida Vale, Jack was the son of Moses Gaster, the leader of the Sephardic Jewish Congregation in London ...

and had three children. Sigle's son, born in 1941, is artis
Tim Wheeler
In March 1924, Robert and Sylvia moved to what was to be their long-term married home, the elegant Regency house of 5 Keats Grove in the leafy suburb of

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, north-west London. The house had been lived in by various members of Sylvia's (Dryhurst) family.Wilson, N. (2017
"'So now tell me what you think!': Sylvia Lynd's collaborative reading and reviewing the work of an interwar middlewoman"
''Literature & History''. ISSN 0306-1973. University of Reading.

and his wife

Nora Barnacle Nora Barnacle Joyce (born Norah Barnacle; 21 March 1884 – 10 April 1951) was the muse and wife of Irish author James Joyce. Barnacle and Joyce's life together has been the subject of much popular interest. ''Nora Barnacle'', a 1980 play by ...

held their wedding lunch at the Lynds' house after getting married at

Hampstead Town Hall Hampstead Town hall is a municipal building on Haverstock Hill, Hampstead, London. It is a Grade II listed building. History The facility was commissioned by the Vestry of St John who had previously met in the offices of the local workhouse. A ...

on 4 July 1931. Lynd died in Hampstead in 1949. He is buried in

Belfast City Cemetery Belfast City Cemetery () is a large cemetery in west Belfast, Northern Ireland. It lies within the townland of Ballymurphy, between Falls Road and Springfield Road, near Milltown Cemetery. Burial records have been fully digitized and are sear ...

Seán MacBride Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Republican activist, politician, and diplomat who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff o ...

, Minister for External Affairs, attended the funeral as the representative of the government of the Republic of Ireland.

Works

*''The Mantle of the Emperor'' (1906) with Ladbroke Black
On Not Being A Philosopher''Irish and English''
(1908)
''Home Life in Ireland''
(1909)
''Rambles in Ireland''
(1912)
''The Book of This and That''
(1915)
''If the Germans Conquered England''
(1917)
''Old and New Masters''
(1919)
''Ireland a Nation''
(1919)
''The Art of Letters''
(1920)
''The Passion of Labour''
(1920)

articles
''The Pleasures of Ignorance''
(1921)
''Solomon in All His Glory''
(1922)
''The Sporting Life and Other Trifles''
(1922)
''Books and Authors''
(1922) *''The Blue Lion'' (1923) *''Selected Essays'' (1923) *''The Peal of Bells'' (1924) *''The Money Box'' (1925) *''The Orange Tree'' (1926) *''The Little Angel'' (1926) *''Dr. Johnson and Company'' (1927) *''The Goldfish'' (1927) *''The Silver Books of English Sonnets'' (1927), editor *''The Green Man'' (1928) *''It's a Fine World'' (1930) *''Rain, Rain, go to Spain'' (1931) *''Great Love Stories of All Nations'' (1932), editor *''"Y.Y." An Anthology of Essays'' (1933) *''The Cockleshell'' (1933) *''Both Sides of the Road'' (1934) *''I Tremble to Think'' (1936) *''In Defence of Pink'' (1937) *''Searchlights and Nightingales'' (1939) *''An Anthology of Modern Poetry'' (1939), editor *''Life's Little Oddities'' (1941), illustrated by Steven Spurrier *''Further Essays of Robert Lynd'' (1942) *''Things One Hears'' (1945), illustrated by *''Essays on Life and Literature'' (1951) *''Books and Writers'' (1952) *''Essays by Robert Lynd'' (1959) *''Galway of the Races – Selected essays'' (1990), edited by

Sean McMahon Sean McMahon (born 18 June 1994) is an Australian rugby union player for Suntory Sungoliath in the Japanese Top League. His regular playing position is Flanker. Career McMahon was born and raised in Brisbane and took his first steps in senior r ...

*''Without Glasses – abridged''

References

External links

About the Blue Plaque
ulsterhistory.co.uk
Contemporary Review article
findarticles.com * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynd, Robert Wilson 1879 births 1949 deaths Irish essayists Irish Presbyterians Irish socialists Irish people of Scottish descent Protestant Irish nationalists Writers from Belfast Burials at Belfast City Cemetery