{"id":86,"date":"2019-01-17T23:56:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T23:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/?page_id=86"},"modified":"2019-03-13T12:41:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T12:41:55","slug":"about-norman-nicholson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/about-norman-nicholson\/","title":{"rendered":"About Norman Nicholson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norman Nicholson (1914-87)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/p>\n

Who was Norman Nicholson?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Norman Nicholson was a poet and writer widely regarded as the most important Cumbrian poet of the 20th<\/sup> century. Nicholson was also a prolific reviewer, broadcaster, essayist, anthologist and critic. From 1944 onwards his poetry and drama were published by Faber & Faber, while his topographical writings were published by Robert Hale and Company, London, in the County Book Series and as individual books. He was awarded the first ever Heinemann Prize for Poetry in 1945 for his collection Five Rivers<\/em> and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year. Further honours followed, including the Cholmondeley Award in 1967, the Queen\u2019s Medal for Poetry in 1977 and an OBE in 1981. Several British universities also honoured him, including the University of Lancaster, which awarded Nicholson an honorary DLitt in 1984. Nicholson\u2019s work was known abroad, especially in the 1940s and 1950s, and a number of his works were translated into other languages, including Italian, Danish, Welsh, Dutch and Russian.<\/p>\n

A writer of place and locality<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nicholson\u2019s writing is known for its rootedness and profound sense of place. He was born in Millom, Cumbria, in 1914 and lived in a small terraced house there till his death in 1987, with the exception of a period of nearly two years, from 1930-32, when he was sent to a sanatorium in the New Forest, Hampshire, to recover from tuberculosis. Whilst at school he had been a brilliant scholar, but his illness prevented him taking up a place at university and arguably made him into the writer of locality he eventually became.<\/p>\n

Studies of Nicholson\u2019s work<\/strong><\/p>\n

He is now considered to be an \u2018environmental writer of some significance\u2019[i]<\/a> whose work has been the subject of a number of recent studies by David Cooper<\/a>, Stacey McDowell<\/a>, Christopher Donaldson<\/a>, Brian Whalley<\/a>, Alan Beattie<\/a> and Andrew Gibson<\/a>, among others. These, together with two recent biographies, by Kathleen Jones<\/a> and David Boyd<\/a>, demonstrate a clear revival of interest in Nicholson\u2019s work. Earlier studies include a full length book by Philip Gardner (1973), a seminal study by Neil Curry<\/a> (2001), a number of essays by Matt Simpson<\/a>, and articles or book chapters by John Greening, Daniel Hay, Robin Skelton, Peter Scupham, Anthony Thwaite, A. Trevor Tolley,\u00a0 and William Woodrow (2007), amongst others.<\/p>\n

Reputation and relevance<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Faber & Faber published his posthumous Collected Poems<\/em> (ed. Neil Curry) in 1994, the freelance author and academic Ian Sansom<\/a> described him as \u2018simply, profoundly, a gifted poet’ and with great insight summarized the trajectory of his poetic development as follows:<\/p>\n

a recognition of, a coming to terms with, and finally a delight in, the extraordinary rootedness which distinguished him from the globetrotting expats and exiles of literary modernism whom he so admired.<\/p>\n

The writer Paul Kingsnorth<\/a> has written more recently of his realization that Nicholson was a very good and relevant writer, saying that Nicholson\u2019s work fulfils his requirement for a \u2018sense of stoicism and realism in the face of the decline of our civilisation, and linked to that a sense of humility and reality about the human place in the world\u2019. More importantly still, Nicholson writes \u2018from a place: knowing that place and understanding it [\u2026] a sense of writing from beyond metropolis and cosmopolis, the two pole stars of modern culture\u2019.[ii]<\/a><\/p>\n

The poet and writer Grevel Lindop<\/a> has said that Norman Nicholson\u2019s writing \u2018was valuable and excellent in a wider context, whether you\u2019re interested in Cumbria and the Lakes or not\u2019[iii]<\/a> and has called him \u2018an environmentalist before the word existed\u2019[iv]<\/a>, also praising his \u2018vivid colloquial language\u2019, his \u2018extraordinary, individual and deep perspective\u2019, and his ability to \u2018take the most ordinary-seeming place and make it extraordinary\u2019[v]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Where next for Nicholson Studies?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Papers of Norman Nicholson<\/a> are housed in the University of Manchester\u2019s John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester, which has also preserved the Norman Nicholson Book Collection (GB 133 NBK), as well as several related collections. These archival materials are described on a separate page<\/a> on this website.<\/p>\n

Browsing the past issues of Comet<\/em> made available on this website, or looking in detail at specific articles, will help today\u2019s readers, students and academics to gain a sense of the quality and scope of Nicholson\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\n

[i]<\/a> Kathleen Jones, Norman Nicholson:<\/em> The Whispering Poet<\/em>, Appleby: The Book Mill 2013, p. 232.<\/span><\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> Paul Kingsnorth, \u2018Out on the Stubborn Skerry\u2019, 2010 [Accessed 17 January 2019]. Available from: https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20131005004425\/http:\/dark-mountain.net\/out-on-the-stubborn-skerry\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> Grevel Lindop, \u2018Norman Nicholson \u2013 An Essential Poet\u2018, 2013 [Accessed 17 January 2019]. Available from\u00a0: https:\/\/grevel.co.uk\/poetry\/norman-nicholson-essential-poet\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a> Ibid.<\/span><\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> Ibid.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norman Nicholson (1914-87) Who was Norman Nicholson? Norman Nicholson was a poet and writer widely regarded as the most important Cumbrian poet of the 20th century. Nicholson was also a prolific reviewer, broadcaster, essayist, anthologist and critic. From 1944 onwards his poetry and drama were published by Faber & Faber, while his topographical writings were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1024,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PatO3b-1o","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":58,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/browse-articles\/","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":0},"title":"Browse Articles","author":"Bartek Baranski","date":"November 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2018A dark, parental presence\u2019 Nicholson and Black Combe by David Cooper \u2018My ways are circumscribed\u2026.\u2019 a letter from Brenda Thompson \u2018Norman Nicholson\u2019s Millom People and Places\u2019 (Vol. 5, Issue 3, pp. 14-15) by Phil Houghton \u2018Places on the Margin\u2019 A Review of Neil Curry\u2019s the Cumberland Coast by David Cooper\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":617,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/poetry-in-cumbria-norman-nicholson-and-beyond-by-penny-bradshaw\/","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":1},"title":"Poetry in Cumbria Norman Nicholson and Beyond by Penny Bradshaw","author":"Bartek Baranski","date":"April 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Click here: Poetry in Cumbria Norman Nicholson and Beyond by Penny Bradshaw","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/about-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":2},"title":"About Us","author":"Paul Rayson","date":"October 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Comet is the newsletter\/journal of the Norman Nicholson Society. It has been published since 2006, when the Norman Nicholson Society was founded, and initially appeared three times a year. From 2013 onwards the newsletter was published twice a year, but with greatly expanded content. Intermittently in the years before 2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/archives\/","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":3},"title":"NORMAN NICHOLSON: ARCHIVAL MATERIALS","author":"Bartek Baranski","date":"November 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a rich body of materials that relates to Norman Nicholson\u2019s life and work held at the John Rylands Library, Manchester University. These materials cast light not only on Nicholson\u2019s own life and work, but on the relationships he formed with many other important 20th century writers, with publishers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":112,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":4},"title":"Comet Online","author":"Bartek Baranski","date":"January 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to Comet Online Comet Comet is the newsletter\/journal of the Norman Nicholson Society. It has been published since 2006, when the Norman Nicholson Society was founded. The Article Index gives full details of each issue. Our Author Index lists articles by author. Both can be downloaded from the website\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":531,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/memories-of-the-w-e-a-by-norman-nicholson\/","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":5},"title":"MEMORIES OF THE W.E.A. by Norman Nicholson","author":"Bartek Baranski","date":"April 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Click here: MEMORIES OF THE W.E.A. by Norman Nicholson","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86\/revisions\/376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/nns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}