The wireless past : Anglo-Irish writers and the BBC, 1931-1968

218 Pages·2016·0.99 MB·English

by  Bloom

OXFORD MID-CENTURY STUDIES
The Oxford Mid-Century Studies series publishes monographs in
several disciplinary and creative areas in order to create a thick
description of culture in the thirty-year period around the Second
WorldWar.Withafocusonthe1930sthroughthe1960s,theseries
concentratesonfiction,poetry,film,photography,theatre,aswellas
art,architecture,design,andothermedia.Themid-centuryisanage
of shifting groups and movements, from existentialism through
abstract expressionism to confessional, serial, electronic, and pop
art styles. Theseries charts suchintellectual movements,evenas it
aidsandabetstheverybestscholarlythinkingaboutthepowerofart
inaworldundernewtechno-politicalcompulsions,whethernuclear-
apocalyptic, Cold War-propagandized, transnational, neo-imperial,
super-powered,orpostcolonial.
Serieseditors
AllanHepburn,McGillUniversity
AdamPiette,UniversityofSheffield
LyndseyStonebridge,UniversityofEastAnglia

The Wireless Past
Anglo-Irish Writers and the BBC,
–
1931 1968
EMILY C. BLOOM
1
3
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Acknowledgements
This is a book about connection—across time and space—and I owe
its inception and development to those individuals who have connected
metotheideas,archives,andfellowshipthathavemadeitpossibleforme
towrite.
Iwouldliketothank,firstandforemost,ElizabethButlerCullingford
and Mia Carter. For steering me towards the writers and thinkers that
informthisproject,forcultivatingmyworkfromitsearlieststages,andfor
providingthepersonalandeditorialsupportnecessarytoseethisthrough,
I give you both all my appreciation. To Alan Friedman, I thank you for
firstintroducingmetoSamuelBeckett’sAllThatFallandsettingmeona
course towards radio studies that I did not anticipate. Many thanks to
Cole Hutchison for his invaluable advice at a critical early stage and to
Robert Savage, who offered crucial suggestions for developing this book
andwhoseownworkhaspavedapathforradioresearch inIrishstudies.
AgenerousgrantfromtheMaureenDecherdFellowshipaffordedmethe
timeandtravelbudgetforafirstresearchtriptotheBBCarchivestobegin
thiswork,andIthanktheDecherdfamilyfortheirsupport.Friendsand
colleaguesattheUniversityofTexasatAustinwhohelpedshapemyideas
as readers and sounding boards include Jamie Jesson, Charlotte Nunes,
AndiGustavson,AllysonLaBorde,PearlBrilmyer,StephanieRosen,Jason
Leubner,RachelSchneider,LaurenGantz,SeanMcCarthy,LayneCraig,
Jaime deBlanc-Knowles, and many more. Thank you for providing me
withsuchawarmintellectualcommunity.
The faculty and students at Georgia State University granted me the
institutional support and personal resources to nurture and develop this
project.MysincerestthankstoMarilynnRichtarikwhosementoringand
assistanceallowedthisbooktoseedaylight.FellowfacultymembersGina
CaisonandAshleyHolmesreaddraftsandproposals,commiserated,and
helped make Atlanta home. Thanks to Matthew Roudané and Randy
Malamudforyourconfidenceinmywork.TotheEnglishDepartmentat
Georgia State I am indebted for the research budget that allowed me to
finishmyworkattheBBCarchives.MartaHessdeservesaddedthanksfor
helpingnavigateadministrativehurdles.MygraduatestudentsatGeorgia
State were a continual inspiration, and I want to thank especially Sarah
Dyne,ShannonFinck,MaryGraceElliott,HarperStrom,andMeredith
Zaringforremindingmewhyscholarshipmatters.
vi Acknowledgements
Otherinstitutionsthathavehelpedmovethisbookalongitsperipatetic
path include the United States Air Force Academy and Columbia Uni-
versity. At the US Air Force Academy, I would like to thank Kathleen
HarringtonandCandicePipesforwelcomingmeintotheDepartmentof
English and Fine Arts as a Visiting Professor. Thank you to the entire
facultyformakingspaceformeattheAcademyandforreadingmywork
in progress: you all gave additional meaning to my ‘air-borne bards.’
Special thanks to Greg Laski, Megan and Jake Khan, Richard Johnston,
Margaret Downs-Gamble, and Steve Carter in Colorado Springs. At
Columbia University, I would like to thank Jean Howard for offering
me a Visiting Assistant Professor position and the research funding to
finish this project, as well as Sarah Cole for her ongoing support as
departmentchair.
Thisbookwouldnotbepossiblewithoutaccesstoandassistancefrom
severalarchivalcollections.IwouldespeciallyliketothankLouiseNorth
and the staff at the BBC Written Archives in Caversham. They allowed
me tomakeproductivevisitstothecollectionsandrespondedwithgreat
caretoallofmyinquiriesfromabroad.IkeEgbetolaattheBritishLibrary
gave assistance with the BBC Sound Archives, allowing me to listen to
recordings.Theseresearchtripswouldnothavebeenasenjoyablewithout
Anita and Robert Morgan and Anna and Sebastian Langdell who gra-
ciouslyhostedmeonmyvisits.IalsothankthestaffattheHarryRansom
Center in Austin, especially Jean Cannon, Patricia Fox, and Gabriela
Redwine,forwalkingmethroughthecollectionsandstokingmyinterest
inarchivalwork.
At Oxford University Press, Jacqueline Baker took a chance on this
book and has been patient and thorough in moving it through the
publication process. Thanks to Jonathan Williams who read my manu-
script,editedsections,andhelpedsteeritspathtowardspublication.Vera
Krielkamp and two anonymous readers at Éire-Ireland offered helpful
editorial remarks that shaped the development of the first chapter. As a
reader and series editor, Allan Hepburn provided invaluable suggestions
on several drafts of this manuscript. His sharp eye and fine editorial
sensibilitieshavehadanimportantimpactonthisbook.
The following permissions were granted by various institutions to
facilitatethispublication.BBCcopyrightmaterialisreproducedcourtesy
oftheBritishBroadcastingCorporation(allrightsreserved).TheEstateof
Maurice MacGonigal generously granted permission to use the artist’s
illustrationof‘TheCurseofCromwell’.Imagereproductionandrightsto
reprint ‘The Curse of Cromwell’ from W. B. Yeats’s Broadsides (Dublin:
Cuala Press, 1937) were provided by the Morgan Library and Museum.
An excerpt from Samuel Beckett’s letter to Donald McWhinnie dated
Acknowledgements vii
29 January 1957 was reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of
Samuel Beckett c/o Rosica Colin Limited, London. The Harry Ransom
Center in Austin, Texas gave permission to quote from the ‘Elizabeth
Bowen Collection’ and the ‘Samuel Beckett Collection’. I acknowledge
Faber & Faber for their permission to use an epigraph from Louis
MacNeice’s Out of the Picture: A Play in Two Acts (London: Faber &
Faber, 1937) as well as permission to quote from Louis MacNeice’s
Collected Poems (ed. Peter McDonald. London: Faber & Faber, 2007).
A version of Chapter1 appeared as ‘Yeats’s Radiogenic Poetry: Oral
Traditions and Auditory Publics’ in Eire-Ireland 46.3&4 (2011) and is
reprintedherewithpermission.
Finally,Iwouldberemissinnotmentioningmyextendedfamilywho
have supported this book before it was a book at all. To all the Blooms,
Lichtys, Fowles, and Stewarts, I appreciate your patience with me as
I wrote and your enthusiasm for the project as it developed. Thank you
above all to my incomparable parents, Martha and David Bloom who
instilled in me a love of language and the tools to use it. And finally,
IdedicatethisbooktoDustinStewart,mybesteditor,intendedaudience,
andlovingwitness.

Table of Contents
ListofAbbreviations xi
Introduction:Air-BorneBards 1
1. W.B.Yeats’sRadiogenicPoetry 27
2. LouisMacNeiceintheEchoChamber 64
3. ElizabethBowen’sSpectralRadio 94
4. SamuelBeckett’sSoundArchives 128
Conclusion:LegaciesofRadiogenicAesthetics 161
Bibliography 181
Index 197