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Apr 16, 2014
Basil Bunting on Creative Writing
Richard Burton
Hanif Kureishi isn’t the first author to cause outrage with off the cuff remarks about creative writing (see this Guardian article). Over 40 years ago Basil Bunting (probably deliberately) blew up the English department at the University of Victoria over the same issue. At that time the department was dominated … Read More
Jan 16, 2014
Basil Bunting and Biography
Richard Burton
The old man in August Kleinzahler’s beautiful poem ‘The Bench’ is the poet Basil Bunting, the location Victoria, British Columbia, during Bunting’s disastrous winter at the University of Victoria in 1971-72 (LRB, 9 January). After a spectacular falling out with Robin Skelton, Bunting was left isolated, lonely and bitter, but … Read More
Jan 6, 2014
Basil Bunting’s anniversaries
Richard Burton
Mark Ford, in his review of A Strong Song Tows Us in The Guardian, makes a connection that I haven’t seen anywhere else. “Of course,” he writes, “this biography has been written because in 1965 Bunting published Briggflatts, considered one of the greatest poems of the century.” Strangely enough it had … Read More
Nov 19, 2013
2,221 forgotten poets of the First World War
Richard Burton
Liam Guilar’s thorough and thoroughly positive review of A strong song tows us in Lady Godiva and Me is a delight. Towards the end of his review Guilar raises some interesting points about how poets’ reputations are built and how the fact that they (sometimes) survive is at the mercy … Read More
Nov 11, 2013
Basil Bunting at Tom Pickard’s trial
Richard Burton
Liam Guilar, in his review of A Strong Song Tows Us, was sorry that I missed one of his favourite Basil Bunting stories: “It’s a fine book. There are a couple things I was surprised to miss: one of my favorite Bunting stories is about his appearance at Tom Pickard’s … Read More
Nov 4, 2013
Basil Bunting and Lorine Niedecker
Richard Burton
In his Spectator review of my life of Basil Bunting, A Strong Song Tows Us, Wynn Wheldon asks if we ‘really need to read correspondence from someone who “nearly met Bunting”’, offering this as evidence that the book was ‘not terrifically well edited’. In my view A Strong Song Tows … Read More
Oct 22, 2013
Basil Bunting: Bunting’s saqis
Richard Burton
I was grateful for Matthew Sperling’s positive review of A Strong Song Tows Us in Literary Review and like him hope for a revival of interest in this great poet. I should clarify my position on one point that Sperling raises, not because it represents a mild criticism of my … Read More
