12 for 2012: No.12: Dmitry Merezhovsky (1865-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today's twelfth and final post features a founder of the Russian symbolist movement, writer, poet and critic Dmitry Merezhovsky.

Dmitry Merezhovsky was born in St Petersburg into a large, wealthy and well-connected family. While studying at the St Petersburg Third Classic Gymnasium, an elite grammar school, the thirteen-year-old Merezhovsky began writing poetry and developed a passion for the works of Pushkin and Molière. Interest in the latter nearly led to Merezhovsky’s expulsion from the school, but his father’s connections protected him. Merezhovsky’s first poems were published while the author was still in his teens, and their popularity brought him fame before he even started university. By the late 1880s Merezhovsky had settled down and married the poet Zinaida Gippius, and began moving on to literary pastures new. He soon made his successful début in the field of literary criticism, and developed a whole new genre of philosophical essay as a form of critical thesis. Merezhovsky’s ideas were often regarded as scandalous by the contemporary literary establishment, and he became known as a ‘rising star’ in the growing scene of experimental literature.

Merezhovsky co-founded the Russian Symbolist movement, and continued to publish successful novels, poems, plays and essays; Merezhovsky was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature on nine separate occasions, although he never received the award. Merezhovsky and his wife frequently found themselves at the centre of controversy, and in 1919 they were forced to flee their country to live in exile after speaking out against the October Revolution. As his political activism increased, Merezhovsky turned away from writing prose and focused on his unique form of religious-philosophical essay, in free and experimental style, but still under the title of ‘novel’. His works during the 1920s focused on different ways in which humankind could achieve salvation. In the 1930s he wrote about of a doomed Europe, stuck between two ‘explosive’ stores: Communisim and Fascism. Merezhovksy may have been anti-Communist, but he remained a Russian nationalist until the end. His years in exile were spent mostly in Germany and then later in Paris, where he died from a brain haemorrhage in 1941.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.11: Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today we feature a French author whose creation was a Gallic rival to Sherlock Holmes.

French writer Maurice Leblanc had his literary breakthrough in 1905, when his creation ‘Arsène Lupin’ first made a published appearance. In previous years, Leblanc’s short stories and novels had been admired by critics but had failed to win the hearts of the public. Lupin, the gentleman-thief turned detective, brought Leblanc surprise fame and success. Reviews and sales of the Lupin books were so good that from 1905 onwards Leblanc dedicated almost the entirety of his career to producing more Lupin creations. By the end of his life, Leblanc had produced no fewer than twenty-one novels or short-story collections about Lupin. From 1908 Lupin became a popular stage personality when Leblanc’s stories were dramatized, and in 1912 Leblanc became part of the Légion d’Honneur in recognition of his services to literature.

Despite the success he met in the genre of crime fiction, Leblanc at times resented Lupin’s success. The writer made repeated efforts to create other characters, but inevitably ended up merging them with Lupin. For this reason, parallels have been drawn between Leblanc and his English counterpart Conan Doyle, who met with similar experiences when he created Sherlock Holmes some years earlier. Other works produced by Leblanc in the ‘Lupin years’ were the science fiction novels Les Trois Yeux (1919) and Le formidable evènement (1920).

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.10: Frank Bridge (1879-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today we feature an undeservedly little-known composer of some idyllic music -- and also some fairly desolate sounds.

Following his studies at the Royal College of Music under the notoriously harsh tutelage of Charles Stanford, Frank Bridge embarked on his musical career as a violinist, conductor and composer. Bridge soon exchanged his violin for a viola and made a name for himself as a high-profile chamber musician. This did not slow him down from progressing along the conducting path, becoming Henry Wood’s preferred deputy on many occasions; neither did it prevent him from producing a number of popular compositions.

Bridge’s early compositional style showed the influence of Ravel, Debussy and Scriabin, and his chamber music works were highly regarded. However, after the First World War Bridge’s creative style underwent a radical change. The ‘utter despair’ he felt at the tragedy and inhumanity of the war was translated into desolate, pessimistic and uncomfortable musical sounds. He developed his characteristic ‘Bridge chord’, which is the combined clash of C minor and D major chords, and which features in a number of his post-war works. This change in musical style did not do his popularity any favours; his music became more inaccessible and far less charming. Although Bridge’s more radical music did meet with better reception in America, Bridge remained in demand in his native England as a conductor, performer and teacher of a great many pupils – most notably Benjamin Britten, whose 1937 ‘Variations on a theme by Frank Bridge’ was dedicated to his teacher. Some of Bridge’s most famous works include ‘Moto perpetuo’ for violin (1900), and his orchestral suite ‘The Sea’ (1911).

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.9: Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today the series features a giant of Indian culture and thought. 

For the first fifty-one years of his life, Rabindranath Tagore was relatively unknown. Apart from a failed attempt to study law in England, Tagore remained in his hometown of Calcutta and enjoyed limited success as a writer, philosopher and educator. His fortune changed in 1912 after travelling to England with his son. To fill time on the long journey, Tagore began translating his latest collection of poems, Gitanjali, into English. Upon arrival his only friend in England, the artist Sir William Rothenstein, was immensely impressed with these poems and showed them to his friend, the distinguished poet W.B. Yeats. Within a year Tagore had become an international literary sensation, and in 1913 went down in history as the first non-Westerner to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.

Tagore devoted a great deal of his energies to promoting his ideals of harmony between different cultures, and in 1915 was knighted by King George V. Although Tagore tried to stay out of politics he later renounced this knighthood after the Amritsar massacre of 400 Indian demonstrators by British troops in 1919. The variety of Tagore’s creative output is a testament to the many interests and ideals to which he was devoted. In Bangladesh as well as India, Tagore is famous for having written the country’s national anthem; he also produced over a thousand poems, eight volumes of short stories, almost two dozen plays, eight novels, and countless books and essays on philosophy, religion, education and social issues. Tagore’s output of songs, exceeding two thousand in number, remain immensely popular in Bengal.

The legacy of Tagore does not rest exclusively in the quality and quantity of his published works; the university he founded in 1918 (Visva Bharati, in East Bengal) aims to combine the finest teachings of Hindu culture with Western ideals, and was declared ‘an institute of national importance’ by the Indian Parliament after Tagore’s death in 1941.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.8: "Jelly Roll" Morton (1885-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today we feature a colourful personality within the field of jazz -- the celebrated pianist and composer "Jelly Roll" Morton.

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (‘Jelly Roll Morton’) was famous both for his musical talents and for his rather overconfident nature. His self-promotion as the ‘inventor of jazz’ has been disparaged by many a musician and critic, yet his considerable accomplishments speak for themselves. Morton’s musical career began at the age of fourteen, when he began working as a piano player in a brothel. His nickname ‘Jelly Roll’, which at the time had sexual connotations, was acquired during this period. He was kicked out of the home he shared with his grandmother when she discovered how he was earning his living. Still in his teens, Jelly Roll became a travelling musician, composing and performing all over the American South.

'Jelly Roll Blues' (1915) became the first published jazz composition, and Morton’s famous jazz arrangements are unique in their ability to capture the essence of improvisation on paper. Other well-known works by Morton are 'Black Bottom Stomp' (1926), 'Wolverine Blues' (1927), and 'I thought I heard Buddy Bolden Say'. Morton’s piano style was influenced by ragtime and boogie-woogie, and his music often had a wild, improvisatory feel. Whether or not the invention of jazz can be attributed to Jelly Roll, he was undoubtedly a pioneer figure in the development of this genre, and the creator of some of today’s greatest jazz arrangements.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.7: Johan Wagenaar (1862-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today's featured creative personality is not so well-known -- so it will be interesting to see if his reputation rises now that his music has fallen out of copyright.

Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar began his formal musical education at the age of thirteen, at the Utrecht music school. Upon graduation, Wagenaar was immediately offered a job teaching at the same institution, which he juggled alongside composition studies in Berlin. Wagenaar remained a dedicated teacher throughout the rest of his career, progressing to directorship of the music conservatoire in The Hague (1919). Most of Wagenaar’s compositions are choral and orchestral works with lively themes; the majority of these are programmatic and have strong theatrical connotations.

Some of Wagenaar's most famous works include the overture 'Cyrano de Bergerac' (1905), 'De getemde feeks' (‘The Taming of the Shrew’, 1909), and his symphonic poems 'Saul en David' and 'Elverhöi'. Despite the sweeping changes that were revolutionising classical music in the early twentieth century, Wagenaar’s orchestral style was more conservative, reminiscent of nineteenth-century romantic tradition.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.6: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today's feature focuses on the iconic Virginia Woolf.

The life of Adeline Virginia (Stephen) Woolf was not a happy one. Although she was born into a literate, well-connected household and received a high-quality education, Woolf suffered from a string of emotional breakdowns and recurring bouts of depression. The first of these attacks was brought on by the death of her mother when Virginia was just 13; the final breakdown culminated in the writer’s suicide at the age of 59. Despite this instability, Woolf managed to maintain her literary productivity with few breaks in her life.

Together with a circle of fellow intellectual writers and artists, Woolf formed the Bloomsbury Group, which gained a reputation for its liberal and avant-garde tendencies. In 1912 Virginia married the writer Leonard Woolf. Apart from a rather tentative lesbian affair between Virginia and Vita Sackville-West in the 1920s, the Woolfs enjoyed a close and loving relationship until Virginia’s death. Some of Woolf’s most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To The Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928); the essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), and several autobiographical writings. To this day, Woolf is regarded as an innovator in the English language. Her writing tends to focus on the psychological and emotional motivations of her characters, experimenting with stream-of-consciousness and auditory or visual impressions amidst an often uneventful narrative. Although Woolf’s popularity declined sharply after the Second World War, the writer has since been hailed as one of the twentieth century’s leading modern novelists.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.5: Elizabeth Madox Roberts (1881-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today's feature focuses on late-developing novelist and children's poet Elizabeth Madox Roberts.

Elizabeth Madox Roberts was already 40 years old when she fulfilled her life-long dream of graduating from college. While studying literature and philosophy Roberts was greatly inspired by the connections she forged at the college poetry club, and her first collection of poems (Under the Tree) was published the year after she left college. Since its publication in 1922, these children’s poems have never been out of print. Most of Roberts’ remaining years were spent in her hometown of Springfield, Kentucky, where she continued to produce highly-acclaimed poems, seven novels and a number of short stories. Roberts loved Kentucky, which she called her ‘Little Country’, and many of her works are based around the Kentucky mountain people.

Roberts' first novel, The Time of Man (1926), was an international success and inspired her to write several further works, including The Great Meadow (1930), and A Buried Treasure (1936). Her poetry was known for its strong rhythmic qualities, and idiosyncratic language. As public recognition grew, Roberts received a number of major poetry prizes in the later years of her life, and her poetic style had a strong influence on the development of fellow Kentuckian poet and writer Robert Penn Warren.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.4: Isaak Babel (1894-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today's feature focuses on the precocious story-teller and dissident Isaak Babel:

Born into a relatively well-off Odessa family, the young Isaak Babel was educated at home by private tutors. Babel was fluent in Russian, Yiddish and French, and nurtured a lifelong interest in the works of Maupassant and Flaubert; his earliest stories (no longer extant) were composed in French. After an unsuccessful attempt to get through the Jewish quota of Odessa University, Babel enrolled at the Kiev Institute of Finance and Business, graduating at the age of 19. Following his move to St Petersburg, Babel met and befriended Maxim Gorky, who began to publish Babel’s stories in a literary magazine. Babel’s experiences on the battlefield during the Soviet-Polish war (1920) led him to document the horrors in his collection of stories Red Cavalry.

Babel's honest portrayal of the brutalities of war made him unpopular at first, but with Gorky’s support Babel soon broke onto the Russian literary scene and became an instant favourite at home and abroad. Some of his most famous works include Story of my Dovecote (1925), and Tales from Odessa (1931), now considered masterpieces of Russian literature. After enjoying great success during the 1930s Babel fell from grace with the authorities. Unwilling to conform to Stalin’s demands on writers, Babel withdrew from public life, noting ironically that he was becoming a ‘master’ of the new literary genre of silence. Babel’s play 'Maria', not performed in Russia until the collapse of the Soviet Union, depicts a society rife with political corruption, persecution of the innocent and black-marketeering.

In 1939 Babel’s dangerous affair with the wife of Nikolai Yezhov, NKVD boss, led to his arrest, imprisonment and torture. Babel ‘confessed’ to committing ‘sabotage’ by failing to produce any significant works in recent years. Following his twenty-minute trial, Babel was sentenced and executed. From being a foremost writer of his time, Babel soon became a nobody; his name was removed from literary dictionaries and encyclopaedias, his works taken off school and university syllabuses. Since his public rehabilitation in 1954, Babel’s works have since been widely republished and acclaimed.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.3 Mary Rose-Anna Bolduc (1894-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today's feature focuses on the Queen of Canadian Folksingers.

‘La Bolduc’ – Mary Rose-Anna Bolduc, née Travers, came from a humble background. Her only music teacher was her father, and in her youth she learned several traditional Quebec folk instruments. The family could not afford a record player or sheet music, and Mary learned everything by ear. Her financial circumstances did not change after her marriage to Edouard Bolduc in 1914. Mary would often entertain family and friends by holding musical soirées; after a while she was spotted by a troupe leader where she earned some money playing the violin. Her voice also caught the attention of a record artist and in 1929 Mary’s second recorded song met with unprecedented popularity: more than twelve thousand copies were sold. Following this astounding breakthrough, ‘La Bolduc’ released a double-sided record of her own songs every month with great success. In the early 1930s Bolduc formed her own touring troupe, La Troupe du bon vieux temps, which met with even greater acclaim. When record sales began to slump, income from her performances remained high.

Quebec’s first singer-songwriter developed her own trade mark style of writing, combining lively, upbeat rhythms with comic lyrics. The folk music of her youth played a strong influence on Bolduc’s songs; she frequently set original lyrics to traditional melodies. Many of these songs were broadside ballads, in which current topical events are set to old folk tunes. Some of Bolduc’s best-known songs today are ‘Qui vous avez une fille qui veut se marier’ (‘If you have a daughter who wants to wed’), and ‘La cuisinière’.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.2 Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1864-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus seventy years" term for copyright in authors' works. Today's author is little known outside his native country, though his best-known work will be familiar to many readers.

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson’s early years were spent on an isolated station in the Australian outback. As soon as he was old enough to ride a pony, Paterson started school in the tiny village of Binalong, moving on from there to Sydney Grammar School. In addition to demonstrating academic prowess, Paterson was also a successful sportsman with a great love of the outdoors. Although Paterson qualified and worked as a solicitor, he also managed to juggle work as a writer, a jockey, a soldier and a farmer on the side. In 1885 Paterson began having his poems published in a weekly magazine under the pseudonym of ‘Banjo’, the name of a favourite horse. His 1890 poem "The Man from Snowy River" became a national success, and five years later Paterson published a collection of poems with the same name. This anthology remains the most popular collection of Australian Bush poetry to date, and is still being reprinted. During the Second Boer War, Paterson’s work as a journalist and war correspondent spread his name to Britain.

After making a decision to abandon journalism and writing in 1908, Paterson’s remarkable versatility was demonstrated further during the First World War, during which he served as an ambulance driver and honorary vet before rising through the ranks from officer to major. After his return to Australia Paterson went back to his poetry and journalism, which he kept up until the end of his life. One of Paterson’s best-known poems is "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), a traditional bush ballad which has become the unofficial national anthem of Australia. Paterson was known for his ardent nationalism and deep attachment to Australia’s land and folklore, and the majority of his writing reflects these sources of inspiration.

This series has been authored by Miriam Levenson, whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.

12 for 2012: No.1 James Joyce (1882-1941)

During each of the twelve days of Christmas, the 1709 Blog is bringing readers some information concerning an author, composer, artist or creator who died in 1941 and whose works fall into the public domain in 2012 in countries which operate a "life plus 70 years" copyright term.  This series starts with the brilliantly gifted Irish author James Joyce.

The oldest of ten surviving children, James Joyce was born into a middle-class Dublin family. Despite his family’s gradual slide into poverty during the 1890s, Joyce completed his education at Jesuit schools Clongowes and Belvedere and continued to excel in his studies at University College, Dublin. Following his graduation in 1903 Joyce struggled to scrape a living. Although he earned some money reviewing books, teaching and singing, Joyce became a heavy drinker and did not manage his finances well. The following year Joyce eloped to the continent with his sweetheart Nora Barnacle, seldom returning to Ireland in subsequent years. However, Joyce’s works were always set in Dublin, and his semi-autobiographical style evoked relatives and acquaintances from his Dublin years.
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Joyce's early volume of short stories, Dubliners (1914), was suppressed in Ireland due to its candid analysis of the stagnant Dublin society. Joyce spent World War I in Zurich, working on his first novel. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) is heavily autobiographical, portraying the protagonist ‘Stephen’ as he grows through adolescence and realises that he must free himself from the constrictions of Irish society. The publication of Joyce’s next major novel Ulysses (1914-21) was delayed by obscenity charges, appearing in America only in 1933. During this time Joyce wrote his play 'Exiles', and published a number of books of poetry. Joyce’s literary style, which had developed gradually since Dubliners, was pushed to the limit in his next and final novel, Finnegan’s Wake (1939). This novel abandoned all the literary conventions of plot and character-painting, and is replete with Joyce’s characteristic shifts in consciousness, rich language puns and allusion. James Joyce became famous for his avant-garde exploitation of the English language, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential modernist writers of the early twentieth century.

This series has been composed by Miriam Levenson, to whom the 1709 Blog gives its grateful thanks.