Hughes, Ted [Euripides].

Alcestis.

London, Faber and Faber, 1999. 13.2 cm x 20.6 cm. 83 pages. Original Hardcover with original dustjacket in protective collector’s mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear.

Edward James “Ted” Hughes OM (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet and children’s writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation, and one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. He served as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death. In 1951, Hughes initially studied English at Pembroke College under M.J.C. Hodgart, an authority on balladic forms. Hughes felt encouraged and supported by Hodgart’s supervision, but attended few lectures and wrote no more poetry at this time, feeling stifled by literary academia and the “terrible, suffocating, maternal octopus” of literary tradition. He wrote, “I might say, that I had as much talent for Leavis-style dismantling of texts as anyone else, I even had a special bent for it, nearly a sadistic streak there, but it seemed to me not only a foolish game, but deeply destructive of myself.” In his third year he transferred to anthropology and archaeology, both of which would later inform his poetry. He did not excel as a scholar. His first published poetry appeared in Chequer. A poem “The little boys and the seasons”, written during this time, was published in Granta, under the pseudonym Daniel Hearing. Hughes was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 following the death of John Betjeman. It was later known that Hughes was second choice for the appointment. Philip Larkin, the preferred nominee, had declined, because of ill health and a loss of creative momentum, dying a year later. Hughes served in this position until his death in 1998. In 1992 Hughes published Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being, a monumental work inspired by Graves’s The White Goddess. The book, considered Hughes’s key work of prose, had a mixed reception “divided between those who considered it an important and original appreciation of Shakespeare’s complete works, whilst other dismissed it as a lengthy and idiosyncratic appreciation of Shakespeare refracted by Hughes’s personal belief system”. Hughes himself later suggested that the time spent writing prose was directly responsible for a decline in his health. Also in 1992 Hughes published Rain Charm for the Duchy, collecting together for the first time his Laureate works, including poems celebrating important royal occasions. The book also contained a section of notes, throwing light on the context and genesis of each poem. (Wikipedia).

• Keywords: Greek Literature · Plays · Poetry
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780571202669
• Inventory Number: 78059AB

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