----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Vincent" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: Money and poetry
>Most famously, students of I.A.
> Richards and Empson (sp?), worked for British Intelligence in World War
II.
> The critical skills acquired from examining poems at close range (7 Kinds
of
> Ambiguity, etc.) were crucial to deciphering German code.
Really? I knew about the mathematicians (like Turing) and the chess masters
(like C.H.O'D. Alexander and Leonard Barden) but didn't know that the tribes
of Practical Criticism and Some Versions of Pastoral were holed out at
Bletchley too. Fascinating - bet they were very junior though!
I know those writers who worked in some capacity for British Intelligence
during WWII were a very unusual assortment, imagine John Betjeman and
Patrick White as even being in the same room together!
Best
Dave
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