I used to go to the pub at times when I worked in London in the late
1980s. It's not all that far from Euston station.
There're plenty of London pubs with literary links, The Fitzroy, for
instance, but you don't really notice anything about them (the
Fitzroy, which I think has now gone, had a Writer's and Artist's Bar
or Lounge, or something else equally cringeworthy. Dylan Thomas and
such sort of Forties types had been habitues. I used to go to The
Rising Sun, now that was one of Karl Marx's local drinking dens (he
had +three+ local pubs, which I think is a revealing fact!)
To my chagrin, I keep getting invites to free readings at London
pub-venues where sometimes some of the slightly more interesting
people about appear, but I'm a hundred miles away. I mean, it's not as
if there are any poets of stellar magnitudes about in England these
days, but there are some people with a bit about them.
John Lucas was down here in Leicester a few months back, discussing
the Forward Prize, and he opined that last year's award to Sean
O'Brien (again) should have been given to Edwin Morgan for his
lifetime achievement. I strongly agreed. Morgan's about as good as we
have left now (and he's in Scotland, and too frail to travel a lot,
else we'd pay him to come down to Leicester)
Best
Dave
2008/5/18 Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]>:
> David,
>
> Thanks for calling this piece to our attention. Though I've published an essay about Pound, Ford, &
> Lewis, I have to admit that I was previously unaware of some of the detail James Campbell provides.
> When did you frequent The Yorkshire Gray, and did the pub have a "literary presence" subsequent to
> the visits of Rimbaud and Pound?
>
> Barry
>
--
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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