Depression

• Henry Kendall papers: State Library of New South Wales, and National Library of Australia.
• Kendall, Thomas Henry. Leaves from Australian Forests. Melbourne: George Robertson, 1869.
• --. Poems and Songs. Sydney: J. R. Clarke, 1862. Internet Archive.
• --. Songs from the Mountains. Sydney: William Maddock, 1880. Google book.
• -- The Poems of Henry Kendall. Ed. Bertram Stephens. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1920. Internet Archive. Sydney Electronic Text and Image Service (SETIS).
• Reed, T.T. "Kendall, Thomas Henry (1839-1882)." Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5. Melbourne University Press, 1974. 13-14.
• --. Henry Kendall: A Critical Appreciation. Adelaide: Rigby, 1960.

We are grateful for access to AustLit in the preparation of these poems.

For more poems, see the Academy of America Poets

• At the Fishhouses
• Filling Station
• In the Waiting Room
• Little Exercise
• One Art
• Over 2,000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance
• Suicide of a Moderate Dictator
• The Armadillo
• The Fish
• The Moose
• Visits to St. Elizabeths

the Poetry Archive

• Roosters
• Crusoe in England
• At the Fish Houses
• Filling Station

and The Poetry Foundation

• A Miracle for Breakfast
• At the Fishhouses
• Filling Station
• The Man-Moth
• The Mountain
• Visits to St. Elizabeths

   

  • • Bishop, Elizabeth. North & South. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946, 1964.

    PS 3503.I785 N6 Robarts Library

    • --. Poems: North & South [and] A Cold Spring. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1955.

    PS 3503.I785 P6 Robarts Library

    • --. Questions of Travel. New York: Farrar and Straus, 1965.

    PS 3503.I785 Q4 Robarts Library

    • --. Selected Poems. London: Chatto and Windus, 1967.

    PS 3503.I785 A6 1967 Robarts Library

    • --. The Ballad of the Burglar of Babylon. New York: Farrar and Straus, 1968.

    PS 3503.I785 B35 1968 Robarts Library

    • --. The Complete Poems. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969.

    PS 3503.I785 1969 Robarts Library

    • --. Geography III. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976.

    PS 3503.I785 G4 Robarts Library

    • --. The Complete Poems, 1927-1979. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983.

    PS 3503.I785 1983 Robarts Library

    • --. Edgar Allen Poe & the Juke-box. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.

    PS 3503.I785 E34 2006X Robarts Library

Florence Margaret (Stevie) Smith was born on 20 September 1902 at 34 Delapole Avenue, Hull, Yorkshire. She was the daughter of Ethel Rahel and Charles Ward Smith. Her father left home for the merchant navy when his shipping business collapsed in 1906, leaving young Smith, her elder sister and mother to live off the inheritance provided by her maternal grandfather. The three women moved to Palmers Green, a hamlet on the north edge of London. Their house at 1 Avondale Road would become Stevie Smith's lifelong residence that she would come to share with her beloved aunt after her mother's death in 1919.

Smith was a sickly child who nearly died in infancy and developed tubercular peritonitis when she was five years old. After spending three years at a sanatorium for the treatment of her illness, she enrolled in Palmers Green high school and at the North London Collegiate School. Smith opted out of attending university, partially due to a lack of funds and partially because she did not wish to become a school teacher, virtually the only career choice for women at the time. Instead, she was trained at Mrs Hoster's prestigious secretarial academy. In 1922, she entered the firm of C. Arthur Pearson, where she was appointed personal secretary to Sir Neville Pearson. Although her secretarial work seemed undemanding at times, it gave Smith enough leisure time for extensive reading and writing.

Although her first collection of poems was rejected by the literary agent Curtis Brown in 1934, her first novel, Novel on Yellow Paper, was published in 1936 to great success. A year later, she managed to publish her first book of poems A Good Time was Had by All, which like all subsequent poetry collections, was illustrated with her own line drawings. Tender Only to One (1938) was equally well received, but Mother, what is Man? (1942) was less successful and the publication of her next novel, The Holiday (1949) was delayed by six years. During the 1940s and early 1950s, Smith's writing fell out of fashion; between 1953 and 1955 Punch was virtually the only periodical that would accept her work, despite the fact that she was writing some of her finest poetry during this period. In 1953, she became clinically depressed and was retired on medical advise from the company, now known as Newnes.

After her retirement, Smith spent several years as a reviewer for various periodicals, before publishing two successful collections of poetry entitled Not Waving but Drowning (1957) and The Frog Prince (1966). Her reputation once again increased, and during the 1960s she became a notable performer at poetry readings where she often performed alongside the Liverpool 'pop' poets to enthusiastic crowds. During this time, Smith was also receiving formal recognition for her writing. She was the recipient of the Cholmondeley award in 1966 and she was awarded the queen's gold medal for poetry in 1969.

Toward the end of 1970, Stevie Smith became ill with a brain tumour and she passed away several months later on 7 March, 1971 at Ashburton Cottage Hospital, Devon. Her final collection, Scorpion and other Poems appeared posthumously in 1972.

• Montefiore, Janet. "Smith, Florence Margaret [Stevie] (1902–1971)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• Smith, Stevie. A Good Time Was Had by All. London: J. Cape, 1937.
• --. Tender Only to One. London: J. Cape, 1938.
• --. Mother, What is Man?. London: J. Cape, 1942.
• --. Harold's Leap. London: Chapman and Hall, 1950. PR 6037.M43 H3 Robarts Library
• --. Not Waving but Drowning. London: Deutsch, 1957.
• --. Selected Poems. London: Longmans, 1962, New York: New Directions, 1964.
• --. The Frog Prince and Other Poems. London: Longmans, 1966. PR 6037.M43 F7 Robarts Library
• -- (With Edwin Brock and Geoffrey Hill). Penguin Modern Poets 8. London: Penguin, 1966.
• --. The Best Beast. New York: Knopf, 1969. PR6037.M43 A6 1969 University of Toronto Libraries at Downsview
• --. Two in One (includes Selected Poems and The Frog Prince and Other Poems). London: Longman, 1971.
• --. Scorpion and Other Poems. London: Longman, 1972. PR 6037.M43 S3 Robarts Library
• --. Collected Poems. London: A. Lane, 1975. PR 6037.M37 A17 1975 St. Michael's College (John M. Kelly Library); University of Toronto Libraries at Downsview
• --. New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith. New York: New Directions, 1988. PR 6037.M43 A6 1988 Robarts Library

Born April 24, 1862, to Mary Sidgwick and Edward White Benson, future archbishop of Canterbury (1882-1896), Arthur Christopher Benson became a popular essayist of Edwardian England, the librettist of England's beloved anthem, "Land of Hope and Glory," and the editor of Queen Victoria's letters. Benson received his education at Temple Grove School, East Sheen, at Eton 1874-81, and at King's College, Cambridge, 1881-84. He joined Eton in 1885 and until 1903, when he retired, was both well-liked schoolmaster and school historian. He published poetry from 1892 and essays from 1896. It was Benson's libretto for Elgar's "Coronation Ode" (1902), commissioned by the composer (perhaps at the instance of Edward VII), that brought the man of letters national fame. He left Eton in 1903 to co-edit Victoria's correspondence in 3 vols. (1907), for which he was made commander of the Royal Victorian Order. Benson then went to live in the Old Granary in Cambridge, in March 1906 to Hinton Hall at Haddenham, and last to Magdalene College, Cambridge, to which he was elected fellow in October 1904. Benson went on to become president of Magdalene in 1912 and Master in 1915. He suffered from hideous bouts of depression, first at Eton in 1882 and then in 1908-09, 1918, and 1922. In poems sometimes neglected in his later collections (such as "Courage"), Benson gave expression to this disabling trauma. He never married and was openly, if (it seems from his diaries) asexually, gay. On June 17, 1925, Benson died of a heart attack. He was remembered warmly every closing night of the London Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, which climaxed in a choric version of the patriotic "Land of Hope and Glory" -- audience joining in with performers -- until 2001, when it was withdrawn after objections from conscientious objectors to the Afghanistan war.

• Benson, Arthur C. Le Cahier Jaune: Poems. Eton: George New, 1892. PR 4099 B5C2 Robarts Library
• --. Coronation Ode, Set to Music by Edward Elgar: Book of Words. Notes by Joseph Bennett. London: Boosey, 1902. M 1533 .E38 OP. 44 Music Library
• --. Hymns and Carols. Eton: Spottiswoode, 1907.
• --. Lord Vyet and Other Poems. London and New York: John Lane, 1897. LE B474kz Robarts Library
• --. Lyrics. London: John Lane, 1895. PR 4099 B5L8 Robarts Library
• --. Monnow: An ode. Eton: Drake, 1896.
• --. Ode in Memory of the Rt. Honble. William Ewart Gladstone. Eton: Drake [privately printed], 1898.
• --. Ode to Japan. London: Chiswick Press, 1902.
• --. Peace and Other Poems. London and New York: John Lane, 1905.
• --. Poems. London: Elkin Matthews and John Lane, 1893. PR 4099 B5P6 1893 Robarts Library
• --. The Poems of A. C. Benson. London and New York: John Lane, 1909. PR 4099 B5P6 1909 Robarts Library
• --. The Professor and Other Poems. London and New York: John Lane, 1900. PR 4099 B5P7 Robarts Library
• --. Selected Poems. London: John Lane the Bodley Head, 1924. PR 4099 B5S4 Robarts Library
• --. Extracts from the letters of Dr. A.C. Benson to M.E.A. Ed. M.E. Allen. London: Jarrolds, 1926? PR 4099 .B5Z483 1926 Robarts Library
•  
• Hyam, R. “Benson, Arthur Christopher (1862-1925).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
• Henry James: Letters to A.C. Benson and Auguste Monod. Ed. E.F. Benson. London: E. Mathews and Marrot, 1930. end J354 A175 1930a Fisher Rare Book Library
• Newsome, David. On the Edge of Paradise: A. C. Benson, the Diarist. London: John Murray, 1980. PR 4099 B5Z79 1980 Robarts Library

The photograph of A. C. Benson was taken by A. H. Fry in 1899 and is published in The Diary of Arthur Christopher Benson, edited by Percy Lubbock (London: Hutchinson, [1926]).

William Carlos Williams served as a physician in his home town of Rutherford, New Jersey, from 1910 to 1951, and in hours after work wrote fiction, poetry, plays, and criticism. He was born on September 17, 1883, in Rutherford, educated at Horace Mann School in New York, and from 1902 until 1906 studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle. He interned at the French Hospital and Nursery and Child's Hospital until 1909, and the next year, after studying briefly in Leipzig, touring Europe, and visiting his old friend Pound in London, set up his private medical practice in Rutherford. In 1912 Williams married Florence (Flossie) Herman, who gave birth to their two sons, William Eric in 1914, and Paul in 1916. Over the next seven years, despite the demands of his medical practice and a young family, Williams published four books of verse, Al Que Quiere! (1917), Kora in Hell (1920), Sour Grapes (1921), and Spring and All (1921), that clearly established him as America's foremost modernist poet. Because his poetry was not received warmly at first, he shifted into fiction and plays, but the major work of his life proved to be Paterson, an epic poem published in five volumes from 1946 to 1958. In 1926 he had won an award from The Dial for a poem titled "Paterson," and the theme stuck. Recognition came slowly. The University of Washington at Seattle invited him to be visiting professor of English in 1948, but his 1949 appointment as consultant of poetry at Library of Congress was withdrawn after an investigation into his associations with Ezra Pound, although the appointment was renewed in 1952. In 1950 Williams was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1953 shared the Bollingen Award with Archibald MacLeish. All his life, from his early editing of Contact in 1923, Williams befriended younger poets. The letters to many, such as Denise Levertov, have survived. On March 4, 1963, Williams died in his sleep after years of illness, especially strokes in 1951-52, 1958, and 1961. He was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Gold Medal for Poetry of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His volumes of poetry are as follows:

• Williams, William C. Poems (privately printed, 1909)
• Williams, William Carlos. The Tempers (London: Elkin Mathews, 1913).
• --. A Book of Poems: Al Que Quiere! (Boston: The Four Seas Company, 1917). York University Library Special Collections 5773
• --. Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems (Boston: The Four Seas Company, 1921). York University Library Special Collections 4748
• --. Spring and All (1923: New York: Frontier Press, 1970). PS 3545 .I544S7 1970 Victoria College Library
• --. The Cod Head ( Harvest Press, 1932).
• --. An Early Martyr and Other Poems (New York: Alcestis Press, 1935).
• Adam & Eve & the City (Peru, Vermont: Alcestis Press, 1936).
• Complete Collected Poems (Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1938) PS 3545 I544 A17 1938 York University Library
• The Broken Span (Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1941). York University Library Special Collections 4737
• The Wedge (Cummington, Mass.: Cummington Press, 1944).
• Paterson (New York: J. Laughlin, 1963). 5 vols., published separately 1946-58. 811.5 W728pa Trinity College Library
• --. The Clouds (Wells College Press and Cummington Press, 1948)
• --. The Pink Church (Golden Goose Press, 1949). York University Library Special Collections 5832
• The Desert Music, and Other Poems (New York: Random House, 1954). PS 3545 I544D4 Robarts Library
• Journey to Love (New York: Random House, 1955). PS 3545 I544J6 Robarts Library
• --. "The Lost Poems of William Carlos Williams," ed. John C. Thirlwall, in New Directions 16 (1957).
• Pictures from Bruegel, and Other Poems (New York: for J. Laughlin by New Directions, 1962). PS 3545 .I544P45 Trinity College Library

See also

• The Autobiography of William Carlos Williams (New York: New Directions, 1967). PS 3545 I544Z52 1967B Robarts Library
• The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: Volume I, 1909-1939, ed. A. Walton Litz and Christopher MacGowan (New York: New Directions, 1986). PS 3545 I544A17 Robarts Library
• I Wanted to Write a Poem: the Autobiography of the Works of a Poet, ed. Edith Heal (London: Cape, 1967). PS 3545 I544Z52 1967 Robarts Library
• The Letters of Denise Levertov and William Carlos Williams, ed. Christopher MacGowan (New York: New Directions, 1998). PS 3562 .E8876Z49 Robarts Library
• Mariani, Paul. William Carlos Williams: A New World Naked (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981). PS 3545 I544 Z6534 Erindale College Library
• Something to Say: William Carlos Williams on Younger Poets, ed. James E.B. Breslin (New York: New Directions, 1985.). PS 324 W47 1985 Robarts Library
• Wagner, Linda Welshimer. William Carlos Williams: A Reference Guide (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978). Z 8976 .44 W27 Robarts Library
• --. "Williams, William Carlos." American National Biography Online. American Council of Learned Societies: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Wallace, Emily Mitchell. A Bibliography of William Carlos Williams (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1968). Z 8976 .44 W3 Robarts Library
• William Carlos Williams reads his poetry (Caedmon TC 1047, 1958). PS 3014 Erindale College Library AUDIOCASS

Born in London, graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge, and living her adult life mainly at the family home, 7 Endsleigh Gardens, London, Amy Levy was a feminist Jewish poet and novelist of distinction. She published three volumes of verse, Xantippe and other Verse (1881), A Minor Poet and Other Poems (1884; 1894), and A London Plane-Tree and Other Verse (posthumously in 1889). She also brought out three novels in 1888, Miss Meredith, The Romance of a Shop, and what made her notorious, Reuben Sachs, a story of greed and promiscuity in London Jewish life. Exhaustion and depression were factors in her suicide, at only 27 years old, as a result of breathing in charcoal fumes at her home. Melvyn New has edited The Complete Novels and Selected Writings of Amy Levy, 1861-1889 (Gainsville: University Press of Florida, 1993; PR 4886 L25A12). For a short life, see Edward Wagenknecht, Daughters of the Covenant: Portraits of Six Jewish Women (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1983; E 184 J5W14 Robarts Library).

Born on May 12, 1812, in London, Edward Lear as a teenager found artistic work drawing zoological specimens for illustrated books. One of his patrons was the earl of Derby, for whose children he devised the Book of Nonsense, published in 1846, the year after he had given drawing lessons to Queen Victoria. After 1837 he left England, returning only occasionally until his death at San Remo in January 1888. Lear suffered from epilepsy and depression. His original nonsense book went through several dozen editions, and he published as well Nonsense Songs and Stories (1871), More Nonsense Songs, Pictures, &tc. (1872), Laughable Lyrics (1877), and Nonsense Botany and Nonsense Alphabets. Lear's letters are edited by Viven Noakes in 1988 (Oxford: Clarendon Press; PR 4879 .L2Z73). Peter Levi's Edward Lear: A Biography (London: Macmillan, 1995; PR 4879 .L2Z73) is a recent life.

Poet, translator, novelist, and man of letters, John Davidson spent the first part of his life as a teacher in Greenock, Glasgow, Perth, Crieff, and other places. In 1884 he married Margaret Macarthur, who bore him two sons. In 1899 he moved to London and earned a living by journalism. His second and third volumes of verse, Fleet Street Eclogues (1893), proved popular, established his reputation, and earned the respect of T. S. Eliot, who wrote a preface to a selection of Davidson's poems in 1961 edited by Maurice Lindsay (PR 4525 D5A17 1961 Robarts Library). Little after these books, whether poetry, novels, or translations, did well, and Davidson moved depended on his friends for support until getting a Civil List pension in 1906 and moving to Penzance a year later. The last half of his literary career was devoted to unsuccessful philosophical poems and tragedies promoting a new world order. Depressed and ill, Davidson committed suicide March 23, 1909, but his body was only found on the seashore months later. He was buried at sea on September 21, 1909. The best modern edition of his Poems is edited by Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1973; PR 4525 D5A17 1973B Robarts Library). The best life is John Sloan's John Davidson, First of the Moderns (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995; PR 4525 D5Z82 Robarts Library).