Betjeman: Writing the Public Life

Preface

ix s Preface This book began its life with an essay, “Anglicanism and the Poetry of John Betjeman,” which I published in Christianity and Literature in 2004. Expanding that article into the present book has been a delightful experience. I could hardly imagine a more congenial subject than Sir John Betjeman, nor could I ask for the processes of research, writing, and production to have gone more smoothly.As a result, there are many to whom I will remain deeply grateful and profoundly indebted. Foremost among these is my editor, Stephen Prickett, who encouraged me to write this book, who patiently offered advice on my writing, and who steadily guided this project through to publication. Without Stephen this book would not have been written. I am grateful as well to Carey Newman, director of the Baylor University Press, for his support of this project, and to Bob Banning, Caroline Gear, Cassandra Nelson , Peter Rice, Diane Smith, and Elisabeth Wolfe for their help with the production. My continuing thanks are due as well to Robin BairdSmith and Ben Hayes of Continuum Books, who were the first in the publishing world to support and encourage my work on Betjeman. This project would also not have been possible without the groundbreaking work of Bevis Hillier and Bill Peterson. Few biographers have accomplished for their subjects what Hillier has for Betjeman in his magisterial trilogy. No one can write about Betjeman without first dining at the great feast laid out so generously by Hillier. My thanks are due to Bevis as well for his careful and generous reading of the first draft of s x Preface this manuscript and for his thoughtful criticism and helpful suggestions for improvement. Bill Peterson’s new catalogue of Betjeman’s writings —itself a monument to bibliographic scholarship—has now joined Bevis Hillier’s biographies as an indispensable aid to Betjeman scholars. It proved vital and essential in my research, and I am grateful to Bill as well for his helpful and patient responses to my many queries. I owe an unpayable debt to both Bevis Hillier and Bill Peterson. I am thankful as well to have made the acquaintance of, and to have shared ideas with, other scholars passionate about Betjeman, including Roger Pringle, Philip Payton, John Bale, Greg Morse, and especially Stephen Games, who shares my deep commitment to broadening an understanding of Betjeman and to showing the world the rich complexity of his thinking and writing. Without Games’ anthologies of Betjeman ’s radio and film scripts, my book would have been a significantly less substantial account of the influence of Anglicanism on Betjeman’s thinking. Games’ work has been not only an invaluable aid to my own understanding of Betjeman but a delight to thousands of readers. I am grateful to a number of people at Baylor University, whose assistance was invaluable as well. Dr. Lee Nordt, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Research Leave Committee awarded me a research leave for the spring semester in 2008 that gave me the time away from teaching that was essential to writing the bulk of this manuscript . Andrew Armond, who served as my research assistant in 2006, helped to make much of my initial historical research such a delight. I am especially appreciative of Ken Carriveau and his staff in interlibrary services at Moody Memorial Library, who tirelessly filled my seemingly endless requests for obscure publications. Dr. Dianna Vitanza, chair of the English department, gave invaluable support to this project in its final stages, and I owe her a debt of gratitude. Following is a list of permissions granted for the use of excerpts from secondary material: John Betjeman: Reading the Victorians by Greg Morse (Sussex, 2008), used by permission of Sussex Academic Press; John Betjeman Letters, vols. 1 & 2, edited and introduced by Candida Lycett Green (London, 2006), used by permission of Methuen; The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, edited by Mark Amory (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980), used by permission of The Wylie Agency and the Orion Publishing Group; The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn W augh, edited by Donat Gallagher (London: Methuen/Boston: Little, s Preface xi Brown, 1983), used by permission of The Wylie Agency and Little, Brown & Co.; John Betjeman: A Bibliography by William S. Peterson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), used by permission of Oxford University Press. Lastly, I must acknowledge my gratitude to the estate of the...