Night Thoughts

This is the first ever biography of the British poet and translator David Gascoyne (1916-2001) At eighteen Gascoyne drafted the manifesto of the English Surrealist Group; at nineteen he published an authoritative account of the international movement. He translated for Dalí and crossed swords with Breton; the 1936 Surrealist exhibition in London was largely his brainchild. During the war he toured as an actor, embraced religious existentialism and became,in the words of John Lehmann, 'the most important philosophic poet of our time'. After the war he wrote for radio, painted, cooked and went mad. He found unexpected happiness in late middle age, emerging asan elder statesman of British poetry. This pioneering biography describes his creative work and translations, his addictions, his tormented private life and his many friendships in England and in France.