{"id":74,"date":"2021-06-08T21:58:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T21:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edmundblunden.org\/?page_id=74"},"modified":"2022-03-04T22:06:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T22:06:40","slug":"biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edmundblunden.org\/biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"
[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”off|desktop” admin_label=”Page Header” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ background_enable_color=”off” use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_start=”rgba(255,244,201,0.95)” background_color_gradient_end=”#fff4c9″ background_color_gradient_start_position=”94%” background_color_gradient_overlays_image=”on” background_image=”https:\/\/edmundblunden.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Study-scaled.jpg” custom_padding=”30px||24px|||” custom_padding_tablet=”0vw||” custom_padding_phone=”0vw||” locked=”off”][et_pb_row custom_padding_last_edited=”off|desktop” _builder_version=”3.25″ max_width=”80%” custom_margin=”||” custom_padding=”27px|0px|0|0px|false|false” custom_padding_tablet=”||40px|0%” use_custom_width=”on” width_unit=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.3″ text_font=”||||||||” header_font=”||||||||” header_font_size=”4vw” header_line_height=”1.2em” header_2_font=”||||||||” header_3_font=”|||on|||||” header_3_font_size=”12px” header_3_letter_spacing=”10px” header_3_line_height=”2.4em” header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_color=”rgba(34,34,34,0.4)” header_4_font_size=”23px” header_4_letter_spacing=”8px” header_4_line_height=”1.6em” max_width=”80%” animation_style=”slide” animation_direction=”right” animation_duration=”2000ms” animation_intensity_slide=”2%” header_font_size_tablet=”45px” header_font_size_phone=”21px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” header_3_font_size_tablet=”10px” header_3_font_size_phone=”10px” header_3_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” header_3_letter_spacing_tablet=”” header_3_letter_spacing_phone=”3px” header_3_letter_spacing_last_edited=”on|desktop” header_4_font_size_tablet=”” header_4_font_size_phone=”14px” header_4_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” header_4_letter_spacing_tablet=”” header_4_letter_spacing_phone=”3px” header_4_letter_spacing_last_edited=”on|phone”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”About” _builder_version=”4.9.2″ background_color=”#ffffff” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true” locked=”off”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”1″ make_equal=”on” padding_top_bottom_link_1=”true” padding_top_bottom_link_2=”true” padding_left_right_link_1=”true” padding_left_right_link_2=”true” module_class=” et_pb_row_fullwidth” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ width=”100%” width_tablet=”100%” width_phone=”” width_last_edited=”on|desktop” max_width=”100%” max_width_tablet=”100%” max_width_phone=”” max_width_last_edited=”on|desktop” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” make_fullwidth=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ background_color=”RGBA(0,0,0,0)” background_image=”https:\/\/edmundblunden.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/4.jpg” background_position=”top_center” custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding_tablet=”50%||||false|false” custom_padding_phone=”” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_css_main_element=”display: none!important;”][\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” text_text_color=”#000000″ background_color=”#C7E78B” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ locked=”off” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
Edmund, standing to the right of his mother Georgina, with four of his siblings, 1903<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ background_color=”#f7f7f7″ custom_padding=”3%|5%|3%|5%|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”|10%||10%|true|true” custom_padding_phone=”60px||60px||true|false” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text module_class=”free-section-header free-db-light” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_line_height=”2em” header_font=”||||||||” header_2_font=”||||||||” header_2_font_size=”50px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_color=”rgba(34,34,34,0.4)” header_4_font_size=”15px” header_4_letter_spacing=”2px” header_4_line_height=”1.6em” module_alignment=”left” header_2_font_size_tablet=”42px” header_2_font_size_phone=”32px” header_2_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” locked=”off”]<\/p>\n Edmund Blunden<\/b> (1896 – 1974)<\/p>\n Edmund Blunden\u2019s great humanity, his love of literature, of nature and of his fellow man led him through life.<\/p>\n \u201cBlunden\u2019s country \u2026cannot be confined\u2026Imaginative and poetic reasoning is his country\u201d (Alec Hardie).<\/p>\n His life took him from a country childhood in his beloved Yalding in Kent to the battlefields of France and Belgium, to Suffolk, to academia in Oxford and faraway Japan and Hong Kong. It was a life of enormous creativity, deep learning, literary discovery, and of lifelong friendships, marriage (three times) and family.<\/p>\n As circumstance took him far from his early home, his network of friends worldwide grew, and so too did his literary output, of poetry, criticism, and biography. The demands on his time and generous nature were enormous. He gathered honours military and literary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”1″ make_equal=”on” padding_top_bottom_link_1=”true” padding_top_bottom_link_2=”true” padding_left_right_link_1=”true” padding_left_right_link_2=”true” module_class=” et_pb_row_fullwidth” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ background_color=”RGBA(0,0,0,0)” width=”100%” width_tablet=”100%” width_phone=”” width_last_edited=”on|desktop” max_width=”100%” max_width_tablet=”100%” max_width_phone=”” max_width_last_edited=”on|desktop” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” make_fullwidth=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ background_color=”#f7f7f7″ custom_padding=”3%|5%|3%|5%|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”|10%||10%|true|true” custom_padding_phone=”60px||60px||true|false” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text module_class=”free-section-header free-db-light” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_line_height=”2em” header_font=”||||||||” header_2_font=”||||||||” header_2_font_size=”50px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_color=”rgba(34,34,34,0.4)” header_4_font_size=”15px” header_4_letter_spacing=”2px” header_4_line_height=”1.6em” module_alignment=”left” header_2_font_size_tablet=”42px” header_2_font_size_phone=”32px” header_2_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” locked=”off”]<\/p>\n He was always driven. As a schoolboy he was already starting on his path as a published poet, as a writer, literary journalist, and university teacher, he was always writing, lecturing, corresponding, meeting with friends and students to talk \u2013 especially of poetry and cricket. He worked to support family, to further the cause of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to lend sympathy and practical aid to anyone who came to him for help, never refusing to write a poem for a friend or a special occasion.<\/p>\n He always found time for cricket \u2013 which he played, watched, listened to, wrote about, made friends through. To play for England \u2013 now that would be glory!<\/p>\n Even to the end of his days, the war haunted his dreams and came again into his poetry. But his love for \u201cthings quiet and unconcerned\u201d, which had perhaps saved his sanity in the war, stayed with him too.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ background_image=”https:\/\/edmundblunden.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/3.jpg” custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding_tablet=”50%||||false|false” custom_padding_phone=”” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_css_main_element=”display: none!important;”][\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” text_text_color=”#000000″ background_color=”#C7E78B” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ locked=”off” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Edmund with his youngest daughter Catherine, 1962<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”About” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ background_color=”RGBA(0,0,0,0)” width=”95%” custom_margin=”2vw|||||” custom_padding=”45px|||||” locked=”off”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”23px|||||”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_toggle title=”1896 – 1919″ closed_toggle_background_color=”RGBA(0,0,0,0)” icon_color=”#C7E78B” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” border_width_all=”0px” border_color_all=”#C7E78B” border_width_bottom=”1px” border_width_left=”1px”]<\/p>\n The eldest of nine children Edmund Blunden was born in London on 1 November 1896, where his parents were both schoolteachers. In 1900 the family moved to\u00a0Yalding<\/a> in Kent. Yalding was a typical nineteenth century working village and inspired over fifty of Edmund’s poems. In 1909 Edmund moved from the local Grammar School to the boarding school Christ’s Hospital<\/a>\u00a0in Horsham, Sussex having won a Classics scholarship. Christ’s Hospital was a unique school founded by Edward VI for the boys of parents with little or no means. Following a successful and enjoyable time at Christ’s Hospital he gained a place at Queens College, Oxford to read Classics. However like so many other young men at the time he volunteered for the Army in 1915, and put aside the opportunity to study for a degree, joining the community of army life instead and finding himself plunged into the chaos of the Great War.<\/p>\n In the spring of 1916 he joined the 11th Royal Sussex Regiment and saw active service at Festubert, Cuinchy and Givenchy, and later on that year he was at the Somme, the Ancre valley, and Thiepval. He won the Military Cross for his ‘conspicuous gallantry in action’ when he and a runner completed a reconnaissance mission, an almost suicidal action under constant shelling. In November 1916 the battalion was transferred to the\u00a0Ypres<\/a>\u00a0Salient, where he remained through the battle of Passchendaele until January 1918 when the battalion was returned to the Somme. He was eventually de-mobbed on 17 February 1919, but ‘Undertones of War’ was not published until 1928. He was the longest serving war poet having spent two years in the trenches<\/p>\n In 1918, while at training camp in Suffolk, he met Mary Daines who he later married that year. Their first child, Joy, was born in July 1919. After visiting Edmund’s parents, Joy was suddenly taken ill – possibly through infected cow’s milk. She was rushed to Great Ormond St Hospital, where Edmund gave his own blood in an attempt to save her, but it was too late and she died later that evening. Joy’s death inspired a number of poems, including ‘The Child’s Grave’, and ‘To Joy’ which was set to music by his friend, the English composer\u00a0Gerald Finzi<\/a>. The death of Joy, his experience of war and the loss of his fellow soldiers haunted him for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n It was during this period that Edmund first met Siegfried Sassoon, then literary editor of the Daily Herald to whom he had sent some early poems. Their deep friendship and vast correspondence lasted over forty years.<\/p>\n In 1919 he took up his deferred place at Oxford University changing from Classics to English literature. However his personal literary research which now included the rediscovery of the poet John Clare, and contributions to a wide range of periodicals, meant that his undergraduate studies took second place. On top of this his financial situation became precarious with a young family to support, so he decided to take up the offer of a job on the journal ‘The Athenaeum’, and ‘The Nation’ (later the ‘New Statesman’) in London.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle title=”1920 – 1929″ closed_toggle_background_color=”RGBA(0,0,0,0)” icon_color=”#C7E78B” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” border_width_all=”0px” border_color_all=”#C7E78B” border_width_bottom=”1px” border_width_left=”1px”]<\/p>\n