Ronald Blythe

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Ronald Blythe (born 1922) is an English writer and editor, best known[citation needed] in his native England for his Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969), a portrait of agricultural life in Suffolk from the turn of the century to the 1960s. As editor of Penguin Classics for more than 20 years, Blythe has edited modern editions of works by writers such as Thomas Hardy, Henry James and William Hazlitt. He has also prepared a number of compilations, including The Pleasure of Diaries (1989) and Private Words: Letters and Diaries from the Second World War (1993).

Blythe was awarded a Benson Medal in 2006.

Contents

[edit] Personal life

Blythe was born in Suffolk, England and educated in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was a reference librarian in Colchester for ten years, where he founded the Colchester Literary Society. While a young man, he worked for Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Blythe has lived in East Anglia since 1955 when he became a writer full time.

[edit] List of publications (partial)

Much of Blythe's work focuses on the subject of rural England.[citation needed]

[edit] Works as an author

  • A Treasonable Growth (1960)
  • The Age of Illusion (1964)
  • Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969)
  • A View in Winter: Reflections on Old Age (1979)
  • From the Headlands (1982)
  • Divine Landscapes (1986)
  • Word from Wormingford (1998)
  • Talking About John Clare (1999)
  • Out of the Valley (2000)

[edit] Contributions as an editor

  • Writing in a War (1982, originally published as Components of the Scene in 1966)
  • The Penguin Book of Diaries (1989. also published as The Pleasures of Diaries and Each Retuning Day)
  • Private Words: Letters and Diaries from the Second World War (1991)
  • Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd
  • Henry James, The Awkward Age
  • William Hazlitt, Selected Writings

[edit] References