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 * Henry Reed

Henry Reed (22 February 1914 – 8 December 1986) was a British poet, radio dramatist, translator, and critic, best known for his poem "Naming of Parts", inspired by his basic training during the Second World War. Reed was also the author of the Hilda Tablet plays, a satirical series commissioned for the BBC Third Programme during the 1950s.

Birmingham and University, 1914-1941
Henry Reed was born in Erdington, Birmingham, West Midlands, and named for his father, Henry Sr., a foreman at Nocks' Brickworks. While Reed's mother is credited with inspiring the young Henry with her enthusiasm for telling fairy tales (despite her own illiteracy), early on Reed was tutored by his older sister, Gladys, who would later become a schoolteacher. His formal education began at the local primary school, until he moved on to King Edward VI Grammar School in 1925, where he focused on classics. Winning a prize for Latin, he earned himself a scholarship to the University of Birmingham in 1931.

While at university, Reed associated with his fellow students Walter Allen and R.D. "Reggie" Smith. Both Allen and Reed wrote for The Mermaid, the student literary magazine (which Smith edited), and all three participated in a student production of Station Bell, by Louis MacNeice, in 1936. MacNeice, then an assistant lecturer in Greek, introduced Reed to W.H. Auden and other members of the "Auden Group" of poets, including Stephen Spender. During this time, Reed was also participating in a community theatre group based in Erdington, The Highbury Players, and his circle of friends included the Birmingham Group artists Conroy Maddox and John Melville (who painted Reed's portrait), and the author George Painter. In 1934, Reed earned a First in Language and Literature, and in 1936 he became the University of Birmingham's youngest MA with a thesis on the early poetry of Thomas Hardy. He was called up to the Army in 1941, spending most of the war as a Japanese translator.

Travelled to Italy twice, started his biography of Hardy, began to publish his poems in The Listener, became a teacher at his old school

War and afterwards, 1941-1986
After the war he worked for the BBC as a radio broadcaster and playwright, where his most memorable set of productions was the Hilda Tablet series in the 1950s. The series started with A Very Great Man Indeed, which purported to be a documentary about the research for a biography of a dead poet and novelist called Richard Shewin. This drew in part on Reed's own experience of researching a biography of the novelist Thomas Hardy. However, the 'twelve-tone composeress' Hilda Tablet, a friend of the late Richard Shewin, became the most interesting character in the play and in the next play, she persuades the biographer to change the subject of the biography to her - telling him "not more than twelve volumes". Dame Hilda, as she later became, was based partly on Ethel Smyth and partly on Elisabeth Lutyens (who was not pleased, and considered legal action).

His most famous poem is "Naming of Parts", 'probably the most widely quoted and anthologised single poem written in the Second World War'. Originally published in The New Statesman and Nation (8 August 1942), the series was later published in A Map of Verona in 1946, and was his only collection to be published within his lifetime. Another anthologised poem is "Chard Whitlow", a clever satire of T.S. Eliot's "Burnt Norton". Eliot himself was amused by the poem's mournful imitations of himself ("As we get older we do not get any younger ...").

Unfortunately for Reed he was forever being confused with the much better known Sir Herbert Read; the two men were unrelated. Reed responded to this confusion by naming his alter ego biographer in the Hilda Tablet plays "Herbert Reeve" and then by having everyone else get the name slightly wrong.

The Papers of Henry Reed are kept safe at the University of Birmingham Special Collections.

Radio plays
Productions originally broadcast on the BBC Third Programme, unless otherwise noted. Dates indicate the original broadcast.
 * Noises: A Satirical Programme (18 November 1946)
 * Moby Dick: A Play for Radio from Herman Melville's Novel (26 January 1947)
 * Pytheas: A Dramatic Speculation (25 May 1947)
 * The Unblest: A Study of the Italian Poet Giacomo Leopardi as a Child and in Early Manhood (9 May 1949)
 * The Monument: A Study of the Last Years of the Italian Poet Giacomo Leopardi (7 March 1950)
 * Return to Naples (17 August 1950)
 * Canterbury Cathedral: An Exploration in Sound (music by Elisabeth Lutyens, General Overseas Service, September 1950)
 * A By-Election in the Nineties (12 March 1951)
 * The Dynasts (adapted in six parts from the The Dynasts, by Thomas Hardy, 3 June - 9 June 1951)
 * Malatesta (translation of the play by Henry de Montherlant, 26 February 1952)
 * The Streets of Pompeii (16 March 1952)
 * The Great Desire I Had: Shakespeare and Italy (26 October 1952)
 * Westminster Abbey (music by Elisabeth Lutyens, 1953)
 * A Very Great Man Indeed (7 September 1953)
 * All for the Best (translation of Tutto per bene, by Luigi Pirandello, 22 November 1953)
 * The Private Life of Hilda Tablet: A Parenthesis for Radio (24 May 1954)
 * Hamlet; or, The Consequences of Filial Piety (translation of Hamlet, ou les suites de la piiti jiliale, by Jules Laforgue, 20 June 1954)
 * The Battle of the Masks (translation, Virginio Puecher, 6 September 1954)
 * The Queen and the Rebels (translation of La regina e lgli insorti, by Ugo Betti, 17 October 1954)
 * Emily Butter: An Occasion Recalled (14 November 1954)
 * The Burnt Flower-Bed (translation of L'aiuola bruciata, by Ugo Betti, 23 January 1955)
 * Vincenzo: A Tragicomedy (29 March 1955)
 * Holiday Land (translation of Il paese delle vacanze, by Ugo Betti, 5 June 1955)
 * A Hedge, Backwards (29 February 1956)
 * Crime on Goat Island (translation of Delitto all'isola delle capre, by Ugo Betti, 7 October 1956)
 * Don Juan in Love (translation of Don Giovanni innamorato, by Samy Fayad, 5 November 1956)
 * Alarica (translation of Le mal court, by Jacques Audiberti, 22 September 1957)
 * Irene (translation of Irene innocente, by Ugo Betti, 20 October 1957)
 * Corruption in the Palace of Justice (translation of Corruzione al palazzo di giustizia, by Ugo Betti, 19 January 1958)
 * The Primal Scene, As It Were: Nine Studies in Disloyalty (11 March 1958)
 * The Land Where the King Is a Child (translation of La Ville dont le prince est un enfant, by Henry de Montherlant, 10 March 1959)
 * Not a Drum Was Heard: The War Memoirs of General Gland (6 May 1959)
 * One Flesh (translation of Carne única, by Silvio Giovaninetti, 12 June 1959)
 * Musique Discrète: A Request Programme of Music by Dame Hilda Tablet (with music by Donald Swann, 27 October 1959)
 * The House on the Water (translation of La casa sull'acqua, by Ugo Betti, 3 February 1961)
 * A Hospital Case (translation of Un caso clinico, by Dino Buzzati, 22 November 1961)
 * The America Prize (translation, Dino Buzzati, 18 June 1964)
 * Zone 36 (translation of Il grande ritratto, by Dino Buzzati, 22 March 1965)
 * The Advertisement (translation of L'inserzione, by Natalia Ginzburg, BBC Radio 3, 24 September 1968)
 * Summer (translation of L'été, by Romain Weingarten, BBC Radio 3, 3 October 1969)
 * The Two Mrs. Morlis (translation of La signora Morli, una e due, by Luigi Pirandello, BBC Radio 4, 8 November 1971)
 * The Strawberry Ice (translation of Fragola e panna, by Natalia Ginzburg, BBC Radio 4, 24 January 1973)
 * Room for Argument (translation of La ragione degli altri, by Luigi Pirandello, BBC Radio 4, 7 January 1974)
 * The Wig (translation of La parrucca, by Natalia Ginzburg, BBC Radio 3, 23 March 1976)
 * Like the Leaves (translation of Come le foglie, by Giuseppe Giacosa, BBC Radio 4, 24 May 1976)
 * Duologue (translation of Dialogo, by Natalia Ginzburg, BBC Radio 3, 3 January 1977)
 * The Soul Has Its Rights (translation of Diritti dell'anima, by Giuseppe Giacosa, BBC Radio 4, 22 June 1977)
 * Sorrows of Love (translation of I tristi amori, by Giuseppe Giacosa, BBC Radio 4, 23 October 1978)
 * Moby Dick (new production of 1947 play, BBC Radio 4, 2 February 1979)
 * I Married You for Fun (translation of Ti ho sposato per allegria, by Natalia Ginzburg, BBC Radio 4, 7 January 1980)

Criticism

 * The Novel Since 1939 (London, 1946; pamphlet)

Plays

 * Moby Dick: A Play for Radio from Herman Melville's Novel (London, 1947)
 * Hilda Tablet and Others: Four Pieces for Radio (London, 1971; includes: A Very Great Man Indeed; The Private Life of Hilda Tablet; A Hedge, Backwards; and The Primal Scene, As It Were)
 * The Streets of Pompeii and Other Plays for Radio (London, 1971; includes: Leopardi: The Unblest; Leopardi: The Monument; The Streets of Pompeii; Return to Naples; The Great Desire I Had; and Vincenzo)

Poetry

 * A Map of Verona: Poems (London, 1946)
 * A Map of Verona and Other Poems (New York, 1947)
 * Lessons of the War (New York, 1970)
 * Collected Poems (Oxford, 1991, ed. Jon Stallworthy; new edn. with preface by Frank Kermode, Manchester, 2007)
 * The Auction Sale (Warwick, 2006; pamphlet)

Translations

 * Rombi, Paride. Perdu and His Father (London, 1954)
 * Betti, Ugo. Three Plays (London, 1956; includes: The Queen and the Rebels; The Burnt Flower-Bed; and Summertime)
 * Betti, Ugo. The Burnt Flower-Bed: A Play in Three Acts (London, 1957)
 * Betti, Ugo. The Queen and the Rebels: A Play in Two Acts (London, 1957)
 * Betti, Ugo. Summertime: An Idyll in Three Acts (London, 1957)
 * Betti, Ugo. Crime on Goat Island (London, 1960)
 * Balzac, Honoré de. Père Goriot (New York, 1962)
 * Buzzati, Dino. Larger Than Life (London, 1962)
 * Balzac, Honoré de. Eugénie Grandet (New York, 1964)
 * Ginzburg, Natalia. The Advertisement (London, 1969)