Mervyn Peake

Mervyn Laurence Peake (July 9, 1911 - November 17, 1968) was a British modernist writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books, though the Titus books would be more accurate: the four works that exist were the beginning of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, following his protagonist Titus Groan from cradle to grave, but Peake's untimely death interrupted the cycle at what is now commonly but erroneously called a trilogy. They are sometimes compared to the work of his contemporary J.R.R. Tolkien, but his surreal fiction was influenced by his early love for Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson rather than Tolkien's studies of mythology and philology.

Related Topics:
July 9 - 1911 - November 17 - 1968 - Gormenghast - J.R.R. Tolkien - Charles Dickens - Robert Louis Stevenson

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Peake also wrote a number of nonsense poems, a children's story ("Letters from a Lost Uncle"), a radio play, and "Mr Pye", a relatively tightly-structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.

Related Topics:
Mr Pye - God

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Peake first made his reputation as a painter and illustrator during the 1930s and 1940s, when he lived in London, and he was often commissioned to produce portraits of well-known people. A collection of these drawings is still in the possession of his family. Although he gained little popular success in his lifetime, his work was highly respected by his peers, and his friends included Dylan Thomas and Graham Greene. His works are now included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.

Related Topics:
Dylan Thomas - Graham Greene - National Portrait Gallery - Imperial War Museum

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