Dundee’s forgotten war poet to be celebrated at Literary Festival
Published On Mon 20 Oct 2014 by Grant Hill
A new anthology of verse from Joseph Lee, Dundee’s forgotten war poet, will be launched at the city’s annual Literary Festival this week.
‘Joseph Lee: Poems from the Great War’ is the first collection of poems by Lee to be published for decades. His life and work will be celebrated at the launch event at the Bonar Hall from 7.30pm on Wednesday, 22nd October.
Lee's poetry was once ranked alongside those of famous World War One poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon but while their work grew in stature in years following the conflict, the Dundonian writer and artist fell out of the public consciousness.
While serving on the Western Front, he sent many poems and sketches from the trenches back to Scotland. Two volumes were published while he was still fighting and saw him hailed among the finest poets of the period, attracting critical acclaim from as far afield as America.
Lee continued to write and sketch even after being taken captive by the German army in 1917, and publishers were eager to put his war diaries into print after he was released.
‘Joseph Lee: Poems from the Great War’, published by Discovery Press, comes with a new preface, introduction and essay examining his work by Dr Keith Williams, a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Dundee. The volume has been edited by Caroline Brown and Matthew Jarron from the University's Archive and Museum Services, which holds Lee's archive of sketches, poems, photographs and diaries.
Caroline says the new anthology will help bring Lee back to public attention and afford him the recognition he deserves.
“These poems reflect the horror and tragedy of war but the same time Lee's humanity shines through,” she said. “This is particularly evident as he describes how he and his comrades faced life in the trenches with determination and humour. It is fitting that nearly a century after they were written they are available to new audiences to remind us all of the consequences of conflict”
Dr Williams added, “Lee was widely known as ‘Dundee’s Battle Bard’. Perhaps the reason he was excluded from post-Great War canon is because his poetry isn’t easy to pigeonhole. He never became a poet of outright anti-war protest like Sassoon or Owen, who were born members of the ‘officer class’, but he neither was he a naïve patriot or propagandist.
“His poems register all the ironies of personal and national loss, but also insist the common soldier’s sacrifice was justifiable only if it had truly been necessary. I believe readers of this anthology will find Lee deserves to be returned to his rightful position as one of the most important Scottish poets of the War.”
More than 60 workshops, talks, book signings, readings, walking tours and other events will be held during the Festival’s five-day run from 22nd to 26th October. As a result, 2014 will be the biggest Dundee Literary Festival to date as sports, crime, comics, translation, poetry, comedy, music, politics, history and children’s books are all covered.
‘Joseph Lee: Poems from the Great War’ costs £7.99 and can be bought from Waterstones, Amazon and the University. Copies will be available at the launch on at the Bonar Hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday, 22nd October. Experts from the University will give an overview of Lee’s life then critique and read his poems before answering questions about Dundee’s great lost war poet.
Admission is free and places can be reserved at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/literarydundee/, where full information about this year’s Literary Festival programme, can be found.
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Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
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