Further Reading

A Work in Progress 
24

Glenn Hughes turns up in the pages of a book, The Verse Revolutionaries, written by Helen Carr.  It’s a wonderful book for those interested in that era, beginning before the first World War, that vortex of creativity emerging in staid dingy London in pubs with floors littered with cigarette butts and restaurants noted more for their cuisine than for their bathrooms.  He’s also mentioned in another book, Vivian Whelpton’s, Richard Aldington: Poet, Soldier and Lover 1911-1929.

What caught my eye was his connection with the University of Washington (UW).  I was a Classical Studies degree student at UW.  An online search revealed that UW’s Special Collections had material related to Glenn Hughes in its archive. Which I went to see.  

“In 1919, Glenn Hughes (1894-1964), a young man from Nebraska and a recent graduate of Stanford University, joined the faculty of the Department of Dramatic Art, a part of the English Department. Though he came to the UW as a poetry fellow, Hughes soon became determined to create a first-rate drama school.  From 1930 to 1961 he led the Department, which became the School of Drama in 1940. He wrote more than 60 plays, wrote and edited various literary and scholarly publications, launched one of the West Coast's first foreign film series, and established the drama program as the center of theatrical life in Seattle. The University of Washington came to be recognized as one of the leading institutions in the nation for professional training in theatre arts.” 

Source: https://drama.washington.edu/history

The University of Washington Bookstore published 49 chapbooks edited by Glenn Hughes between 1927 and 1931.  Source: www.historylink.org.

In addition to his academic credentials, Hughes was also a successful playwright and somebody with great entrepreneurial skill. Now he is remembered mostly for creating the university’s nationally acclaimed Drama program; in fact, the Penthouse Theater on campus is named after him.  Largely forgotten is the contribution Hughes made to modern poetry.  He was, one of the first, if not the first, to give serious scholarly critical attention to Imagist poetry.  He had spent time in the late 1920s on a Guggenheim grant researching such prominent imagists as F.S. Flint, Richard Aldington, Ezra Pound and H.D.  He had been immersed in the poetry scene in London and Paris for almost a year and had met many poets including W.B. Yeats.   In 1931, Stanford University Press published the resulting book: Imagism and the Imagists: a study in modern poetry.  Before then, Hughes had also begun editing a series of chapbooks released by the University of Washington Bookstore.  He was able to attract many prominent authors including Richard Aldington writing about D. H. Lawrence and Remy de Gourmont, Ezra Pound translating Ta Hio, and Herbert Read, who posthumously edited the writings of T.E. Hulme. 

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

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