Mervyn Peake, 1911-1968

Mervyn Peake was born in China on 9 July 1911. He attended Tientsin Grammar School and Eltham College Kent. He became a poet, novelist, painter, playwright and illustrator. He married Maeve Gilmore, an artist, in 1937 and had two sons and one daughter. He is best known for: 'Rhymes Without Reason', 1944; 'Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor', 1945 (rep.1966); 'The Craft of the Lead Pencil', 1946; 'Titus Groan' (novel), 1946; 'Letters from a Lost Uncle', 1948; 'The Glassblowers' (poem) and 'Gormenghast' (novel) were awarded W.H.Heinemann Foundation Prize (Royal Society of Literature) 1950; 'Mr Pye', 1953; 'The Wit to Woo' (play), 1957; 'Titus Alone' (novel), 1959; 'The Rime of the Flying Bomb', 1962; 'Titus Groan' novel (as trilogy; in UK and US), rep. 1967; 'A Reverie of Bone' (poems), 1967. Peake died on 17 November 1968.

From the guide to the Peake Papers, 1938-1962, (University College London)