Constellation Similarity Assertions

Charles Madge (1912-1996) was the son of Lieut Col. C. A. Madge and Barbara, ne Hylton Foster, and was educated at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, though he left without graduating. Although Madge worked successfully as both a poet and a sociologist, there was little congruence between the two in his life and his early promise in the former was soon eclipsed by the demands of the latter. Precociously talented as a poet, his work received greatest recognition in the 1930s when T. S. Eliot was his editor and Faber his publisher. As a sociologist, he co-founded Mass-Observation with Tom Harrisson in 1937, an endeavour which would occupy far more of his time and mind than any literary inclinations. The Charles Madge Archive illuminates Madge's aptitude as a poet more fully than they reveal his distinction as a sociologist, but both talents are well represented, not least in the 276-page typescript draft autobiography which traces the progress of his sociological career and covers Mass-Observation in detail. This work draws heavily on extracts from letters and diaries found elsewhere in the Archive and is an ideal starting point for anyone investigating either of Madge's mutually exclusive yet equally fascinating vocations.

Poet

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