The Gentle Anarchist (douglas & McIntyre)

The Gentle Anarchist brings to life George Woodcock’s early circle in England, including George Orwell, Dylan Thomas, and Sir Herbert Read. A few of the other literary and political figures who turn up in the story of Woodcock’s life in Canada and England are Margaret Atwood, Alex Comfort, Northrop Frye, Graham Greene, Denise Levertov, V. S. Pritchett, Theodore Roethke, the Dalai Lama, Joan Baez, and John Foster Dulles. George Woodcock found fame as the author of Anarchism, which did much to shape the viewpoint of the 1960s generation, and The Crystal Spirit, his pioneering study of George Orwell. Yet these are only two of the nearly 150 books he published during an astonishing career, lasting almost 60 years, as poet and historian, critic and playwright, biographer and essayist, radical pamphleteer and travel writer extraordinaire. Douglas Fetherling conducted almost 100 hours of interviews with Woodcock before his death in 1995, was allowed access to his private papers, and interviewed his associates and colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic. The book that resulted balances Woodcock’s interior existence with his professional self and explores the benevolent demons that pushed him to heroic feats of composition and kindness.