Henry Treece
Henry Treece was an English poet, author, and educator born in December 1911 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire. He studied at the University of Birmingham, where he cultivated his interests in English, history, and Spanish, and developed a passion for poetry and drama. Treece's teaching career spanned over two decades, during which he worked at various schools, including Barton-on-Humber Grammar School. His service as an intelligence officer in the Royal Air Force during World War II interrupted this career.
Treece was a notable figure in the Apocalyptic poetry movement, which rejected the rationalism of the time and embraced myth and individual freedom. He published a significant body of poetry and edited numerous anthologies during the late 1930s and 1940s. As an author, Treece is particularly recognized for his historical novels that vividly depict ancient societies, including classical Greece and the Viking era, as well as his works for young readers. His literary contributions continued until his retirement due to health issues, and he passed away in 1966 at the age of fifty-four.
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Henry Treece
Poet
- Born: December 1, 1911
- Birthplace: Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England
- Died: June 10, 1966
- Place of death: Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, England
Biography
Henry Treece was born in December, 1911, in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England, the son of Richard and Mary (Mason) Treece. While a student at Wednesbury High School, he won a scholarship to the University of Birmingham, where he studied English, history, and Spanish; wrote poetry; acted in school plays; and boxed competitively before receiving a B.A. in 1933. He was also granted education diplomas from Birmingham (1934) and the University of Santander (1933).
After graduation, Treece taught at a school for delinquents in Leicestershire (1933-1934), moving to a position as English teacher at Cleobury Mortimer College in Shropshire (1934-1935), where he met future wife, geography teacher Mary Woodman. They married in 1939, and had two children: Jennifer Elizabeth and Gareth Richard. Treece taught at Tynemouth School in Northumberland (1935-1939) before landing a post as English master at Barton-on-Humber Grammar School in Lincolnshire, where he would remain for the rest of his teaching career (1939-1956). During World War II, Treece took a hiatus from teaching from 1941 to 1946 to serve as an intelligence officer with the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, rising to flight lieutenant.
In the late 1930’s, Treece was a founder and member of the short-lived Apocalyptic movement in poetry along with cofounder James Findlay Hendry (1912-1986), a Scottish poet, editor, writer, and translator. The Apocalyptic movement, in reaction to the rationalistic school of W. H. Auden and others, espoused individual freedom, rejected the Machine Age, and promoted the contributions of myth. The movement attracted Dylan Thomas, D. H. Lawrence, and similar-minded writers, and resulted in more than ten poetry anthologies that Treece edited with Hendry, Stefan Schimanski, or others: The New Apocalypse (1939), The White Horseman (1941), Wartime Harvest (1943), and the last of the series, A New Romantic Anthology (1949).
Treece began publishing his poetry in 1940 with the release of Thirty-Eight Poems, the first of a series of chapbooks that saw print before the last volume, The Exiles (1947). Thanks to an introduction from writer George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair, 1903-1950), Treece also broke into radio broadcasting, where he wrote plays and features. He meanwhile contributed to such publications as the Manchester Guardian and The New Yorker, and edited the journals Seven, Kingdom Come, and World Review.
A prolific author across a wide range of genres, Treece wrote plays (Carnival King, 1955, and Footsteps in the Sea, 1956), a collection of short stories (I Cannot Go Hunting Tomorrow, 1946), critical work (How I See the Apocalypse, 1946, and Dylan Thomas, “Dog Among the Fairies,” 1949), mysteries (including Desperate Journey, 1954, Don’t Expect Any Mercy, 1958, Bang, You’re Dead! 1965), and historical nonfiction for children (The True Book About Castles, 1960, Know About the Crusades, 1962).
However, Treece is best remembered for his historical, myth- saturated novels for adults and juveniles, which realistically (and violently) recreate classical Greece, the era of the Vikings and the period when the Celts opposed the Romans. The best of his adult novels include The Dark Island (1952), Red Queen, White Queen (1958), Oedipus (1964), The Queen’s Brooch (1966), and The Green Man (1966). Outstanding among his twenty-nine juvenile novels—seven published posthumously—are Legions of the Eagle (1954), The Road to Mikalgard (1957), Viking’s Dawn (1957), Wickham and the Armada (1959), Horned Helmet (1963), Westward to Vinland (1967), The Dream Time (1967), and The Invaders (1972).
Henry Treece, who had to retire from teaching because of coronary thrombosis, poured out millions of words in the last and most productive decade of his life, before dying at age fifty- four on June 10, 1966.