Роберт Эйкман: Писатель и защитник природы.

British writer and conservationist (1914–1981)

Robert Fordyce Aickman (27 June 1914 – 26 February 1981) was an English writer and conservationist. As a conservationist, he co founded the Inland Waterways Association, a group which has preserved from destruction and restored England's inland canal system. As a writer, he is best known for his supernatural fiction, which he described as "strange stories". The writer of his obituary in The Times, as quoted by Mike Ashley, said: " his most outstanding and lasting achievement was as a writer of what he himself like to call 'strange tales.' He brought to these his immense knowledge of the occult, psychological insights and a richness of background and characterisation which rank his stories with those of M. R. James and Walter de la Mare." Ashley himself wrote: "Aickman's writings are an acquired taste like fine wines. I have no doubt that his work will always remain unknown to the majority of readers, and perhaps he would have wanted it that way. He wrote what and how he wanted, for expression, not for popularity. In another of his letters to me he said 'I have received a good deal of esteem, but never a big commercial success, and am usually wondering whether anything by me will ever be published again.' It is astonishing that someone of Aickman's stature should have difficulty in selling his work. Perhaps now, too late for Aickman's benefit, someone will have the sense to publish it." William Arthur Aickman and Mabel Violet Marsh. He attended Highgate School from January 1928 until July 1931. Mike Ashley reported that at the time he compiled his Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, Aickman objected to the inclusion of his date of birth. Instead he said that the entry should read "Aickman, Robert. Man of Mystery". "That", he said, "would be helpful. I should approve entirely." He was involved in an investigation into the well known haunting of Borley Rectory. Another indication of his lifelong interest in the supernatural is his longstanding membership of The Ghost Club. He remarked in a letter to Mike Ashley, "What impact such things have had on me, and the sources of my inspiration, are simply too much for a letter. If you wish to pursue such topics, I shall be pleased to have a talk." Unfortunately that talk never took place, but Ashley points out that Aickman's early life, including some supernatural episodes, will be found detailed in his autobiography, The Attempted Rescue (Gollancz, 1966). In the opening lines of The Attempted Rescue, Aickman described his father as "the oddest man I have ever known". Of Aickman's character, Elizabeth Jane Howard said in a 2011 interview at the Tartarus Press blog, that he "hated children" and of his childhood that "He told me about his childhood but I think he exaggerated that. I went to the house in Stanmore where he was brought up, and his mother did go and leave him, and that probably had a much worse effect than he realised on him. He was reading by the time he was four and he went to very good schools. Highgate was a very good school. I think it probably was a fairly lonely childhood. He could be very prickly and difficult, or he could be very charming. He certainly had the gift of the gab." Aickman was married to literary agent and children's book author Edith Ray Gregorson (1914–1983) (known as 'Ray') from 1941 to 1957. She authored Lemuel (illustrated by Peter Scott, husband of Elizabeth Jane Howard, with whom Aickman had an affair) and Timothy Tramcar. He had been responsible for the general direction of the very successful Market Harborough Festival of Boats and Yachts, attended by more than 50,000 visitors. This was topped in 1962 when he directed the Waterborne concert with fireworks at the City of London Festival, with an audience of 100,000. Aickman was diagnosed with cancer in the winter of 1979. He refused to have conventional treatment and consulted a homoeopath. He had planned to go to the US in the autumn of 1980, to receive a fantasy award, but he was too ill to travel, despite rallying in the summer. He died in the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital on 26 February 1981. His obituary appeared in The Times on 28 February. Later, there was a memorial concert at the Royal Society of Arts, at which various well known people, including the naturalist Sir Peter Scott, paid tribute to him. In 2015 R. B. Russell and Rosalie Parker of Tartarus Press released a feature length documentary on the life and work of Robert Aickman, which was premiered at the World Fantasy Convention. It includes interviews with friends of Robert Aickman, and the authors Reggie Oliver and Jeremy Dyson. It can now be seen on YouTube.

Aickman is probably best remembered for his co founding of the Inland Waterways Association, a group devoted to restoring and preserving England's then neglected and largely derelict inland canal system. The association was sparked off by a letter sent by Aickman to L. T. C. Rolt following the publication in 1944 of Rolt's highly successful book Narrow Boat, describing the declining and largely unknown world of the British canals. The inaugural meeting took place on 15 February 1946 in London, with Aickman as chairman and Rolt as honorary secretary. The IWA organised successful campaigns and attracted notable supporters, including as president the writer and parliamentarian Sir A. P. Herbert and as vice president the naturalist Peter Scott. Scott's wife, Elizabeth Jane Howard, was part time secretary, working in Aickman's flat in Gower Street; she had an affair with Aickman, which she describes in her autobiography Slipstream (Macmillan, 2002). Aickman began to have policy disagreements with Rolt. Aickman wanted to campaign to keep all of the waterways open, whereas Rolt had sympathies with the traditional canal workers and believed it necessary to prioritise which canals could be kept open. The disagreement became public: Aickman had organised the IWA's first boat rally and festival in August 1950 and attempted to prevent Rolt from attending and promoting his book The Inland Waterways of England; nevertheless, Rolt attended, as did his publisher, Philip Unwin. Aickman engineered a change to the rules to require all members to conform to agreed IWA principles, and in early 1951 Rolt and others were excluded from membership. Aickman published two nonfiction books on the waterways in 1955. Nevertheless, the IWA has been one of the most successful conservation organisations in British history, succeeding in restoring and reopening much of the original canal network.

In addition to writing his own stories, Aickman edited the first eight volumes of the Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories between 1964 and 1972. He was assisted in this by Christine Bernard, an editor at Collins. He selected six of his own stories for inclusion over the course of the series. The fourth and sixth volumes lack one of his tales. He also supplied an introduction for every volume except the sixth.

Aickman's autobiographical writing consists of the two memoirs The Attempted Rescue (London: Victor Gollancz, 1966) and The River Runs Uphill: A Story of Success and Failure (Burton on Trent: Pearson, 1986). In 2001, Tartarus Press reissued the former volume in a new edition with a foreword by the writer and Aickman enthusiast Jeremy Dyson. Tartarus also reprinted the latter, with extra text which had been edited out of the first edition. For a time, Aickman served as theatre critic for The Nineteenth Century and After. His reviews remain, to date, uncollected in book form. He also wrote two books relating to his conservation activities, Know Your Waterways and The Story of Our Inland Waterways (both 1955).

Aickman produced a number of works that remain unpublished. These include the plays Allowance for Error, Duty and The Golden Round. A philosophical work entitled Panacea: The Synthesis of an Attitude runs to over 1,000 pages in manuscript form. Copies of these items are preserved, along with Aickman's manuscripts and other papers, in the Robert Aickman Collection at the British Library, with some papers deposited at Bowling Green State University, Ohio.

The Late Breakfasters. London: Victor Gollancz, 1964. Library reprint: Bath: Cedric Chivers, 1978. Reprint: London: Faber Finds, 2014; Richmond, VA: Valancourt Books, 2016. The Model. New York: Arbor House, 1987. Reprint: London: Faber Finds, 2014. Go Back at Once. Tartarus Press, 2020 (a novel written in the 1970s, which remained unpublished until this limited edition of 500 copies). Reprint: Sheffield: And Other Stories, 2022.

Know Your Waterways. London: Coram, 1955. The Story of Our Inland Waterways. London: Pitman, 1955.

The Attempted Rescue. London: Victor Gollancz, 1966. The River Runs Uphill: A Story of Success and Failure. Burton on Trent: Pearson, 1986.