Рут Питтер: Жизнь и творчество английской поэтессы

English poet (1897–1992)

Ruth Pitter (alternatively Emma Thomas Pitter), CBE, FRSL (7 November 1897 – 29 February 1992) was a British poet. She was the first woman to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955, and was appointed CBE in 1979 to honour her many contributions to English literature. In 1974, she was named a "Companion of Literature", the highest honour given by the Royal Society of Literature.

Pitter was born in Ilford, eldest of three children of George Pitter (1862 1926) and his wife Louisa Rosetta Rosamund (1869 1941), née Murrell, both assistant teachers in the East End of London. She grew up in "poor surroundings", but "her childhood was transfigured" by discovering Hainault Forest, which she considered "magical". Her birth certificate reports her given name simply as "Ruth." She was educated at the Coborn School, Bow.

Pitter was employed at the War Office from 1915 to 1917, later working as a painter at a furniture company in Suffolk, Walberswick Peasant Pottery Co., where she remained until 1930. In Suffolk, she befriended Richard and Ida Blair at Southwold, the parents of George Orwell, and later helped Orwell find lodgings in London in 1927, taking a vague interest in his writing, of which she was generally critical. Later, Pitter and her lifelong good friend, Kathleen O'Hara, operated Deane and Forester, a small firm that specialised in decorative, painted furniture. The business closed when World War II began. Pitter took work in a factory. After the war, she and O'Hara opened a small business painting trays. Pitter was skilful at the flower painting used in both furniture and tray decorating. From 1946 to 1972, she was often a guest on BBC radio programmes, and from 1956 to 1960 she appeared regularly on the BBC's The Brains Trust, one of the first television talk programmes.

Pitter began writing poetry early in life under the influence of her schoolteacher parents. In 1920, she published her first book of poetry with the help of Hilaire Belloc. Despite her business and factory work, Pitter managed to spend a few hours a day writing poetry. She went on to publish 18 volumes of new and collected verse over a 70 year career as a published poet. Many of her volumes met with some critical and financial success. She received the Hawthornden Prize in 1937 for A Trophy of Arms, published the previous year. In 1954 she won the William E. Heinemann Award for her book The Ermine (Cresset Press, 1953).

Pitter described her spiritual debt to C. S. Lewis:

First Poems. London: Cecil Palmer, 1920. First and Second Poems. London: Sheed & Ward, 1927. Persephone in Hades. Privately printed, 1931. A Mad Lady's Garland. London: Cresset Press, 1934. A Trophy of Arms: Poems 1926–1935. London: Cresset Press, 1936 (winner of the Hawthornden Prize in 1937). The Spirit Watches. London: Cresset Press, 1939. The Rude Potato. London: Cresset Press, 1941. Poem. Southampton: Shirley Press, 1943. The Bridge. Poems 1939–1944. London: Cresset Press, 1945. Pitter on Cats. London: Cresset Press, 1946. Urania (Selections from A Trophy of Arms, The Spirit Watches and The Bridge. London: Cresset Press, 1950. The Ermine: Poems 1942–1952. London: Cresset Press, 1953 (winner of the William Heinemann Award: Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, 1955). Still by Choice. London: Cresset Press, 1966. Poems 1926–1966. London: Barrie & Rockliff/Cresset Press, 1968. End of Drought. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1975. A Heaven to Find. London: Enitharmon Press, 1987. Collected Poems: 1990. Petersfield: Enitharmon, 1990. Collected Poems. London: Enitharmon, 1996. The Letters of Ruth Pitter: Silent Music. Edited by Don W. King. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2014.