Robert Wilson Lynd

Robert Wilson Lynd
240px Caricature of Robert Lynd, 1928
Native name	Robiard Ó Flionn/Roibeard Ua Flionn
Born	20 April 1879 Belfast, Ireland
Died
Resting place	Belfast City Cemetery
Language	English, Irish
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	Irish
Genres	Essays, poems
Literary movement	Irish literary revival
Years active	1906-1949
Spouse	Sylvia Dryhurst
Children	Máire and Sigle
Relatives	Tim Wheeler (grandson) Robert Lynd Erskine Lowry (grandnephew)

Robert Wilson Lynd (Irish: Roibéard Ó Floinn; 20 April 1879 – 6 October 1949) was an Anglo-Irish writer, editor of poetry, urbane literary essayist and strong Irish nationalist.

Personal life

He was born in Belfast to Robert John Lynd, a Presbyterian minister, and Sarah Rentoul Lynd, the second of seven children. Lynd's paternal great-grandfather emigrated from Scotland to Ireland.

Lynd was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution, studying at Queen's University. His father served a term as Presbyterian Church Moderator but he was just one of a long line of Presbyterian clergy in the family. A 2003 essayist on Lynd recounts that his "maternal grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather had all been Presbyterian clergymen."

Literary career

He began as a journalist on The Northern Whig in Belfast. He moved to London in 1901, via Manchester, sharing accommodation with his friend the artist Paul Henry. Firstly he wrote drama criticism, for Today, edited by Jerome K. Jerome. He also wrote for the Daily News (later the News Chronicle), being its literary editor 1912-47.

The Lynds were literary hosts, in the group including J. B. Priestley. They were on good terms also with Hugh Walpole. Priestley, Walpole and Sylvia Lynd were founding committee members of the Book Society. Irish guests included James Joyce and James Stephens. On one occasion reported by Victor Gollancz, Joyce intoned Anna Livia Plurabelle to his own piano accompaniment.

He used the pseudonym Y.Y. (Ys, or wise) in writing for the New Statesman. According to C. H. Rolph's Kingsley (1973), Lynd's weekly essay, which ran from 1913–45, was 'irreplaceable'. In 1941, editor Kingsley Martin decided to alternate it with pieces by James Bridie on Ireland, but the experiment was not at all a success.

Political activism

Lynd's political views were radicalised by his experience of how Ulster and Home Rule developed in the 1912-1914 period. He was appalled at the threat of the use of violence to deliver Ulster from Home Rule and the later decision to postpone the implementation of the Third Home Rule Bill. He later wrote "Then came August 1914 and England began a war for the freedom of small nations by postponing the freedom of the only small nation in Europe which it was within her power to liberate with the stroke of a pen’.

He became a fluent Irish speaker, and Gaelic League member. As a Sinn Féin activist, he used the name Robiard Ó Flionn/Roibeard Ua Flionn.

Personal life and death

He married the writer Sylvia Dryhurst on 21 April 1909. They met at Gaelic League meetings in London. Their daughters Máire and Sigle became close friends of Isaiah Berlin. Sigle's son, born in 1941, is artist Tim Wheeler.

In March 1924, Robert and Sylvia moved to what was to be their long-term married home, the elegant Regency house of 5 Keats Grove in the leafy suburb of Hampstead, north-west London. The house had been lived in by various members of Sylvia's (Dryhurst) family.

James Joyce and his wife Nora Barnacle held their wedding lunch at the Lynds’ house after getting married at Hampstead Town Hall on 4 July, 1931.

Lynd died in Hampstead in 1949. He is buried in Belfast City Cemetery.

Works

• The Mantle Of The Emperor (1906) with Ladbroke Black
• Irish and English (1908)
• Home Life in Ireland (1909)
• Rambles in Ireland (1912)
• The Book of This and That (1915)
• If the Germans Conquered England (1917)
• Old and New Masters (1919)
• Ireland a Nation (1919)
• The Art of Letters (1920)
• The Passion of Labour (1920) New Statesman — articles
• The Pleasures of Ignorance (1921)
• Solomon in All His Glory (1922)
• The Sporting Life and Other Trifles (1922)
• Books and Authors (1922)
• The Blue Lion (1923)
• Selected Essays (1923)
• The Peal of Bells (1924)
• The Money Box (1925)
• The Orange Tree (1926)
• The Little Angel (1926)
• Dr. Johnson and Company (1927)
• The Goldfish (1927)
• The Silver Books of English Sonnets (1927) — editor
• The Green Man (1928)
• It's a Fine World (1930)
• Rain, Rain, go to Spain (1931)
• Great Love Stories of All Nations (1932) — editor
• "Y.Y." An Anthology of Essays (1933)
• The Cockleshell (1933)
• Both Sides of the Road (1934)
• I Tremble to Think (1936)
• In Defence of Pink (1937)
• Searchlights and Nightingales (1939)
• An Anthology of Modern Poetry (1939) — editor
• Life's Little Oddities (1941) — illustrated by Steven Spurrier
• Further Essays of Robert Lynd (1942)
• Things One Hears (1945) — illustrated by Claire Oldham
• Essays on Life and Literature (1951)
• Books and Writers (1952)
• Essays by Robert Lynd (1959)
• Galway of the Races: Selected essays (1990) — edited by Sean McMahon

See also

• List of writers of Northern Ireland
• List of Irish writers

External links

• About the Blue Plaque, ulsterhistory.co.uk
• Contemporary Review article, findarticles.com
• Works by Robert Lynd at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Robert Lynd at Hathi Trust
• Works by Robert Wilson Lynd at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)