Siderealpressextras

BERESFORD EGAN

BY

JOHN HIRSCHHORN-SMITH

PRELUDE:

The following brief overview of the life and work of Beresford Egan is intended to give some background to the author of the novel 'Pollen' originally published in 1933 and now re-issued by Side Real Press with extra material in an edition of 300 numbered copies in 2013. For those only wishing information regarding the availability of the book itself please click HERE to go to the main Side Real Press website.

BERESFORD EGAN -

AN INTRODUCTION

Beresford Egan C. 1931
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

    Those previously seeking information on Beresford Egan (1905-1984) via the internet would have quite quickly discovered three things.

      Firstly, that he illustrated a parody of Radclyffe Hall's novel 'The Well of Loneliness' entitled 'The Sink of Solitude' (1928); secondly, that he provided the original dust jacket artwork for Aleister Crowley's novel 'Moonchild' (1931); and thirdly, that many regard him as an 'Art Deco Aubrey Beardsley'. However whilst acknowledging his undoubted graphic prowess, these sweeping and in the latter case inaccurate statements, ignore other aspects of a long career which included acting, theatre criticism, novels and memoirs.

      Those wishing a full bio-bibliography should consult Adrian Woodhouse's 'Beresford Egan' (Tartarus Press 2005) which is the standard work and is available via the link HERE. This article merely attempts a brief overview of his life and includes some hitherto unseen images from various collections. Many of the Egan quotes are taken from his autobiographical volume 'Epitaph' (Fortune Press, 1943) and a 1966 survey of his work 'Beresford Egan - An introduction To His Work' by Paul Allen (Scorpion Press, 1966). I am grateful to the Estate of Beresford Egan for all permissions regarding copyright of texts and images. If any other infringement of personal copyright has ocurred would the owners please make contact with the Press. The opinions are, of course, my own.

      Egan was born in London in 1905 but spent much of his early life in South Africa where his father was a director of a department store. He had a somewhat privileged upbringing (servants and a finishing school) and showed drawing ability from an early age.

His father had aspirations for him to become a medical student, but at the age of nineteen Egan submitted artwork to the 'Rand Daily Mail' and on the basis of this he was taken on. His early artwork was in the manner of Tom Webster (an illustrator of 'Boys Own Paper') and described as "gems of loving kindness...Dignified gentlemen, in the Rand Club, were wont to chuckle over them and everyone was happy." (Epitaph)

However, his world view was already becoming more ironic than comic, perhaps aided by the discovery of the 'decadents', especially Wilde and Baudelaire, from whom he learnt that "art is answerable to no ethical presumption, that its scope is all embracing, and that only complacency is vile". (Epitaph)

LEFT: Katsushika Hokusai- Amida-Waterfall-on-the-Kisokaido-Road (Kisoji no oku Amidagataki) n/d (Woodblock print)
RIGHT: Beresford Egan- 'XXVI' (From Les Fleurs du Mal' 1930) (brush and ink)


Beresford Egan- 'Grave Of The Artist With Attendant Demon' (1950) (previously unpublished pen and ink) © The Estate of Beresford Egan


Hokusai school- Red Bearded Demon (brush and ink)

His style was also undergoing a transformation, especially after his discovery of the work of the work of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Hokusai is best known for his now iconic print 'The Great Wave' (c. 1830) which was part of the series 'Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji' but was also an expert in brush painting and echoes of this, as well as his compositional techniques, can be detected in Egan. He also admired Felician Rops (1833-1898) who had illustrated Baudelaire and was a member of 'Les XX', a group that included Ferdinand Khnopff and Jan Toorop, both also interested in things Eastern. His more satirical side was fed by the works of the great caricaturists Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) and James Gilray (1756?-1815), later to be augmented by the discovery of George Grosz (1893-1959).

Egan was "overdressed, ambitious and dissatisfied" ('Beresford Egan - An Introduction...') and with the break up of his parents' marriage in 1926 he decided that his ambitions as an artist would be better served if he was to return to London with his mother.

'In The House On The Tiles' (1928)
(previously unpublished brush and ink)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

With a letter of introduction from the Daily Mail, Egan was quite quickly able to develop a market for his drawings for articles and short stories in magazines such as 'Pearsons' and 'Royal'. Blessed by good looks, sharp suits and eye make-up (which had raised eyebrows in South Africa), he supplemented his income by acting as a paid partner to rich ladies at dances. Moving between these worlds, he seemed equally at home gatecrashing Mayfair salons where he met his future wife Catharine ('Catrina') Bower Alcock - who he married in early 1928- and the Cafe Royal which had maintained its post-1890s bohemian reputation through the patronage of people like Augustus John, Jacob Epstein and Betty 'Tiger Woman' May.

Accounts differ as to how Egan met Percy Reginald ('Inky') Stephenson but it was certainly fortuitous. Stephenson (1901-1965) was involved with a number of small presses, primarily the Fanfrolico Press which he co-founded with Jack Lindsay (son of Australian artist Norman) and John Kirtley. Fanfrolico was attempting to establish itself as a fine press in the style of Nonesuch, Rodker and Moreland, issuing limited editions of provocative, slightly risque material such as 'Lysistrata' and 'The Miriambs of Herodas' (illustrated by Norman Lindsay and Alan Odle respectively) and the magazine 'London Aphrodite' which published works by the Powys', Frederick Carter, Sacheveral Sitwell and Norman Douglas among others.

Untitled (1929)
(previously unpublished brush and ink)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

'Hands Off!' (From: 'Policeman of The Lord')
(brush and ink 1929)
[Egan, Stephenson and Catrina(?) face 'Jix']

Egan approached Stephenson with the suggestion of satirizing Radclyffe Hall's 'Well Of Loneliness'; a lesbian novel which was proving hugely controversial in the press of the day.

Egan provided six illustrations to a verse diatribe composed in couplets by 'divers hands' (but probably written in the main by Stephenson, Lindsay and the Egans). It was not issued by Fanfrolico as such but by the new Hermes Press (a cover for Fanfrolico in case the book fell foul of the law). It received excellent reviews, partly for the accuracy of its barbs but primarily for Egan's artwork which was called "a delightful savagery" and "wittily satirical". Sales were bolstered by the successful prosecution and banning of 'The Well...' and it is estimated that 'The Sink...' sold 5,000 copies. The Egans rapidly issued a follow-up volume 'Policeman of the Lord' (1929) on their own Sophistocles Press attacking the extremely conservative Home Secretary, Joyson Hicks ('Jix') who had been partly responsible for the banning of Well of Loneliness, again using verse and artwork to make their point.

'Divertisment' (1930)
(previously unpublished brush and ink)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

Aubrey Beardsley was often cited in reviews of the above works, though Egan had only been exposed to him after his arrival in London. Though he was happy to accept the comparison when it suited, he was generally somewhat sensitive to this comparison;

Jan Toorop Poster (1924)

"His Shadow has overcast my life, as it has overcast the lives of others in the realm of black and white...Aubrey Beardsley was essentially a pen draughtsman.

My work (should you be interested) is executed with a No. 3 sable hair brush. One would imagine that this dissimilarity could not deceive the trained eye; but trained eyes are rare and the critics innumerable." ('Beresford Egan - An Introduction...')

Catrina, writing on Egan in the magazine 'Arts and Crafts' (1928) also astutely commented that whilst Beardsley's decoration and pattern subordinate anatomy and facial expression, Egan's drawings of that period which are "almost devoid of alien decoration, arrest entirely by their means". It is also worth noting that Beardsleys sinuous lines and solids generally end in rounded corners giving them the famous 'languid' look, a technique also used by the symbolists. Egans early work is generally more spikey, as befits a satirist with a barb to drive home. Jan Toorop at his most dynamic does not match Egan for vigour.

The 'Sink...' initiated the most productive period of Egan's illustrative life. Catrina was both wife and muse and together they made a formidable team. It was Catrina who translated a finely illustrated volume of Baudelaires 'Les Fleurs du Mal' into prose jointly issued by Sophistocles Press and T. Werner Laurie in 1928, and penned an essay on De Sade under the pseudonym 'Brian de Shane' for the volume of the same name published the Fortune Press, which was run by the eccentric and difficult R. A. Caton (1897–1971).

Spleen' (From 'Les Fleurs du Mal')
(brush and ink 1929)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

The latter volume was prosecuted for one of its illustrations - possibly for its inclusion of a nude nymphet. The offending plate was removed and Egan was asked to draw a replacement for it. The mild erotic content of the original was replaced by an infinitely more violent image of flagellation and beheading which somehow passed the censors and demonstrated that curious disjunct regarding depictions of sex and violence that still befuddles censorship issues today.

'De Sade' (1930) The withdrawn plate (left) and its replacement (right) (Both illus. brush and ink)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

The Fortune Press tended to specialise in the outre (represented by Montague Summers' volumes on Witchcraft) and, as Timothy D'Arch Smith delightfully terms it, volumes of "amatory unorthodoxy". This latter section included translations of classical/pagan sexuality and later authors inspired by it, such as Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925). Egan was to illustrate three of his works, 'Aphrodite', 'Cyprian Masques' and 'The Adventures of King Pausole' - the latter in an unusual colour wash technique.

Diane à la Houpee
From: 'The Adventures of King Pausole'
(Fortune Press 1930)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

Egan regarded the Louÿs volumes as "huge witless monsters that go on without rhyme, reason or point" and upon receiving the special edition of 'Cyprian Masques' wrote a reply including a 'Rochester style' poem:

......Through hand-made paper pages I have sped,
In chaste full-vellum bound and titled red,
Where pale anaemic lovers there have lain,
And breathe their bilious breath into my brain,
Their septic exhalations fill my mind,
And act the laxative in my behind...
The drivel printed on those hand made sheets,
Alone is useless, like male teats...
I buy a book to read and not to feel;
Good Chemists make the finest toilet reel....

(previously unpublished letter from B. E. to R. C. 1929. © The Estate of Beresford Egan )

Caton was thick skinned and continued to offer Egan work but eventually issues over content, payment and delivery dates of artwork resulted in their always difficult relationship breaking down in 1931. It would not be resumed for twelve years.


Rare colour d/j for Leon Grocs 'House of Death' (Readers Library 1931) © The Estate of Beresford Egan

The Great Depression of the early 'thirties had a devastating effect on the small presses of the period and it was perhaps this, in combination with the fallout of his now failed marriage, or "one of my several rebellions against the tyranny of drawing"('Beresford Egan - An Introduction...') or even a bout of lumbago(!) that led to the writing of his first novel 'Pollen' (Denis Archer 1933).

'Lucifera' (from 'Pollen' 1933)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

Written in a style redolent of 1890s Wilde while nodding to Huysmans and Remy de Gourmant, it concerns the artist Lance Daurimer, "an elegant, elongated young man" with a "broad mind, elastic principles and a complete lack of moral sense" whose bohemian life brings him into contact with the recherche Anna Forster and the rich, but innocent, Marylyn Irriscourt. His relationships with these opposing characters take him from the club-land of London's West End to the depths of Parisian Monmartre, while his soul vacillates between Luciferian ecstasy and the rites of the Holy Roman Church.

'Father Brian' (from 'Pollen' 1933)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

      Adrian Woodhouse has identified numerous autobiographical references within the novel, and whilst Egan was later to play down too close a comparison between himself and Lance, other characters seem to be quite close to real life:

      "A publisher too, of unsavoury repute, had displayed a lively interest in these same designs, offering to buy them outright, tempting the young artist with a glowing account of the benefits to be reaped in the service of the purple muse of limited editions, and urging him on to perpetrate further enormities in exchange for a small, but none the less welcome, remuneration...winning doubtful laurels [for the artist] and bringing down also upon his head the equally doubtful ‘ton-of-bricks’ dislodged from the dirty window-sills of the sensational press."

       The illustrations for Pollen succesfully blended the earlier motifs of his earlier work (solid blocks of black, minimal backgrounds for the human figures, grotesque masks) with the new 'modern' style of radiating lines and circles that are now seen as the epitome of art deco style.

      Pollen received good reviews, though it appears that, despite its author, few appeared to notice the novel's more caustic edge, the satirising of the vacuous 'smart set' of the 'twenties (Lance's friends) and attacking the hypocrisy of establishment morals (the family of Marylyn Irriscourt) instead choosing to dwell on the more sensational aspects of the book's content.

Frontispiece ('But The Sinners Triumph' 1934)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

Dennis Archer subsequently published two other Egan novels, 'No Sense in Form' (1933) which concerns an artist who comes to realize that there can be a beauty in ugliness; and 'But The Sinners Triumph' (1934) a 'prequel' of sorts to 'Pollen' and set largely in South Africa. Only the latter was illustrated and the whole book is a more restrained affair than 'Pollen'.

The period between 1935 and the early 1940s saw very little published material from Egan's brush though he continued to draw and paint prolifically. However he did collaborate with the 'Punch' writer Nigel Balchin who was currently engaged on a series of humorous articles on the perils and otherwise of the company High Duty Alloys as amusing promotion for their firm in 'Aeroplane' magazine. Egan drew the main character Mr. Pobottle for these pieces. The adventures of Pobottle acheived something of a following and the series were later published in a series of promotional booklets over a period of two years.

Commisions such as this were very rare for Egan and it was at this time that he began to turn his hand to acting and the stage, performing self-written sketches for music hall and later writing and producing three of own his own plays which survive in typescript.

'The Ghosts Of Berkeley Square' (1947)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

In tandem with these he also developed something of a film career playing a German officer in 'The Silver Fleet' (1943), a police officer in 'A Canterbury Tale' (1944); and a fleeting appearance in 'The Ghosts of Berkeley Square' (1947) for which he also the costume designer. Egan made the most of his screen minutes by appearing in a huge two foot high wig. His most notable part is in the B-movie melodrama 'Latin Quarter' (1946) in which he plays the villain of the piece, a Parisian sculptor who goes mad with jealousy and immolates his victim in a clay sculpture.

By 1943 he had been able to patch up his differences with Caton who published the strange semi-autobiography 'Epitaph' in 1943, followed by a collection of anecdotes, verse and commentary 'Epilogue' in 1946. Both are written in a very informal manner, quite different to the previously published novels and included a selection of artwork revealing something of a reversion to a more cartoon-like style, a number of them executed in large scale watercolours.

'Epitaph' d/j (Fortune Press 1943) 'Cant You Read' 1937 (previously unpublished watercolour)

Both images © The Estate of Beresford Egan

'Man about Town' (1959)
© The Estate of Beresford Egan

This new style found a market in magazines such as 'Man About Town' and 'London Mystery Magazine'. The former must have particularly appealed to Egan, as it was a vehicle for the bespoke tailoring trade and thus dealt with gentlemen's activities such as fine suits, travel, and the 'good life' in general. Many of the articles were written in the Egan style and it is tempting to speculate as to whether he contributed anonymously to it.

In 1960 in collaboration with his friend a friend Francis Barrie Watts, Egan produced a series of five 'Storicards' on their own Barrigan Press imprint. These curious items consist of a coloured cover illustrated by Egan and contained a three or four page humorous story. These seemed to have been aimed at same market as 'Man About Town' (the stories concerned the battle of the sexes, remaining a bachelor, drinking etc) and were written in a now very dated style which from todays viewpoint reminds one of the actor Terry Thomas in one of his 'absolute bounderish' roles. They were not a success.

However, he also developed his more serious side as a theatre critic for 'Courier' magazine (which was from the same stable as 'London Mystery Magazine') who allowed him to write reviews and add caricatures of the players and producers.

Perhaps the most charming of his work during this period was 'Bun-ho!' a small promotional brochure written and illustrated for the famous Soho bakers Floris. In it Egan asked readers to consider what type of party they wished to throw, where to throw it and to consider what sort of mess it might make when

thrown. "Relax! Think of yourself as ALADDIN and rub the lamp. Hey, presto! FLORIS is by your side. Whisper your slightest whim. To hear is to obey!"

Egan spent a lot of time in the Soho coffee bars and was still an acute observer of the times satirising the youth of the swinging 1960's just as accurately as those of the 1930's.

'Beresford Egan - An Introduction to his Work' was published by Scorpion Press in 1966 offering a retrospective of previous work, much of it previously unpublished. These included a number of artworks from unrealised Fortune Press projects. However, this volume is a little disingenuous at times and a casual reader might think from the sequence of images that the latter artworks were later work. In fact, some of the most interesting images in the book are those in which he takes his deft use of the sinuous line to push the human figure into semi-abstraction are actually from the 1940's. Egan was a constant experimenter with line and blocks of colour as these previously unpublished images demonstrate.

From the mid sixties until his death in January 1984 Egan was able to continue working on commissions from various patrons and, on the back of the Beardsley revival, sales of his earlier works increased. Small legacies from his parents also helped him to live in style (if of a reduced nature). In 1979 a retrospective touring show of his work was curated by Adrian Woodhouse and this was exhibited at various U.K. Venues. Consequently his work began (and still continues) to achieve further recognition in books concerning the Art-Deco period. It is hoped that this piece, and the re-issue of 'Pollen' will continue that trend.

BERESFORD EGAN - A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

A) Books written or illustrated by him.

'The Sink of Solitude' - Hermes Press, 1928.
'Policeman of the Lord' - Sophistocles Press, 1929.
'Fleurs Du Ma'l - Baudelaire, translated by C. Bower Alcock. Sophistocles Press and T. Werner Laurie, 1929.
'Aphrodite' by Pierre Louÿs. Fortune Press, 1929.
'Cyprian Masques' by Pierre Louÿs. Fortune Press, 1929.
'De Sade' by Brian de Shane [ C. Bower Alcock]. Fortune Press, 1929[30].
'The Adventures of King Pausole' by Pierre Louÿs. Fortune Press, 1930.
'Pollen' - Denis Archer, 1933. (Re-issued by Side Real Press 2013)
'No Sense in Form' - Denis Archer, 1933.
'But the Sinners Triumph' - Fortune Press, 1934.
'Pobottle Stories' [ by Nigel Balchin]. High Duty Alloys, 1935-1937
'Epitaph' - Fortune Press, 1943.
'Epilogue' - Fortune Press, 1946.
'Bun-Ho!' - Floris Bakeries, 1959.
'Storicards' - Barrigan Press, 1960.

B) Books about him.

Beresford Egan: An Introduction to His Work by Paul Allen - Scorpion Press, 1966.

Beresford Egan by Adrian Woodhouse - Tartarus Press 2005

The author of this article would be very grateful to hear from anyone with further information regarding Beresford Egan, especially those who own original pieces of his artwork.

Please contact: Siderealpress@gmail.com

'POLLEN'

As stated above, Egans novel 'Pollen' has been re-issued by Side Real Press in a limited edition of 300 numbered copies. This new edition includes an introduction by his friend and biographer Adrian Woodhouse, a previously unpublished drawing, and the transcript of a 1933 talk given to the Search Society entitled 'Black And White Art: What Is It?'

Direct orders made through the Side Real website will receive an extra item; a fascimile of the original 1933 flyer written by Egan for the Denis Archer edition, embossed with the Side Real logo and signed by the publisher.

For full information regarding the book and/or its ordering please go HERE.