'[Un]elective Affinities': Kathleen Raine, Barbara Hepworth, Stone and Flower

In 1943 Kathleen Raine's first collection of poetry went to press. Stone and Flower: Poems 1935- 43 was published by Nicholson and Watson under the imprint Editions Poetry London by that 'ringmaster of the wartime poetical circus... [who] kept poetry in the limelight' and 'swallowed Bohemian London whole',¹ James Meery Thurairajah Tambimuttu.

Editions Poetry London were issued as a non-commercial line in addition to the influential literary magazine Poetry London. As Tambimuttu edited both they shared a 'decided tone (and quality)...that showed an openness to diverse new talent'.² As these titles suggest, a quintessentially metropolitan emphasis was maintained for, as Julian Maclaren-Ross quipped: 'in the Forties there was no nonsense about regionalism or Liverpool or Salford being the centre of the arts, London was the centre and that was bloody well that'.³

'Kathleen, you are a great poet,' Tambimuttu told Raine; 'I will publish your poems, it will be a beautiful book, you will see.' And true to his word, despite being castigated in some circles as the 'conman of literature... [whose] handling of business went beyond the outrageous',⁴ the volume Tambimuttu produced is indeed a beautiful book. Each poem luxuriates upon its page in a crisp serifed typeface with ample space to breathe within commodious margins. Any temptation to cramp their style by squeezing them top to tail, like figures in a Henry Moore ...