Hugh Sykes Davies

Hugh Sykes Davis (1909-1984) was an English poet novelist and communist who was one of a small group of 1930s British surrealists.

Davis was born in Yorkshire and studied at Cambridge University, where he co-edited a student magazine called Experiment with William Empson. He spent some time in Paris during the 1930s. He was to stand as a communist candidate in the 1940 general election but the vote was cancelled because of the war.

He had a talent for friendship, and as well as Empson, he numbered T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards, Anthony Blunt, Wittgenstein and Salvador Dalí amongst his circle. At one stage he had Malcolm Lowry declared his ward in an attempt to stop Lowry's drinking.

Davis' poems were mostly published in avant-garde magazines and were not collected during his lifetime. His novels include Full Fathom Five (1956) and The Papers of Andrew Melmoth (1960).

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*Biography, poems, prose and checklist of publications