The drama, poetry and hymns of Fred Pratt Green: a bibliographic and critical study in two volumes

Abstract

This thesis, which is presented in two volumes, gives a detailed description of nearly all plays, poems and hymns written by Fred Pratt Green. In the first volume bibliographic detail of all extant plays is given. There is also a synopsis of several plays and a discussion particularly of the late plays. Most of the thirteen plays referred to have been discovered during this research. Copies of some of these plays are not generally available: two are in the British Library, two are at the Pratt Green collection at the University of Durham and the others are personal copies which I obtained from various sources. The poetry section lists all known poems and many of these have been dated as a result of my research findings. Their original place of publication is given. There is a critical commentary on the four main collections: This Unlikely Earth, The Skating Parson, The Old Couple and The Last Lap. A short discussion is included here focussing on poetry ranging from 1929-1960s which was not included in a main collection and which was discovered during this research. Volume One concludes with variations in poetry texts, from their first publication to their later inclusion in the above four main collections or later anthologies. The second volume contains a complete listing of hymns to date and hymnals in which they appear where relevant. The section starts with a detailed evaluation of Pratt Green's contribution to hymnody and examines some characteristics of his hymns. Considerable comparison of textual variation in published hymnals has been undertaken as part of this research and this is included in this section. Volume Two concludes with a discussion of the significance of the variations noted.