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Gerald Bullett

Gerald William Bullett (30 December 1893 – 3 January 1958)[1] was a British man of letters. He was known as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, critic, poet and publisher. He wrote both supernatural fiction and some children's literature. A few of his books were published under the pseudonym Sebastian Fox.

Biography

Bullett was born in London, the son of businessman Robert Bullet and Ellen Bullett (née Pegg), and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. During the Second World War he worked for the BBC in London, and after the war was a radio broadcaster. Bullett also contributed to the Times Literary Supplement. Politically, Bullett described himself as a "liberal socialist" and claimed to detest "prudery, prohibition, blood sports, central heating, and literary tea parties".[2] Bullett was also an anti-fascist, describing fascism as "gangsterism on a national scale"; he publicly backed the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War.[3]

One of his novels was Mr. Godly Beside Himself (1924), a humorous fantasy story about a modern man who exchanges places with his doppelganger in fairyland. Brian Stableford likens Bullet's novel to other works of post First World War British fantasy, such as Stella Benson's Living Alone (1919), and Hope Mirrlees' Lud-in-the-Mist (1926).[4]

Bullett was a great admirer of Walt Whitman, and wrote an essay on Whitman for the book Great Democrats by Alfred Barratt Brown. Here he described Whitman as "a man full-blooded and brotherly, unselfconscious in his democracy and genuinely at ease with all kinds and classes".[5]

In 1926 Bullett established the publishing firm Gerald Howe Ltd. in partnership with Garfield Howe.[6] The firm "issued a modest list of titles with a literary bent".[7]

Bullett died in Chichester, West Sussex, on 3 January 1958.[8]

Works

As editor

As translator

References

  1. ^ Michael Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction (Taplinger Pub. Co., 1978: ISBN 0-8008-8275-X), p. 45.
  2. ^ Twentieth century authors, a biographical dictionary of modern literature, edited by Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft; (Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950, (pp. 217-8)
  3. ^ Valentine Cunningham, Spanish front: writers on the civil war, Oxford University Press, 1986 ISBN 0192122584 (p.58).
  4. ^ Brian Stableford, "Bullett, Gerald (William)", in the St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers, ed. David Pringle, St. James Press, 1996, ISBN 1-55862-205-5,(p. 84-5).
  5. ^ Anthony Arblaster, Honouring The Democrats, Red Pepper, March 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  6. ^ "The Bookman", [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/35636379 "Books and Authors". The Courier-Mail, 6 October 1934, p. 18. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  7. ^ Soho Library, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 18 August 2-24.
  8. ^ Ehrlich, Felicity (4 October 2008). "Bullett, Gerald William (1893–1958), writer and broadcaster". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40888. Retrieved 5 July 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

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