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        Pete Atkin >> Words >> Clive James -- twelve months gone
        
(Message started by: S J Birkill on Today at 21:27)

Title: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 21:27

https://www.peteatkin.com/images/archive-preview_orig.jpg (https://archive.clivejames.com)

Today is the anniversary of Clive's death. We should contemplate again the under-recognised beauty and brilliance of the songs he wrote for Pete Atkin, alongside the other outlets he found for his skill with words. I'm still working to preserve the legacy of his dazzling eloquence in poetry and prose, and the wit, wisdom and humanity of his cultural commentary, by attempting to collect all of his output -- an immense body of work -- into the thousands of pages which constitute what I'm calling "Phase 2" (being the augmentation process) of my Clive James Website Archive at https://archive.clivejames.com (https://archive.clivejames.com). Cultural Amnesia is currently under way in the "Books" section. Note that once you've selected a section and menu item you can use the blue 'Previous'/'Next' buttons to sequence through the other pages in the section with minimum delay.

Please take a moment to see how it's coming along. If you like it, tell your friends.

Steve Birkill

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by Revelator on 03.12.20 at 01:12

Thank you for resurrecting Clive's website in its former splendor!
And thank you for reminding us of the anniversary of his death. It's still hard to accept that we can never again look forward to a new review or book from him.

However, I am surprised that a collection of Clive's fugitive essays has not been published. I'm thinking of all the work collected in the "Other Recent Articles" section of his website. As Clive wrote, "All the articles in this section have been written since The Revolt of the Pendulum came out in 2009, and are thus queuing up to be loaded aboard a collection of their own, which might not be assembled in my lifetime."

I hope they'll be assembled sometime, nevertheless!

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by Rob Spence on 16.12.20 at 15:30

The website is looking great, Steve. And yes, a posthumous collection of the fugitive essays (which would be a great title) is necessary.

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by S J Birkill on 16.12.20 at 19:23

The Fugitive Essays -- splendid title, Rob. I see it has been used before (Royce, Chodorov), but then most of the good ones are worthy of re-use, aren't they. I'll mention it to Claerwen, in case she hasn't thought of it already, or indeed got something lined up for 2021 release.

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by Revelator on 28.01.21 at 21:19

Ian Shircore recently published the article "The Enduring Prose and Poetry of Clive James" in Quadrant: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/01/the-enduring-prose-and-poetry-of-clive-james/

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by Chris H on 03.09.21 at 11:45

Wonderful stuff and a huge amount of work !

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by Revelator on 29.10.24 at 20:34

Thanks again, Steve, for making the archival version of Clive's website such a valuable resource.

In less than a month the fifth anniversary of Clive's death will be upon us, and I remain curious why his post-2009 essays have yet to be collected and published. While the best time to do so would have been shortly after his passing, I think there would still be plenty of interest today. Clive had intended on such a collection, and I hope his wishes will be honored.

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by S J Birkill on 30.10.24 at 01:32

Thank you, Revelator. It's been a while since I last updated the "CJ Articles since 2005" (https://archive.clivejames.com/essays/clive.htm) section. Do you perhaps have (or know of) any that I might have missed? TLS, Prospect, Atlantic, New Yorker and others less well known might be worth a further trawl. Perhaps some previously paywalled pieces have since been liberated? Equally any poems that might have escaped the net. Any suggestions welcome.

Steve

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by Revelator on 30.10.24 at 02:05

Hello Steve,

There are a pair of TLS articles from 2016 worth adding:

"Man and knife" [A review of A History of Virility]:
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/politics-society/social-cultural-studies/man-and-knife

"Waking up in Europa: Clive James recalls his first taste of European civilization"
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/politics-society/social-cultural-studies/clive-james-waking-up-in-europa-essay-brexit-europe

If you have any trouble getting the full texts, you can download pdfs at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H55n59_J7le9DuvaW4kWSdxLaGZkZNJT/view?usp=sharing

and

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gpXUhUFg6Q7VEAxajUUjUKqNdqlrqm6L/view?usp=sharing

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by Revelator on 30.10.24 at 02:10

In Prospect, there's an essay on Martin Scorsese from 2014:

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/46849/martin-scorsese-american-god

And a review of a David Thomson book on screen acting, from 2015:

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/47478/serious-face-centre-stage

Title: Re: Clive James -- twelve months gone
Post by S J Birkill on 30.10.24 at 05:24

That's great -- thank you for these. I also have a handful of review pieces of Clive's, sent to me by another contributor, that have been 'on the back burner' here for rather too long. I think your comments, along with these new acquisitions, will prompt some overdue action here.

I'll have to decide just how to incorporate them: I've always been a little uneasy about copying articles that are still 'live' on the Web, especially where that would breach a paywall (despite having the blessing of Clive's estate and the unproven assumption that he retained rights on these pieces), so some of them may be included as direct hyperlinks from my menu/index rather than have their own page(s) here. We'll see. Problem with that approach is that I need to check back periodically that each is still on line, so that if necessary I can create a new page in the 'Archive' from my stored copy. This may already apply to some of the links I've marked with the red dollar sign as long as five years ago. Need to make some space in my busy schedule :)

Onward!

Steve