Ray, James
Entry updated 28 October 2024. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of New Zealand-born lexicographer, editor, publisher and author Eric Partridge (1894-1979), in Australia from 1907, active from 1914 or earlier, serving during World War One in the Australian infantry, his combat experiences recast in the nonfantastic tales assembled as Glimpses (coll 1928) as by Corrie Denison; in UK after the war. Under his own name, Partridge became famous as a lexicographer, his best known non-reference titles probably being Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English (1942; rev 1947) and Shakespeare's Bawdy: A Literary and Psychological Essay and a Comprehensive Glossary (1947).
Partridge's sole publication as by Ray, The Scene Is Changed (1932) (but see below) is a Disaster novel which begins in the Near Future, when many women and almost all men are seemingly wiped out worldwide; this incipit is unpacked on Scientific Romance lines, with a group of men maintaining the defences of Oxford the midst of a balkanized Britain. At the same time, the sexual allure (see Sex) due to the scarcity of males, though Satirically depicted in scenes that would seem unexceptionable a few decades later, complicates the road forward. By 1950, however, a slightly uneasy comity reigns. An earlier version of the tale, Why Not? (1931) as by Corrie Dennison, was privately printed in a tiny run but not distributed. [JC]
Eric Honeywood Partridge
born Gisborne, New Zealand: 6 February 1894
died Moretonhampstead, Devon: 1 June 1979
works (highly selected)
- Why Not? (no place given but probably Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire: for the author, 1931) as by Corrie Dennison [hb/]
- The Scene Is Changed (London: John Heritage, 1932) [rev of the above: first public release: hb/]
about the author
- John Arnold. "Worthwhile Rarities?: The Fiction of Eric Partridge" (2015 Script and Print: Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand) [vol 39:3: mag/]
links
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