The Nassamonian and the Cornish Revival: what did James Dryden Hosken contribute to the Cornish School of Writing?

Abstract

James Dryden Hosken (1861-1953), although recognised as a significant contributor to the Cornish Revival by Payton , Kent and other major commentators, has long been neglected, even within his home town of Helston. No historiography, biographical or critical studies of Hosken have previously been made. Thus, this dissertation has necessitated wide-ranging original research to gather together Hosken’s writings as well as researching his life and that of contemporary Cornwall through printed media and personal contacts. It will very broadly follow a New Historicist approach in considering his work to be inextricably linked with his life experiences, as his major work, Reuben Quinion, demonstrates. Hosken’s troubled life gave him first-hand knowledge of social injustices, vagrancy, and religious tensions in late Victorian Cornwall. These are considered in relation to his work in individual chapters. In chronicling such key aspects of Cornwall during her transition between de-industrialisation and a tourist-dominating ethos, Hosken remains unique among the poets associated with the period roughly defined as the Cornish Revival. Technically a skilful poet, as will be shown by detailed analyses of various poems, Hosken is also a major Cornish “poet of place,” drawing strength and inspiration from his homeland, particularly during his years away from Cornwall. Within the broader framework of Celtic Revivalism, Hosken’s increasing commitment to Cornwall offers parallels between him and his major Manx contemporary T.E.Brown. However, when seeking to place Hosken within the context of the Cornish or general Celtic Revivals, it is important to recognise that as a self-proclaimed Nassamonian, he was always an Outsider, an individual isolated in his life and his writings.