Poet, friend and activist: Stanley Richardson and the Arden Society for Artists and Writers Exiled in England, 1938-40.

At this time of global conflict, I look back to the 1930s to examine how a young poet and postgraduate student took action to support writers and artists fleeing fascism in Europe. While Stanley Richardson and his organisation, the Arden Society, are almost forgotten today, the list of people they aided includes many significant writers, among them one of Spain’s leading twentieth-century poets, Luis Cernuda. In turn, Richardson developed his own understanding of the social and political role of poetry. This article discusses how Stanley Richardson left a potential academic career and created the Arden Society for Artists and Writers in Exile. Originally intended to help refugees in Britain develop networks that would allow them to continue their work, Arden Society members quickly took on additional roles, including assisting refugees in court and attempting to bring anti-Nazi writers to safety. Previous scholarship discusses Stanley Richardson as part of a European literary network, including his friendships with Federico García Lorca and Cernuda. This article explores how social and artistic networks can become a basis for political action. Moreover, I consider how, within contemporary debates on the role of poetry in wartime, Stanley developed his own approach to the balance of art, ‘truth’ and propaganda.