Georg Bernhard Tennyson (1930-2007)
Georg B. Tennyson, who passed away on May 19, was emeritus professor of English at UCLA, an eminent scholar of the writings of Thomas Carlyle, and for many years the editor of the distinguished scholarly journal Nineteenth-Century Literature. He also was one of the earliest and most significant contributors to Barfield studies. Indeed, he was a principal founder of these studies. As author, bibliographer, editor, film producer, co-executor of Owen Barfield’s literary estate, teacher, lecturer, and mentor to Barfieldians everywhere, Professor Tennyson eloquently nurtured critical exploration of Barfield’s writings throughout the past four decades. His passing is a real loss.
Tennyson’s interest in Barfield’s work began shortly after the publication of the first paperback edition of Barfield’s Poetic Diction in 1964, coincidentally the very year that he joined the UCLA faculty as a junior professor and that Barfield joined the faculty of Drew University as a visiting professor. Poetic Diction so engaged Tennyson that he immediately set out to read everything else he could find by Barfield, and then, in 1965 or early 1966, wrote the pioneering essay, “Owen Barfield and the Rebirth of Meaning,” that became the first-ever article on Barfield’s work to be published in a scholarly journal when it appeared in The Southern Review 5 (1969):42-57. Intelligent, appreciative, comprehensive, and enduringly readable, “Owen Barfield and the Rebirth of Meaning” set the standard for Barfield studies.
Tennyson’s friendship with Barfield began about a year before the Southern Review essay was published. It was initiated by a letter which Tennyson wrote to Barfield in January 1968, asking if he might visit Barfield in England that summer. By September 1968, following what obviously was a thoroughly happy meeting, Tennyson had undertaken to compile a bibliography of Barfield’s published writings for inclusion in Evolution of Consciousness, the Festschrift in Barfield’s honor that Professor Shirley Sugerman of Drew University was then developing; Evolution of Consciousness was published in 1976 by Wesleyan University Press, for many years the chief publisher of Barfield’s writings in the United States. Like “Owen Barfield and the Rebirth of Meaning,” the bibliography that Tennyson compiled for the Festschrift provided sound guidance and solid support for students of Barfield’s writings. It remained the indispensable bibliography of Barfield’s published writings for 30 years, until the Owen Barfield Society issued the definitive Barfield Bibliography, posted elsewhere on this web site.
In addition to serving as “Bibliographer Royal,” a title Barfield jokingly conferred upon him, Tennyson also was Barfield’s “Arbiter Elegantarium,” whose counsel Barfield sought regarding which essays to include in The Rediscovery of Meaning and Other Essays (published by Wesleyan UP in 1977), how best to title the collection of Barfield’s Vancouver lectures (History, Guilt, and Habit was the eventual choice), and a great many other literary matters. At Barfield’s invitation, Tennyson wrote the Foreword for History, Guilt, and Habit (published by Wesleyan UP in 1979). Barfield chose well: Tennyson’s Foreword is a marvel of graceful lucidity and informed enthusiasm, as are “Owen Barfield: First and Last Inklings,” an article which Tennyson wrote for The World and I (published in the April 1990 issue, pages 540-555), and the Foreword which Tennyson contributed to the 2002 edition of Lionel Adey’s book C. S. Lewis’ ‘Great War’ with Owen Barfield (published by Ink Books). He wrote several cogent essays and reviews for Towards, the journal created by Clifford Monks in order to further the study of Coleridge, Barfield, and Rudolf Steiner.
Tennyson’s gifts as “Arbiter Elegantarium” are also abundantly evident in the two volumes of Barfield’s writings that he edited. In 1989 Wesleyan UP published Owen Barfield on C. S. Lewis, an anthology which Tennyson conceived and edited; this very important resource for students of C. S. Lewis, the Inklings, and Owen Barfield includes not only several carefully chosen essays and speeches by Barfield about Lewis but also Tennyson’s masterly “mini-bio” of Barfield’s friendship with Lewis. Ten years later, in 1999, Wesleyan UP published A Barfield Reader, thoughtfully conceived and edited by Tennyson to commemorate the centenary of Owen Barfield’s birth. In addition to its many other merits, A Barfield Reader is of great value to students of Barfield’s life and work because it perfectly complements A Barfield Sampler (SUNY Press, 1995), the anthology of Barfield’s poetry and fiction that Jeanne Clayton Hunter and Thomas Kranidas expertly edited.
Tennyson’s own creative artistry, and that of his wife Elizabeth, can be glimpsed on the beautifully designed OwenArts web site, and especially in the award-winning documentary film Owen Barfield: Man and Meaning (OwenArts, 1996) which he co-wrote and co-produced with David Lavery. Directed by Ben Levin, this piercingly lovely film, which was supported by major funding from the prestigious Fetzer Institute, essentially is an irreplaceable set of interviews with Barfield, then toward the end of his very long life, and includes numerous illustrative photographs and outstandingly effective film sequences that visually display Barfield’s environment.
Throughout the three decades between his meeting with Barfield in the summer of 1968 and Barfield’s death in December 1997, Tennyson visited Barfield frequently and maintained a lively correspondence with him. They sometimes participated together in conferences, such as the one held at California State University, Fullerton, in 1980 to honor Barfield’s work on the subject of evolution. With another of Barfield’s friends, Tennyson quietly sponsored what would turn out to be Barfield’s last visit to North America, a vacation in sunny Southern California in February, 1985. Following Barfield’s death, Tennyson actively embraced the responsibilities of co-executor of Owen Barfield’s literary estate together with his fellow executors, Shirley Sugerman, Thomas Kranidas, and Walter Hooper.
We are fortunate that much of Professor Tennyson’s Barfieldian scholarship is accessible to us now. The Barfield Press has recently reprinted History, Guilt, and Habit and Owen Barfield on C. S. Lewis, and both A Barfield Reader and the 2002 edition of C. S. Lewis’ ‘Great War’ with Owen Barfield remain available from their publishers as well as via various online vendors. In all of these writings, as in his 1969 essay, Tennyson encourages us to recognize and ponder the great themes in Barfield’s writings – the felt change of consciousness, the Logos, and rebirth.
Professor Tennyson’s family has established a fund for donations in his memory. Contributions may be made in Georg B. Tennyson’s name to his grandchildren’s school, Episcopal School of Dallas, Memorial Contributions, at ESDallas.org or to ESD, 4100 Merrell Road, Dallas, TX 75229.
Terry and Jane Hipolito
Placentia, California