Brunette Coleman

Philip Larkin’s Secret Pseudonym: Brunette Coleman

Imagine a world where one of the most renowned poets of the 20th century, Philip Larkin, had another side—secretly writing erotic stories under a pseudonym. That’s exactly what happened with Brunette Coleman. This intriguing aspect of Larkin’s life reveals much about his creative process and personal struggles during his undergraduate years at St John’s College, Oxford.

The Birth of Brunette Coleman

In 1943, while studying at Oxford, Larkin found himself in a period of confusion regarding his sexuality. To explore this complex side, he created the character of Brunette Coleman—a female persona that allowed him to write homoerotic stories and poems without revealing his true identity.

The Works of Brunette Coleman

Under the guise of Brunette Coleman, Larkin penned a novella titled ‘Trouble at Willow Gables.’ This story is set in a girls’ boarding school and explores themes of friendship, rivalry, and injustice. It’s a fascinating glimpse into Larkin’s imagination during his formative years.

The Coleman oeuvre also includes seven short poems with a girls’ school ambience, a fragment of pseudo-autobiography, and a critical essay purporting to be Coleman’s literary apologia. These works offer a unique perspective on the mind of one of England’s greatest poets.

Why Brunette Coleman?

The question arises: why did Larkin choose this pseudonym? Was it simply to protect his identity, or was there more to it? Some speculate that using a female persona allowed him to explore themes and emotions he might not have dared to express under his own name. Others believe it was a way to channel his creativity during a period of personal turmoil.

The Aftermath

After completing the Coleman works, Larkin published two novels and his first poetry collection under his own name. However, his career as a prose writer declined. The Coleman material was not released until 2002, when it sparked intense debate among literary critics.

The Critical Reception

Some saw no value in these juvenilia, while others considered them useful light on the study of mature Larkin. In his letters to Amis, Philip Larkin maintained that Coleman was a real person and shared fictional works with him. As he waited for employment offers, Larkin continued to add works to the Coleman oeuvre but ultimately abandoned it.

Notable Works

The novella ‘Trouble at Willow Gables’ is particularly noteworthy. It follows Margaret and Marie as they navigate life in a girls’ boarding school, facing challenges and finding friendship amidst the constraints of their environment. The story includes scenes that may be interpreted through a male heterosexual gaze but remain free from explicit pornography.

The typescript features altered surnames of headmistress and principal girls throughout, indicating possible submission for publication. Its themes include friendships, rivalries, and injustices, concluding in reconciliation and future hope. Some scenes may be interpreted as written with a male heterosexual gaze, but without explicit pornography.

The Legacy

While the Coleman works were not widely known during Larkin’s lifetime, their release in 2002 provided new insights into his creative process and personal struggles. The stories offer a unique window into the mind of one of England’s greatest poets.

The Poems

Among the Coleman material are six poems: ‘The False Friend,’ ‘Bliss,’ ‘Femmes Damnées,’ ‘Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis,’ ‘Holidays,’ and ‘The School in August.’ The poem ‘Femmes Damnées’ was published in 1978, while the others are included in Larkin’s Collected Poems. Writing about grown women is less perverse and therefore less satisfying.

Booth finds the Coleman poems impressive, demonstrating Larkin’s early ability to create striking images from conventional clichés. The Coleman poems are among the best Larkin wrote in the 1940s, surpassing his first published selection The North Ship (1945).

A Dedication and More

A dedication page precedes an untitled poem that later appears as ‘The School in August’ in Sugar and Spice. The typescript features altered surnames of headmistress and principal girls throughout, indicating possible submission for publication.

Unpublished Projects

Among the stillborn projects planned by the pair was a story about two beautiful jazz-loving lesbian undergraduates. According to Booth, the ‘feeble plot [was] merely the excuse for lesbian scenes.’ Jill, completed in 1944, was published in 1946 by The Fortune Press without being read by its proprietor.

Larkin’s second novel, A Girl in Winter, was published in 1947 and received better reviews than Jill but achieved moderate sales. Over the years, Larkin began several more novels with female protagonists before abandoning them around 1954, including a final project called A New World Symphony.

Conclusion

The Brunette Coleman pseudonym offers a fascinating glimpse into Philip Larkin’s creative process and personal struggles. It reveals much about his imagination and the complex emotions he grappled with during his formative years at Oxford. The release of these works in 2002 sparked intense debate, but they remain an invaluable resource for understanding one of England’s greatest poets.