Summary
John Barclay Pick (26 December 1921 – 25 January 2015),[1] often credited as J.B. Pick, was an English poet, novelist, and biographer. He was a Quaker and a conscientious objector during the Second World War, serving in the Friends' Ambulance Unit and then as a coalminer.[2]
Pick was born in Leicester. He was married to Gene Pick (died 2019) with two children, both sons (Peter Pick and David Pick).[3] Pick received his education at Sidcot School, a Quaker institution in Somerset. He attended Cambridge University for a year but left at the outbreak of Second World War to join the Friends' Ambulance Unit. In the 1980s he moved to live in Balmaclellan in Galloway.[4][5]
Pick was the author of the novels Out of the Pit, The Lonely Aren't Alone, Under the Crust and A Land Fit for Eros, the last co-authored with John Atkins. He also wrote a number of short stories, articles, poetry, and nonfiction works. The Last Valley (originally published in the UK in 1959 as The Fat Valley[6]) was his first book to be published in the United States. It was later made into a film starring Omar Sharif and Michael Caine.[7]
Works edit
- The Last Valley Little, Brown & Co, 1959
- The Strange Genius of David Lindsay: An Appreciation (1970) with E. H. Visiak and Colin Wilson
- David Lindsay and the Sublime, in Cencrastus No. 2, Spring 1980, pp. 15 – 17
- Neil M. Gunn: selected letters (editor), Edinburgh, Polygon, 1987
References edit
- ^ "Obituary: John Barclay Pick, writer". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
- ^ "John Pick, man of letters - obituary".
- ^ "Click here to view the tribute page for Gene PICK".
- ^ Pick, The Last Valley, jacket.
- ^ Murray Ewing, violetapple.org.uk The Violet Apple: The Life and Works of David Lindsay (2009)
- ^ Pick, The Last Valley, Sphere paperback, 1970, publishing history. The original publisher was Arco Publications
- ^ Pick, The Last Valley, Sphere paperback, 1970, front cover.