Lee, Laurie

▪ 1998

      British poet and prose writer (b. June 26, 1914, Slad, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, Eng.—d. May 13, 1997, Slad), was best known for his book Cider with Rosie (1959; U.S. title The Edge of Day), a memoir of his boyhood in the Cotswold countryside. The later volumes of what proved to be his autobiographical trilogy were As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969), a description of his trip to London and Spain, and A Moment of War (1991), an account of his experiences in Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Lee's father abandoned the family in 1917, when Lee was three. At age 19 Lee headed to London and then to Spain. There he traveled and began to feel some sympathy for the Republican cause. He returned to England and during World War II worked for various government departments. In the war's aftermath he published three volumes of poetry and several prose works, not making much of a reputation until Leonard Woolf reluctantly published Cider with Rosie. It was an instant classic and soon a regular part of the educational curriculum. Awakening in its public a deep-seated longing for the simplicity and innocence of a joyous youth in a bygone era, the book essentially recorded daily life and the unique personalities that made life in a small village memorable. It sold so many copies that Lee was able to purchase his boyhood home, and it was there that he died.

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▪ British author

born June 26, 1914, Slad, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, Eng.

died May 13, 1997, Slad

      English poet and prose writer best known for Cider with Rosie (1959), a memoir of the author's boyhood in the Cotswold countryside.

      Educated in his home village and in nearby Stroud, Lee eventually moved to London and traveled in Spain in the mid-1930s. Upon his return to England, he worked as a film-script writer (1940–43) and as an editor for the Ministry of Information (1944–45). Lee published several volumes of poetry in the 1940s and '50s, but he achieved little recognition until his autobiographical book Cider with Rosie (U.S. title The Edge of Day) was published by Leonard Woolf in 1959. Cider with Rosie became an instant classic and was widely read in British schools. An account of Lee's happy childhood in a secluded village, the book nostalgically evokes the simplicity and innocence of a vanished rural world.

      Lee wrote two more volumes of what became an autobiographical trilogy, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969), a description of his trip to London to seek his fortune; and A Moment of War (1991), an account of his experiences in Spain during that country's Civil War. Lee's other works include the poetry collections The Sun My Monument (1944), The Bloom of Candles (1947), and My Many-Coated Man (1955) and a collection of stories, I Can't Stay Long (1976).

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