The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome
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Information about Arthur Ransome’s Autobiography (1976), edited by Rupert Hart-Davis.
Arthur Ransome’s Autobiography was published posthumously in 1976. This page contains publication, availability, background and contents information.
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First Publication
Published by Jonathan Cape in September, 1976.
Availability
Out of print.
Background
The writing of an autobiography at sixty-five, seventy-three, seventy-eight, knowing that there is no time in which to put right the mistakes of the past, is like a reheasal for the Day of Judgement, and not an early rehearal either but perhaps the very last.
Jonathan Cape first suggested that Ransome write his autobiography as early as 1939, but he was reluctant and didn’t begin to do so until ten years later. He then worked intermittently at it until 1961, but never completed it.
Ransome’s first literary executor, Rupert Hart-Davis edited and tidied up Ransome’s completed chapters after his death.
Synopsis
The Autobiography recounts Ransome’s life in detail from 1884 to 1932, the time when he had just begun to write the Swallows and Amazons novels. Hart-Davis added a short Epilogue that summarises the remaining 35 years of Ransome’s life.
