Posted by Pippa on March 26, 2002 at 19:23:26 from 195.92.168.170:
In Reply to: real family/book families posted by tasha on March 25, 2002 at 16:01:33:
Well, I too would advise reading the site as Eric suggests, but I'll help you out a little (just because I like showing off my new-found knowledge!).
AR was born in 1884, his father "a fisherman who wrote history books in his spare time"! Educated at Rugby, he dropped out of University where he was struggling to become a scientist as a "2nd best" to please his mother who did not want him to be a writer. He lived a bohemian life in London, living off journalism and reviewing and trying to write stories, his published work from this time includes "Bohemia in London", "The Hoofmarks of The Faun" and critical studies of Poe and Wilde. He was sued for libel over Wilde. Throughout childhood and his youth he took regular holidays in the Lake District. In 1909 he married Ivy Walker (in his autobiography he places this event in a chapter titled "Disasters"!). A desire to re-write Russian folk tales in English drove him to Russia, with the aim of learning the language and reading the tales in the original. "Old Peter's Russian Tales" was the result of this and his first highly-regarded published work. He became a war correspondent and also became deeply embroiled in the Russian Revolution, writing books such as "Six Weeks in Russia in 1919" which is sometimes seen as almost amounting to Bolshevik propoganda. He played chess with Lenin and, divorcing Ivy, married Trotsky's secretary. He turned back to his early loves, fishing and sailing, and designed and had built a boat whose first cruise is chronicled in "Racundra's First Cruise". Returning to Russia he became increasingly disillusioned with politics and the travel associated with his journalism and in 1929 moved to the Lakes and began "Swallows and Amazons". The series were written steadily one every year or two years until all 12 were complete (5 chapters exist of an uncompleted 13th novel). Interestingly he also seemed to become increasingly disillusioned with the series (his wife was not encouraging esp about the later books - is the alternative title of P&M - "Not Welcome At All" - referring only to the plot?). He died in 1967 (I think) and was outlived by his wife who was buried by his side 8 years later.
With regard to real families and Ransome's childhood as inspiration the real Walkers were the Altounyans (Taqui, Susan, Mavis (nicknamed Titty), Roger and Brigit). These 5 were children of Dora and Ernest Altounyan, Dora was the daughter of William Collingwood, a Lake District friend of Ransome's from when he was in his 20s. He sailed with these five in two boats named Swallow and Mavis, and they gave him a pair of slippers. The original dedication of S&A is to them, "in exchange for a pair of slippers". Ransome's relationship with the children later became less happy, and he removed his dedication, replacing it with a note naming his own childhood as inspiration for the novels.
Tacqui Altounyan has written an article which is on the website. Titty too has written of her experiences, I have an interesting obituary of her which talks of her especially close relationship with AR. She felt that she suffered somewhat from people wanting her to be Titty Walker not herself, and says AR only liked children at a certain age and couldn't cope once they began to grow up.
The Blacketts are sometimes said to be purely from AR's imagination, but some suggest Dora and Barbara Collingwood were an inspiration, or some sisters named Rawdon-Smith.
Most critics suggest there is some of AR in almost all the children of the novels: John the older brother he wished he had been (I think a lot of John's experiences in WDMTGTS are from "Racundra's First Cruise"), Dick the myopic scientist, Titty the mystic, reader and writer, Dorothea another part of Ransome's creative side.
Christina Hardyment's "AR and Cap't Flint's Trunk" is an interesting guide to AR and the novels - Hunt names it as the book every Ransomite wishes they had written. Ransome's autobiography is interesting too, I have yet to tackle Brogan's "Life of Arthur Ransome" which seems to be the definitive biography.