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A controversial manuscript has been brought out from the Len Lye Archive in New Plymouth. Written 76 years ago, it is about to published for the first time.
This was a collaboration between two notable figures – New Zealand-born artist Len Lye and famous British writer Robert Graves. Graves was the author of the I, Claudius novels which became a popular TV series, and of Good-Bye to All That, a vivid first-hand account of trench fighting during the First World War. The two men were lifelong friends.
Their text - a kind of manifesto about what it means to live in a free society - is being published under the title Individual Happiness Now. Paul Brobbel of the Len Lye Centre (publisher of the book) says: ‘This manuscript is one of the most exciting discoveries we’ve made in the large collection of papers and works of art which Lye bequeathed to the people of New Zealand when he died in 1980. The Lye Centre is publishing it with the permission of the Robert Graves estate. Internationally there’s been a great deal of interest since Graves’s work still has many readers.’
The essay was written in 1941 at a time when the Nazis appeared to be winning the war and were planning to invade Britain. Graves and Lye were deeply disturbed because they felt the Nazis were winning the propaganda war. Winston Churchill and other leaders were not explaining clearly what the Allies were fighting for. Politicians were afraid that ‘the moment they left the area of pious platitude,’ they ran into arguments and controversies. And so they kept to clichés. In response, Graves and Lye set out to explain what freedom and democracy really mean.
‘This essay is 76 years old but it is amazingly topical today,’ says Roger Horrocks, who edited the text for publication. ‘Now, all over Europe and in the United States, there are extreme-right politicians questioning the idea of a diverse, free, democratic society, just as the Fascists did. Also, the propagandists for ISIS on social media are making converts even among some young people in the West. Our leaders are not doing a good job of explaining the values we must protect. I think Individual Happiness Now will offer a great starting-point for that discussion.’
Back in the 1940s, the manifesto was circulated to many British politicians and media people. Its most enthusiastic reader was the American politician Wendell Willkie, who had strong backing to become the first Secretary General of the United Nations at the end of the war. He brought Lye to New York in 1944 to discuss his ideas, but Willkie died that year after a sudden heart attack. The Graves and Lye essay was much discussed but never published – until now.
‘The fact that Graves and Lye were bohemian artists helped to make them great champions of individual freedom and happiness,’ says Horrocks. ‘Their view of politics was totally opposed to the grimness of Fascism. In some respects, it looked forward to the exuberant politics of the hippie era!
The book - Len Lye and Robert Graves, ‘Individual Happiness Now’: A Definition of Common Purpose - will be available from the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre shop from April 8th 2017.
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