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Joseph Johnston Lee (1876 – 1949) was a Scottish journalist, artist and poet, who chronicled life in the trenches and as a prisoner of war during World War I. He is also remembered for his fight with then poet laureate Robert Bridges over the literary value of Robert Burns' work. He has been described as "Scotland's 'Forgotten' War Poet", as well as "Dundee's forgotten war poet." ==Biography== Born in Dundee, in 1876 Joseph Johnston Lee was the grandson of Sergeant David Lee, who had fought in the Napoleonic Wars and was one of nine siblings. Lee began his working life at the age of 14. After a spell of employment in the office of a local solicitor, he went to sea as a steamship's stoker.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://arccat.dundee.ac.uk/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=((text)=%27ms%2088%27) )〕 While working in Dundee had taken art classes at the local YMCA and by 1904 was working as an artist in London drawing cartoons for the Tariff Reform League, and subsequently became a newspaper artist. While in London he also studied at Heatherley's School of Fine Art. 〔 He returned to Dundee in 1906 and started to write for, produce and edit several local periodicals, most notably The ''City Echo'' and ''The Piper O' Dundee''.〔 In 1909 he founded and edited ''The Tocsin'' a monthly periodical which promoted the labour movement in Dundee. This publication won praise from leading figures in the Labour Party including Keir Hardie and Philip Snowden, but folded after less than a year.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://archives-records-artefacts.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/tracing-development-of-red-scotland.html )〕 In 1909 he gained employment with the Dundee newspaper and periodical publishers John Leng & Co. He was soon a regular contributor of poetry to their weekly newspaper ''The People's Journal'', a publication which he would go on to edit.〔 He published his first book of poems, ''Tales o’ Our Town'', in 1910. In April 1914 his play ''Fra Lippo Lippi, Painter of Florence'' was produced and performed by students of the Dundee Technical College and School of Art.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://arccat.dundee.ac.uk/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=2&dsqSearch=((text)=%27fra%20lippo%27) )〕This was Lee's second theatrical work after a one-act play called''The Song: An Episode from Bohemia'', which was performed in Dundee in 1913. Although he was aged almost 40 when World War I began, Lee enlisted in the 4th Battalion of the Black Watch in 1914 and eventually rose to the rank of Sergeant.〔 Lee's enlistment was despite his age, health problems (he was suffering from asthma) and the fact many of his associates in the labour movement in Dundee strongly opposed the war.〔 Caroline Brown, Matthew Jarron and Kenneth Baxter, have noted that it is possible Lee was inspired by the fact his grandfather had fought at Waterloo (Lee wrote a poem about this in 1915), or was swept up in a wave of patriotism which swept Dundee at this time. However, as they note, whatever his reasons were, it is unlikely he realised his involvement in the War would prove to be the key point of his literary career.〔 During his time fighting, Lee sent sketches and poems back home to Scotland. These were eventually collected in two books of poetry, ''Ballads of Battle'' and ''Work-a-Day Warriors''. In 1917 he gained a commission as a second lieutenant in the 10th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.〔 Later that year he was reported to be missing in action. In fact Lee had been captured and became a prisoner of war in Germany.〔 His time spent as a POW was later depicted in his book ''A Captive in Carlsruhe''. In 1924 Lee married Miss Dorothy Barrie, who was a well-known viola player. The couple settled in Epsom and Lee became sub-editor on the News Chronicle.〔 He also studied at the Slade School of Art during this period.〔 He returned to Dundee in 1944, and died there in 1949.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Lee (poet)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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