In 1946, Robert Aickman co-founded (with LTC Rolt), The Inland Waterways Association, which sought to preserve the old canal system in England that was falling into disuse. The second volume of Aickman's autobiography, The River Runs Uphill , covers the first five years of this organization.
Recommended Book:
There is still controversy about the early history of The Inland Waterways Association and what was accomplished. The newsgroup uk.rec.waterways sometimes brings up the subject. If you are interested in this story, David Bolton has chronicled it in Race Against Time: How Britain's Waterways Were Saved, a book published by Methuen, London; 1990. It is also in paperback: Mandarin, London; 1991. The author had access to Aickman's personal papers and IWA records (he was “an extraordinary hoarder of materials”), and input from long-time friends. He strives to present all sides of the issues, and shed light on the enigma that was Robert Aickman. Especially to be noted in this regard is the "Epilogue: Tales of Love and Death".
"... thus I turn my back. There is a world elsewhere." --Shakespeare's Coriolanus
The River Runs Uphill, published by Pearson (Burton-on-Trent), 1986. This is the legendary dust jacket that we, for one, had given up all hope of ever seeing. Yes, that's a photograph/ portrait of Robert Aickman (photograph taken by Peter Froud in 1963, near a railway viaduct, on St Helens Canal). Copies of this photograph can be ordered from The Boat Museum, which owns the original.
Thanks to Huw Lines, we know that this photograph also appears on the back cover of the 1967 paperback edition of The Story of Our Inland Waterways; Norfolk, Geoffrey Dibb Ltd. The first edition of this book appeared in 1955.
There was another waterways book published in 1955, also written by Robert Aickman. The fourth revised edition was: Know Your Waterways: Holidays on Inland Waterways; Surrey, Press Books Ltd., (no date). Yes, that is Aickman in the photograph on the cover. [John Clute has waxed poetic about this photograph in one of his reviews.]
Robert Aickman, waxing something, writes in 1964, in the "Proem" of his autobiographic work, The Attempted Rescue :
"I chose, or was led by destiny (i.e. temperament), to find a field of activity, the navigational rivers and canals of Britain, where a counter-demonstration seemed possible, where a redoubt, big enough and various enough to be worth bothering about, might be captured and held indefinitely by a few like-minded people, and whence, just conceivably, the word might spread, not too hopelessly mangled. . .
. . .The Association is widely regarded as the most successful voluntary body of the period since 1945. I believe this to be because the Association has uniquely deep roots in history, imagination, and the quest for happiness in a world where happiness is impossible. From the centre of the battle, I, the priest and the sacrifice, cry out against the horror of the world, while smiling suitably as another waterway, properly due for extinction a century ago, is renewed at the word of a Royal Personage, so fragile, so touching; and immediately leaps to prosperity and bounty."
The Tuesday Night Club today enjoys tours on the canals. They have posted photographs of The Robert Aickman New Lock and commemorative plaque (between one-third to one-half-way down the page).Also, Robert Aickman notes in The River Runs Uphill, p.59: "I am very honoured to be a member of the [World Wildlife] Fund's Advisory Panel, and was honoured too to be put on the map when a Canadian archipelago was named the Aickman Islands."
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Thanks to Huw Lines for the cover scans (except for The River Runs Uphill, which we stole from an Ebay sale), and IrfanView for the thumbnails.
