Mervyn Peake, Self-portrait, submitted to the Royal Academyin 1931. Now in the National Portrait Gallery.(All Images Courtesy of the Mervyn Peake Estate, mervynpeake.org )He's been been likened to Tolkien, Dickens, Kafka, and Poe, but the work of poet, painter, playwright, author, and illustrator Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) defies comparison. Anthony Burgess wrote in his introduction to the first volume of the Gormenghast Trilogy, Peake's most famous work: "There really is no close relative to it in all our prose literature. It is uniquely brilliant..." Now scholars and readers have a chance to see the creative process of such a singular talent....
