TLS Crossword 1157 – “Anniversaries” by Praxiteles – January 6, 2017

The &lit-type clues in this crossword are numerous and really quite brilliant, and if you can catch most or all of the wealth of cultural references on offer on the first pass then I take both my hat and moustache off to you. Special tip of said hat to the fact that I think this is the first TLS puzzle I’ve blogged that is not only not peppered with Shakespeareana, but possibly even entirely free of it! There’s more to life than bards you know.

Many thanks to the very ingenious setter, and I hope this will not be the last Praxiteles puzzle I get to tackle in 2017. Happy New Year!

Across

1 March 1917 (6)
LOWELL – Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV, American poet, b. 1 March 1917

4 Note a scowl developing about BP’s regulations (5,3)
SCOUT LAW – UT [note], (A SCOWL*) [“developing”] about. The BP is Baden-Powell, and not British Petroleum.

10 Like one who represented part of Romanticism in nature? (9)
TURNERIAN – (R{omanticism} + IN NATURE*) [“re-presented”]. A lovely semi-&lit.

11 One who went on a trip with Leon Uris? (5)
HADJI – Leoj Uris wrote “The Haj”, on which pilgrimage a HADJI would go. Glad we weren’t given much choice about how to spell it.

12 July 1817 (7)
THOREAU – Henry David Thoreau, the writer of Walden, b. 12 July 1817.

13 After discovering arsphenamine, he turned wealthy, gaining Nobel at last (7)
EHRLICH – HE reversed [“turned”] + RICH [wealthy] “gaining” {Nobe}L. Another rather nice all-in-one.

14 Look over entry for “kings” in dictionary (5)
DEKKO – reverse [“over”] KK [kings] entering OED [dictionary]

15 Capital chap featuring in one of James’s short stories? (8)
DUBLINER – I assume the James to be James Joyce, not Henry James?

18 Schubert fantasy that makes us stick to one key at start of recapitulation, and again (8)
WANDERER – WAND [stick] + (E [one key] + R{ecapitulation}) * 2. I don’t know the piece in question but I would assume that yet again the whole surface is nicely descriptive of it!

20 Starting out on run after getting test certificate – Mr Toad’s should have had one (5)
MOTOR – O{n} R{un}, after MOT [test certificate]. One can guess that Mr Toad was’t that bothered about vehicle safety in practice.

23 Hero of Begley’s book about Jack Nicholson? (7)
SCHMIDT – I didn’t know that “About Schmidt” was a book by Louis Begley, but I had seen the same-titled Jack Nicholson film.

25 February 1917 (7)
BURGESS – John Anthony Burgess Wilson, writer of A Clockwork Orange, b. 25 February 1917.

26 Frankly, seen with 8, by George! (5)
LLOYD – referencing politician Lloyd George, as well as 8dn.

27 Brown laurel we missed developing here, that’s plain (9)
NULLARBOR – (BRO{w}N LAUR{E}L*) [“developing”, “WE missed”]

28 Weird dirge set by Goethe’s spirit (8)
ERDGEIST – (DIRGE SET*) [“weird”]

29 From Villa d’Este emerges with credit (6)
ESTEEM – hidden in {villa d’}ESTE EM{erges}

Down

1 It’s complementary to what Dava Sobel described (8)
LATITUDE – If you know that Dava Sobel is famous for her book Longitude, the complement is obvious.

2 One with whom Tam’s wife said he might be catched (7)
WARLOCK – from Robert Burns’ poem “Tam o’Shanter”. Belated happy Burns Night!
She [noted hat-wearer Tam’s wife Kate] prophesied that late or soon,
Thou wad be found, deep drown’d in Doon,
Or catch’d wi’ warlocks in the mirk,
By Alloway’s auld, haunted kirk.

3 “… who, vassals sworn, / ’Gainst their — had weapon borne” (Sir Walter Scott) (5,4)
LIEGE LORD

5 Bloomer made at the end of a pilgrimage, a real beauty by the sound of it (10,4)
CANTERBURY BELL at the end of CANTERBURY [a pilgrimage], a homophone of BELLE. The flower also known as Campanula medium.

6 House lacking nothing demolished right at the end (5)
USHER – (H{o}USE) [“demolished”, “lacking nothing”] + R [right] at the end. Yet another clever &lit, on the theme of Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher”.

7 Dilutee endlessly taking part of device to be destroyed? (7)
LUDDITE – (DILUTE{e} + D{evice}*) [“destroyed”]. I did not know that a dilutee was “an unskilled worker”, but if I had, I would doubtless have been gobsmacked by yet another fine &lit.

8 June 1867 (6)
WRIGHT – architect Frank Lloyd Wright, b. 8 June 1867.

9 Gets the wrong idea about break in film accompanying start of “Saboteur” (14)
MISUNDERSTANDS – SUNDER [break] in MIST [film] + AND [accompanying] + S{aboteur}

16 Did they achieve Cooper’s goal at any price? (9)
IMMORTALS – “Immortality at Any Price” is a 1991 novel by William Cooper.

17 Fair gentleman taking time to knock back a shandy (8)
TRISTRAM – reverse [“to knock back”] of MART SIR + T [fair gentleman, taking time]. And Laurence Sterne’s opinionated gentleman of course.

19 Dash madly about on behalf of precocious young flowering author (7)
ASHFORD – (DASH*) [“madly”] about FOR [on behalf of]. Daisy (“flowering”, geddit?) Ashford, the nine-year old authoress in 1919 of The Young Visiters.

21 “… while human tongues — to speak” (Shelley) (7)
TREMBLE

22 Lover that’s about to be betrayed (6)
ISOLDE – I.E. [that is], about SOLD [betrayed]. Completing a pair with 17dn.

24 Film company shortly featuring archaeologist Jones, we hear (5)
INDIE – homophone of INDY, Harrison Ford’s bullwhip-cracking archaeologist Indiana.