Daniel Abse

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(22 September 1923 – 28 September 2014) was a Welsh poet and physician. His poetry won him many awards. As a medic, he worked in a chest clinic for over 30 years.

Early years

Abse was born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales, as the younger brother of the politician and reformer

Leo Abse Leopold Abse (22 April 1917 – 19 August 2008) was a Welsh lawyer and politician. He was a Welsh Labour MP for nearly 30 years, noted for promoting private member's bills to decriminalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce l ...

and the eminent

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a bo ...

Wilfred Abse. Unusually for a middle-class Jewish boy, Dannie Abse attended St Illtyd's College, a working-class Catholic school in

Splott Splott ( cy, Y Sblot) is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales, just east of the city centre. It was built up in the late 19th century on the land of two farms of the same name: Upper Splott and Lower Spl ...

. Abse studied medicine, first at the

University of Wales College of Medicine The Cardiff University School of Medicine ( cy, Ysgol Feddygaeth Prifysgol Caerdydd) is the medical school of Cardiff University and is located in Cardiff, Wales, UK. Founded in 1893 as part of the University College of South Wales and Monmou ...

and then at

Westminster Hospital Medical School The Westminster Hospital Medical School was formally founded in 1834 by George Guthrie, an ex-military surgeon – although students had been taken on at Westminster Hospital almost from the hospital's foundation in 1719 (the traditional name a ...

and

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. Abse was a passionate supporter of Cardiff City football club. He first went to watch them play in 1934 and many of his writings refer to his experiences watching and lifelong love of the team known as "The Bluebirds".

Career as poet

Although best known as a poet, Abse worked in the medical field, and was a physician in a chest clinic for over thirty years. He received numerous literary awards and fellowships for his writing. In 1989, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Wales. His first volume of poetry, ''After Every Green Thing'', was published in 1949. His autobiographic work, ''Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve'', was published in 1954. He won the Welsh Arts Council Award in both 1971 and 1987, and the

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

in 1985. He was a Fellow of

The Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...

from 1983. In a foreword to ''Collected Poems 1948–1976'', Abse noted that his poems are increasingly "rooted in actual experience," both domestic and professional, and many display a reconciliation between Jewish and Welsh themes and traditions. Abse lived for several decades in the north-west area of London, mainly near

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, where he had considerable ties. For several years he wrote a column for the local ''

Hampstead and Highgate Express The Ham & High, officially the Hampstead & Highgate Express is a weekly paid newspaper published in the London Borough of Camden by Archant. The newspaper is priced at £1 and is published every Thursday. History Founded in 1860, from 1862 it ...

''. These articles subsequently appeared in book form. In 2005, his wife

Joan Joan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters *:Joan of Arc, a French military heroine * Joan (surname) Weather events *Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multip ...

was killed in a car accident, while Abse suffered a broken rib. His poetry collection, ''Running Late'', was published in 2006, and ''The Presence'', a memoir of the year after his wife died, was published in 2007; it won the 2008

Wales Book of the Year The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors. Established in 1992, the awards are currently ad ...

award.Dannie Abse
The book was later dramatised for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. He was awarded the Roland Mathias prize for ''Running Late''. In 2009, Abse brought out a volume of collected poetry. In the same year, he received the

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by ...

Poetry Award. Abse was a judge for the inaugural 2010

Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine The Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine was founded in 2009 by Donald Singer and Michael Hulse. The founders "wished to draw together national and international perspectives on three major historical and contemporary themes uniting the disc ...

. Abse was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to poetry and literature. Abse died on 28 September 2014, six days after his 91st birthday.

Books

*''After Every Green Thing'', Hutchinson, 1948 *''Walking Under Water'', Hutchinson, 1952 *''Fire in Heaven'', Hutchinson, 1956 *''Mavericks: An Anthology'', ed. with Howard Sergeant, Editions Poetry and Poverty, 1957 *''Tenants of the House: Poems 1951–1956'', Hutchinson, 1957 *''Poems, Golders Green'', Hutchinson, 1962 *''Poems! Dannie Abse: A Selection'', Vista/Dufour, 1963 *''Modern European Verse'', ed., Vista, 1964 *''Medicine on Trial'', Aldus, 1967 *''Three Questor Plays'', Scorpion, 1967 *''A Small Desperation'', Hutchinson, 1968 *''Demo Sceptre'', 1969 *''Selected Poems'', Hutchinson, 1970 *''Modern Poets in Focus 1'', ed., Corgi, 1971 *''Modern Poets in Focus 3'', ed., Corgi, 1971 *''Thirteen Poets'', ed., Poetry Book Society, 1972 *''Funland and Other Poems'', Hutchinson, 1973 *''Modern Poets in Focus 5'', ed., Corgi, 1973 *''The Dogs of Pavlov'', Vallentine, Mitchell, 1973 *''A Poet in the Family'', Hutchinson, 1974 *''Penguin Modern Poets 26'', with Dannie Abse, D. J. Enright and Michael Longley, Penguin, 1975 *''Collected Poems 1948–1976'', Hutchinson, 1977 *''More Words'', BBC, 1977 *''My Medical School'', Robson, 1978 *''Pythagoras'', Hutchinson, 1979 *''Way Out in the Centre'', Hutchinson, 1981 *''A Strong Dose of Myself'', Hutchinson, 1983 *''One-legged on ice: poems'', University of Georgia Press, 1983 *''Doctors and Patients'' ed., Oxford University Press, 1984 *''Ask the Bloody Horse'', Hutchinson, 1986 *''Journals From the Ant Heap'', Hutchinson, 1986 *''Voices in the Gallery: Poems and Pictures'', ed. with Joan Abse, Tate Gallery, 1986 *''The Music Lover's Literary Companion'', ed. with Joan Abse, Robson, 1988 *''The Hutchinson Book of Post-War British Poetry'', ed., Hutchinson, 1989 *''White Coat, Purple Coat: Collected Poems 1948–1988'', Hutchinson, 1989 *''People'', contributor, National Language Unit of Wales, 1990 *''Remembrance of Crimes Past: Poems 1986–1989'', Hutchinson, 1990 *''The View from Row G: Three Plays'', Seren, 1990 *''Intermittent Journals'', Seren, 1994 *''On the Evening Road'', Hutchinson, 1994 *''Selected Poems'', Penguin, 1994 *''The Gregory Anthology 1991–1993'', ed. with A. Stevenson,

Sinclair-Stevenson Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd is a British publisher founded in 1989 by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson. Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson became an editor at Hamish Hamilton in 1961. Thirteen years later in 1974 he became managing director, establishing ...

, 1994 *''Twentieth-Century Anglo-Welsh Poetry'', ed., Seren, 1997 *''Welsh Retrospective'', Seren, 1997 *''Arcadia, One Mile'', Hutchinson, 1998 *''Be seated, thou: poems 1989–1998'', Sheep Meadow Press, 1999 *''Encounters Hearing Eye'', 2001 *''Goodbye, Twentieth Century: An Autobiography'', Pimlico, 2001 *''New and Collected Poems'', Hutchinson, 2002 *''The Two Roads Taken: A Prose Miscellany'', Enitharmon Press, 2003 *''Yellow Bird'', Sheep Meadow Press, 2004 *''Running Late'', Hutchinson, 2006 *''100 Great Poems of Love and Lust: Homage to Eros'', compiler/ed., Robson, 2007 *''The Presence'', Hutchinson, 2007 *''New Selected Poems 1949–2009: Anniversary Collection'', Hutchinson, 2009 (shortlisted for

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

Award for New Work in Poetry) *''Speak, Old Parrot'', Hutchinson, 2013 *''Ask the Moon: New and collected poems 1948–2014'', Hutchinson, 2014

Fiction

*''Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve'', Hutchinson, 1954 *''Some Corner of an English Field'', Hutchinson, 1956 *''O Jones, O Jones'', Hutchinson, 1970 *''There Was A Young Man From Cardiff'', Hutchinson, 1991 *''The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds & Dr Glas'', Robson, 2002

Plays

*''Fire in Heaven'' (produced London, 1948), retitled ''Is the House Shut'' (1964) and ''In the Cage'' (1967) *''Hands Around the Wall'' (produced London, 1950) *''House of Cowards'' (produced London, 1960) *''The Eccentric'' (produced London, 1961) *''Gone'' (produced London, 1962) *''The Joker'' (produced, London, 1962), retitled ''The Courting of Essie Glass'' (1981) *''The Dogs of Pavlov'' (produced London, 1969) *''Funland'' (produced London, 1975) *''Pythagoras'' (produced Birmingham, 1976), retitled ''Pythagoras (Smith)''

Published plays

* – includes ''House of Cowards'', ''Gone'' and ''In the Cage'' * – includes ''House of Cowards'', ''The Dogs of Pavlov'' and ''Pythagoras (Smith)''

Radio plays

*''Conform or Die'' (1957) *''No Telegrams, No Thunder'' (1962) *''You Can't Say Hello to Anybody'' (1964) *''A Small Explosion'' (1964) *''The Courting of Elsie Glass'' (1975)

References

External links

* * *
Annotations at NYU Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database
of several Abse works, with links to texts and audio of the poet reading poem

"Dannie Abse"
Fellows Remembered,

Dannie Abse Papers
at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Abse, Dannie 1923 births Anglo-Welsh poets 20th-century Welsh poets 21st-century Welsh poets 20th-century British poets Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Jewish poets Alumni of King's College London Fellows of King's College London Alumni of the University of Wales 20th-century Welsh medical doctors 2014 deaths Writers from Cardiff Welsh Jews Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Dannie Presidents of the Poetry Society