George Sutherland Fraser (8 November 1915 – 3 January 1980) was a Scottish poet, literary critic and academic.
Biography
Fraser was born in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, Scotland, later moving with his family to
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
. He attended the
University of St. Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he served in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
and
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
. He was published as a poet in ''
Salamander
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...
'', a Cairo literary magazine. At the same time he was involved with the
New Apocalyptics
The New Apocalyptics were a poetry grouping in the United Kingdom in the 1940s, taking their name from the anthology ''The New Apocalypse'' (1939), which was edited by J. F. Hendry (1912–1986) and Henry Treece. There followed the further antholog ...
group, writing an introductory essay for the anthology ''The White Horseman'', and formulating as well as anyone did the idea that they were successors to
surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
.
After the war he became a prominent figure in London's literary circles, working as a journalist and critic. Together with his wife Paddy he made friends with a gamut of literary figures, from the intellectual leader
William Empson
Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English literary critic and poet, widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, a practice fundamental to New Criticism. His best-known work is his first ...
to the eccentric
John Gawsworth
Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong (29 June 1912 – 23 September 1970), better known as John Gawsworth (and also sometimes known as T. I. F. Armstrong), was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. He ...
. He worked with Ian Fletcher to have Gawsworth's ''Collected Poems'' (1949) published. His direction was that of the traditional
man of letters
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
(soon to become extinct).
In 1948, Fraser contributed an
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...
honouring the sixtieth
birthday
A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person, or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage.
Many relig ...
John Donne
John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's ...
, he praised the poet's profound refreshment (particularly in ''
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is the first professionally published poem by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910, and it was first publishe ...
'') of the English poetic tongue, together with his subtle facility for transitional verse and his potent effect on the poetic youth; but, more importantly for present purposes, he also confessed, "I am not a very original writer myself; I am lost, on the whole, without a convention of some sort .."
In 1949 he accepted the job of replacing
Edmund Blunden
Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...
as Cultural Adviser to the UK Liaison Mission in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
. This ended badly when he suffered a breakdown in 1951 while in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Subsequently he was much less the poet than the all-purpose writer.
He became a lecturer at the
University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_labe ...
in 1959, where he was an inspiring teacher, remaining there until retirement in 1979.
He married Eileen Lucy Andrew (who was known as Paddy from birth) in 1946. She wrote a brief memoir of her life with Fraser: G. S. Fraser: A Memoir '. Together they had two daughters, including
Helen Fraser Helen Fraser may refer to:
* Helen Fraser (actress) (born 1942), English actress
* Helen Fraser (executive) (born 1949), British executive and businesswoman
* Helen Fraser (feminist)
Helen Miller Fraser, later Moyes (14 September 1881 – 2 De ...
, and a son. Paddy died in 2013.
Books
* ''The Fatal Landscape and Other Poems'' (1941)
* ''Home Town Elegy'' (1944)
* ''The Traveller has Regrets and Other Poems'' (1948);
* ''Vision of Scotland'' (1948)
* ''The Dedicated Life In Poetry'', by
Patrice de La Tour du Pin
Patrice de La Tour du Pin (16 March 1911, Paris – 28 October 1975, ibid) was a French writer and poet. He was the winner of the Grand prix catholique de littérature in 1971 for ''Une Lutte pour la vie''.John Waller and J. C. Hall.
* ''Lawrence Durrell. A Study'' (1968) with a bibliography by Alan G. Thomas
* ''Conditions'' (1969)
* ''Metre, Rhyme and Free Verse'' (1970)
* ''John Keats: Odes'' (1971) edited
* ''P. H. Newby'' (1974)
* ''Essays on Twentieth Century Poets'' (1977)
* ''Alexander Pope'' (1978);
* ''Return to Oasis: War Poems and Recollections from the Middle East, 1940-1946'' (1980) edited with
Victor Selwyn
Victor Selwyn (1917–2005) was a British journalist whose career began during World War II with a collection of poems from soldiers. It was this work that led him to attain his MBE in 1996 He was associated with the Cairo poets, and was &mda ...
,
Erik de Mauny
Erik Cecil Leon de Mauny (17 September 1920 – 18 March 1997) was an English journalist, author, and the BBC's first Moscow correspondent, working for them there from 1963, and as a foreign correspondent in other countries.
Early life
Eri ...
, Ian Fletcher, and John Waller.
* ''Poems of G.S. Fraser'' (1981) editors Ian Fletcher and John Lucas, Leicester University Press
* ''A Short History of English Poetry'' 1981
* ''A Stranger and Afraid: Autobiography of an Intellectual'' (1983) Carcanet Press
Poets in ''Poetry Now'' (1956)
A. Alvarez
Alfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez.
Background
Alfred Alvarez was born in London, to an Ashkenazic Jewish mother and a ...
-
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...
Bernard Bergonzi
Bernard Bergonzi FRSL (13 April 1929 – 20 September 2016) was a British literary scholar, critic, and poet. He was Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Warwick and an expert on T. S. Eliot.
He was born in London and studied at ...
-
Thomas Blackburn Thomas, Tom or Tommy Blackburn may refer to:
*Anthony Blackburn (born 1945), British vice-admiral and Equerry to the Royal Household, commonly known as Tom Blackburn
*Thomas Blackburn (entomologist) (1844–1912), Australian entomologist
*Thomas Bl ...
Alan Brownjohn
Alan Charles Brownjohn (born 28 July 1931) is an English poet and novelist. He has also worked as a teacher, lecturer, critic and broadcaster.
Life and work
Alan Brownjohn was born in London and educated at Merton College, Oxford. He taught in ...
Charles Causley
Charles Stanley Causley CBE FRSL (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) was a British poet, school teacher and writer. His work is often noted for its simplicity and directness as well as its associations with folklore, legends and magic, especi ...
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Robert Conquest
George Robert Acworth Conquest (15 July 1917 – 3 August 2015) was a British historian and poet.
A long-time research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Conquest was most notable for his work on the Soviet Union. His books ...
-
Hilary Corke
Hilary Topham Corke (12 July 1921 – 3 September 2001) was an English writer, composer and mineralogist.
Corke was born in Malvern, Worcestershire. He served in the Royal Artillery during World War II.
His poems appeared in ''Poetry Now'' (1 ...
Donald Davie
Donald Alfred Davie, FBA (17 July 1922 – 18 September 1995) was an English Movement poet, and literary critic. His poems in general are philosophical and abstract, but often evoke various landscapes.
Biography
Davie was born in Barnsley, ...
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Paul Dehn
Paul Edward Dehn (pronounced "Dain"; 5 November 1912 – 30 September 1976) was a British screenwriter, best known for '' Goldfinger'', '' The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'', ''Planet of the Apes'' sequels and ''Murder on the Orient Express''. ...
-
Keith Douglas
Keith Castellain Douglas (24 January 1920 – 9 June 1944) was a poet and soldier noted for his war poetry during the Second World War and his wry memoir of the Western Desert campaign, '' Alamein to Zem Zem''. He was killed in action during ...
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Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.
Born in India to British colonial pare ...
Iain Fletcher
Iain Fletcher is a British actor, best known for his role as DC Rod Skase in the ITV1 drama series ''The Bill''. He portrayed the character for six years from 1994 to 2000.
Other television credits include '' Band of Brothers'', '' Murphy’s ...
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Roy Fuller
Roy Broadbent Fuller CBE (11 February 1912 – 27 September 1991) was an English writer, known mostly as a poet.
He was born at Failsworth, Lancashire to lower-middle-class parents Leopold Charles Fuller and his wife Nellie (1888–1949; née ...
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Robert Garioch
Robert Garioch Sutherland (9 May 1909 – 26 April 1981) was a Scottish poet and translator. His poetry was written almost exclusively in the Scots language, he was a key member in the literary revival of the language in the mid-20th century ...
-
David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne (10 October 1916 – 25 November 2001) was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement, in particular the British Surrealist Group. Additionally he translated work by French surrealist poets.
Early life and surrealis ...
-
W. S. Graham
William Sydney Graham (19 November 1918 – 9 January 1986) was a Scottish poet, who was often associated with Dylan Thomas and the neo-romantic group of poets. Graham's poetry was mostly overlooked in his lifetime; however, partly thanks to th ...
-
Thom Gunn
Thomson William "Thom" Gunn (29 August 1929 – 25 April 2004) was an English poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement, and his later poetry in America, even after moving towards a looser, ...
Michael Hamburger
Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger (22 March 1924 – 7 June 2007) was a noted German-British translator, poet, critic, memoirist and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and ...
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Jacquetta Hawkes Jacquetta is a feminine given name which may refer to:
* Jacquetta of Luxembourg (1415/16–1472), Duchess of Bedford, Countess Rivers
* Jacquetta Hawkes (1910–1996), English archaeologist and writer
* Jacquetta May, British writer, actress and t ...
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John Heath-Stubbs
John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs (9 July 1918 – 26 December 2006) was an English poet and translator. He is known for verse influenced by classical myths, and for a long Arthurian poem, ''Artorius'' (1972).
Biography and works
Heath-Stub ...
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Geoffrey Hill
Sir Geoffrey William Hill, FRSL (18 June 1932 – 30 June 2016) was an English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion, and former co-director of the Editorial Institute, at Boston University. Hill has been considered to be ...
Sidney Keyes
Sidney Arthur Kilworth Keyes (27 May 1922 – 29 April 1943) was an English poet of World War II.
Life
Early years and education
Keyes was born on 27 May 1922. His mother died shortly afterwards and he was raised by his paternal grandparent ...
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Thomas Kinsella
Thomas Kinsella (4 May 192822 December 2021) was an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher. Born outside Dublin, Kinsella attended University College Dublin before entering the civil service. He began publishing poetry in the early 1950s ...
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James Kirkup
James Harold Kirkup, FRSL (23 April 1918 – 10 May 2009) was an English poet, translator and travel writer. He wrote over 45 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays. He wrote under many pen-names including James Falconer, Aditya Jha, ...
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Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, '' The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, '' Jill'' (1946) and '' A Girl in Winter'' (1 ...
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Laurie Lee
Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire.
His most notable work is the autobiographical trilogy ...
Christopher Logue
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Born in Portsmouth, ...
George MacBeth
George Mann MacBeth (19 January 1932 – 16 February 1992) was a Scottish poet and novelist.
Biography
George MacBeth was born in Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland. When he was three, his family moved to Sheffield in England. He was educated in Sh ...
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Norman MacCaig
Norman Alexander MacCaig DLitt (14 November 1910 – 23 January 1996) was a Scottish poet and teacher. His poetry, in modern English, is known for its humour, simplicity of language and great popularity.
Life
Norman Alexander MacCaig was born ...
Ewart Milne
Ewart Milne (25 May 1903 – 14 January 1987) was an Irish poet who described himself on various book jackets as "a sailor before the mast, ambulance driver and courier during the Spanish Civil War, a land worker and estate manager in England du ...
Norman Nicholson
Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson (8 January 1914 – 30 May 1987) was an English poet associated with the Cumbrian town of Millom. His poetry is noted for local concerns, straightforward language, and elements of common speech. Although known chief ...
Philip Oakes
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
Anne Ridler
Anne Barbara Ridler OBE (née Bradby) (30 July 1912 – 15 October 2001) was a British poet and Faber and Faber editor, selecting the Faber ''A Little Book of Modern Verse'' with T. S. Eliot (1941). Her ''Collected Poems'' ( Carcanet Pres ...
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W. R. Rodgers
William Robert Rodgers (1909 – 1969), known as Bertie, and born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was probably best known as a poet, but was also a prose essayist, a book reviewer, a radio broadcaster and script writer, a lecturer and, latterly, ...
Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Roger Seymour-Smith (24 April 1928 – 1 July 1998) was a British poet, literary critic, and biographer.
Biography
Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Highgate School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was editor of ''Isi ...
- John Short -
Jon Silkin
Jon Silkin (2 December 1930 – 25 November 1997) was a British poet.
Early life
Jon Silkin was born in London, in a Litvak Jewish family, his parents were Joseph Silkin and Doris Rubenstein. His grandparents were all from the Lithuanian- part ...
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Burns Singer Burns Singer (29 August 1928 – 8 September 1964) was born James Hyman Singer in New York City. He was a Scottish poet and translator.
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Though he was born in New York, from the age of four, Singer was brought up in Scot ...
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Robin Skelton
Robin Skelton (12 October 1925 – 22 August 1997) was a British-born academic, writer, poet, and anthologist.
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Born in Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire, Easington, Yorkshire, Skelton was educated at the University of Leeds and Cambr ...
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Sydney Goodsir Smith
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Bernard Spencer
Charles Bernard Spencer (1909 – 1963) was an English poet, translator, and editor.
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R. S. Thomas
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Terence Tiller
Terence Rogers Tiller (19 September 1916 – 24 December 1987) was an English poet and radio producer.
Early life, poet
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Charles Tomlinson
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John Wain
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Vernon Watkins
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David Wright
David Allen Wright (born December 20, 1982) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played his entire 14-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the New York Mets. He was drafted by the Mets in 2001 MLB draft and made ...
Bibliography
* Fraser, George Sutherland. "A Language by Itself." In ''T. S. Eliot: A Symposium'', edited by
Richard March
Pop Will Eat Itself are an English alternative rock band formed in 1986 in Stourbridge in the West Midlands of England with members from Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. Initially known as a grebo act, they changed style to incorpor ...
and
Tambimuttu
Meary James Thurairajah Tambimuttu (15 August 1915 – 23 June 1983) was a Tamil poet, editor, critic and publisher, who for many years played a significant part on the literary scenes of London and New York City. He founded in 1939 the respecte ...
, 167-177.
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
:
Editions Poetry
Edition may refer to:
* Edition (book), a bibliographical term for a substantially similar set of copies
* Edition (printmaking), a publishing term for a set print run
* Edition (textual criticism), a particular version of a text
* Edition Recor ...