George Granville Barker (26 February 1913 – 27 October 1991) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, identified 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 anth ...

movement, which reacted against 1930s realism with mythical and surrealistic themes. His long liaison with

Elizabeth Smart Elizabeth Ann Gilmour (née Smart; born November 3, 1987) is an American child safety activist and commentator for ABC News. She gained national attention at age 14 when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell. ...

was the subject of her cult-novel ''

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept ''By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept'' is a 1945 novel in prose poetry by the Canadian author Elizabeth Smart (1913–1986). The work was inspired by Smart's passionate affair with the British poet George Barker (1913–1991). Genesi ...

''.

Life and work

Barker was born in

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

, near

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England, to English father George Barker (1879–1965), a temporary police constable and former batman in the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

(during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when he returned to the regiment, he earned a field commission to the rank of Major) who later worked as a butler at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

, and Irish mother Marion Frances (1881–1953), née Taaffe, from

Mornington, County Meath Mornington () is a coastal village on the estuary of the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland approximately 5 km downriver from the centre of Drogheda. Together with the neighbouring villages of Laytown and Bettystown it comprises the cen ...

, near

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

, Ireland; the couple moved to

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

when Barker was six months old. His younger brother was the painter

Kit Barker Kit Barker (1916–1988) was a British painter. Biography Barker was born in London, England, to English father George Barker (1879–1965), a police constable and former Army batman, and Irish mother Marion Frances (1881–1953), née Taaf ...

; they were raised at

Battersea, London Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batte ...

, and the family later lived at Upper Addison Gardens,

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that contains a street and public park of the same name. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road ...

. Barker was educated at an L.C.C. school and at

Regent Street Polytechnic The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in Aug ...

. Having left school at an early age, he pursued several odd jobs, before settling on a career in writing. Early volumes by Barker include ''Thirty Preliminary Poems'' (1933), ''Poems'' (1935) and ''Calamiterror'' (1937), which was inspired by the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, and contains an attack on the

Spanish Nationalists Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

. In his early twenties, Barker had already been published by

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

, who also helped him to gain appointment as Professor of English Literature in 1939 at

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated National ...

(

Sendai, Miyagi is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date ...

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 ...

). He left there in 1940 due to the hostilities, but wrote ''Pacific Sonnets'' during his tenure. He then travelled to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where he began his longtime liaison with writer

, by whom he had four of his fifteen children. Barker also had three children by his first wife, Jessica. He returned to England in 1943. From the late 1960s until his death, he lived in

Itteringham Itteringham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, some northwest of the market town of Aylsham. It covers an area of and had a population of 136 in 60 households at the 2001 census, the population reducing to 125 at ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, with his wife, the writer and journalist

Elspeth Barker Elspeth Barker (16 November 1940 – 21 April 2022) was a Scottish novelist and journalist. Born as Elspeth Langlands, she was raised in Drumtochty Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where her parents ran a prep school for boys. From 1958, she ...

. In 1969, he published the poem ''At Thurgarton Church'', the village of

Thurgarton Thurgarton is a small village in rural Nottinghamshire, England. The village is close to Southwell, and Newark-on-Trent and still within commuting distance to Nottingham. It is served by Thurgarton railway station. According to the 2001 censu ...

being a few miles from Itteringham. Barker's 1950 novel, ''The Dead Seagull'', described his affair with Smart, whose 1945 novel ''

'' was also about the affair. His ''Collected Poems'' () were edited by Robert Fraser and published in 1987 by Faber and Faber. Barker was partly associated with the

movement, which reacted against 1930s realism with surrealistic and mythical themes. However, his characteristically independent idiosyncrasies set him off as an individual in his own right. An uneven writer, Barker's masterpiece was considered by C.H. Sisson to be ''The True Confession of George Barker''. In describing the difficulties in writing his biography, Barker was quoted as saying: "I've stirred the facts around too much ... It simply can't be done." However, Robert Fraser produced a biography, ''The Chameleon Poet: A Life of George Barker'', in 2001.''The Chameleon Poet: A Life of George Barker'' (Jonathan Cape Ltd, 2002, ).

Bibliography

*''Thirty Preliminary Poems'', David Archer (1933) *''Alanna Autumnal'', London : Wishart (1933) *''Poems'', Faber & Faber (1935) *''Janus''(The Documents of a Death.-The Bacchant.) wo tales. Faber & Faber (1935) *''Calamiterror'', Faber & Faber (1937) *''Elegy on Spain'', Manchester : Contemporary Bookshop (1939) *''Lament and Triumph'', Faber & Faber (1940) *''Selected Poems'', New York : Macmillan Co (1941) *''Eros in Dogma'', Faber & Faber (1944) *''Love Poems'', New York : Dial Press (1947) *''News of the world'', Faber (1950) *''The Dead Seagull'', Farrar, Straus & Young New York (1951) *''A vision of beasts and gods'', Faber (1954) *''Collected Poems'', 1930–1955. Faber & Faber (1957) *''The view from a blind I'', Faber (1962) *''The True Confession of George Barker'', MacGibbon & Kee (1965) *''Dreams of a summer night'', Faber & Faber (1966) *''The golden chains'', Faber (1968) *''At Thurgarton Church'', A poem with drawings, etc., London : Trigram Press (1969). *''Runes and Rhymes, Tunes and Chimes'', illustrated by

George Adamson George Alexander Graham Adamson MBE (3 February 1906 – 20 August 1989), also known as the ''Baba ya Simba'' ("Father of Lions" in Swahili), was a Kenyan wildlife conservationist and author. He and his wife, Joy, were depicted in the film ''B ...

, Faber & Faber (1969) *''To Aylsham Fair'', illustrated by

, Faber & Faber (1970) *''Essays'', MacGibbon & Kee (1970) *''Poems of places and people'', Faber and Faber (1971) *''III hallucination poems'', New York City : Helikon Press (1972) *''The alphabetical zoo'', Illustrated by Krystyna Roland, Faber and Faber (1972) *''Homage to George Barker on his sixtieth birthday'', edited by John Heath-Stubbs and Martin Green, Martin Brian & O'Keeffe (1973) *''Dialogues etc.'', Faber (1976) *''Seven poems'', Greville Press (1977) *''Anno Domini'', Faber and Faber (1983) *''Villa Stellar'' Faber and Faber (1983) *''The Jubjub Bird or some Remarks on the Prose Poem'', Greville Press, (1985) *''Collected Poems of George Barker'', Faber and Faber, (1987) *''Mir Poets Thirteen: Three Poems'', Word Press (1988) *''Seventeen'', Greville Press, (1988) *''Street ballads'', Faber & Faber (1992) *''Selected Poems'', edited by Robert Fraser, Faber and Faber (1995) *''Dibby Dubby Dhu and other poems'', illustrated by Sara Fanelli, Faber (1997) *''The Chameleon Poet: A Life of George Barker'', Robert Fraser, Jonathan Cape Ltd (2002) *''Poems by George Barker'', selected by Elspeth Barker, Greville Press (2004)

References

External links

Essay by Robert Fraser, Open UniversityShort informal biography with links to some of Barker's poemsMore links to Barker's poems
*
A large collection of Barker's papers is located at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin

George Barker collection
at University of Victoria, Special Collections
George Barker Collection, 1930-1966
at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center.
Truly, madly, deeply - Peter Wilby, ''The Guardian'', 2008Master of the red Martini - Ian Sansom, GuardianBohemians - The European Graduate SchoolPaul Potts on ‘The World of George Barker’George Barker - Richard Poole
*Archival Material at
Papers of George Barker
at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

with links to other Barker collections
George Barker papers
at the

University of Maryland Libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an of ...

* George Barker Collection General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, George 1913 births 1991 deaths People from Loughton Tohoku University faculty 20th-century English poets People from Itteringham English male poets 20th-century English male writers

Life and work

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links