John Bayliss (1919–2008) was a British

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 wri ...

and significant

literary editor A literary editor is an editor in a newspaper, magazine or similar publication who deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews.

of the

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 opposing ...

period; later in life, he became a civil servant. He was born in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, and was an undergraduate at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He served in the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

during the war. He edited: ''The Fortune Anthology'' (1942) with

Nicholas Moore Nicholas Moore (16 November 1918 – 26 January 1986) was an English poet, associated with the New Apocalyptics in the 1940s, whose reputation stood as high as Dylan Thomas’s. He later dropped out of the literary world. Biography Moore wa ...

, and Douglas Newton; ''New Road'' (1943 and 1944) with

Alex Comfort Alexander Comfort (10 February 1920 – 26 March 2000) was a British scientist and physician known best for his nonfiction sex manual, ''The Joy of Sex'' (1972). He was an author of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as a gerontologist ...

; ''A Romantic Miscellany'' (1946) with Derek Stanford. His collection ''The White Knight and other poems'' was published in 1944. He contributed in the war years to ''Poetry London'' and ''Poetry Quarterly''; later to ''Poetry Review''. He was also published in ''Air Force Poetry'' (1944). In 1977 he published "Venus in Libra" in full, some sections of which had been published in "Poetry Quarterly" and "New Road 1944" He is sometimes associated 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 ...

, perhaps because of his poem ''Apocalypse and Resurrection''; he is also called a

surrealist 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 ...

, or New Romantic. John Bayliss died on 18 August 2008.

References

John Bayliss, biography
All Poetry 1919 births 2008 deaths Writers from Gloucestershire Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge British literary editors Royal Air Force personnel of World War II English male poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English male writers {{England-poet-stub