John James (14 March 1939 – 14 May 2018) was a British poet.

Life and work

John James was born in 1939 in Cardiff to Lil (née O’Reilly) and Charlie James, a royal marine. He was educated by Lasalle Brothers at Saint Illtyd's College. He left the college in 1957 to read Philosophy and English Literature at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

and later undertook postgraduate studies in American Literature at the

University of Keele Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University Coll ...

. He was a founder with Nick Wayde of the poetry journal '' The Resuscitator'' in Bristol in 1963 and an active contributor to the worksheet, ''

The English Intelligencer ''The English Intelligencer'' was a mid-1960s little magazine devoted to poetry and letters founded and edited by poets Andrew Crozier and Peter Riley. It played a key role in the emergence of many of the poets associated with the British Poetry ...

''. He became Arts Council Creative Writing Fellow, at the University of Sussex, 1978– and was the former Head of Communication Studies at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. After serving as a bouncer, James got a job with Somerset water board, during which time his poems began to emerge. While still at the University of Bristol, James met and married his first wife, Ann Dorman, in 1961. With their children, the James family moved to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

where from 1966 John was a teacher at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology. During this times, he also was a frequent visitor at

Panton Arms The Panton Arms is a pub in Cambridge, U.K. that is often frequented by scientists from the Engineering and Chemistry Department of the University of Cambridge. It became more widely known in February 2010 when a group of scientists released the ...

pub where he used to write most of his poems. Some of his poems were dedicated to his friends and family, including

Barry Flanagan Barry Flanagan OBE RA (11 January 1941 – 31 August 2009) was an Irish-Welsh sculptor. He is best known for his bronze statues of hares and other animals. Biography Barry Flanagan was born on 11 January 1941 in Prestatyn, North Wales. ...

and Richard Long. He also collaborated with Tom Phillips on his project ''In One Side & Out the Other'' in 1970 as well as

Bruce McLean Bruce McLean (born 1944) is a Scottish sculptor, performance artist and painter. McLean was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1961 to 1963, and at Saint Martin's School of Art, London, from 1963 to 1966. At Saint Martin ...

whose linocuts he decorated with his poems in 2016, during which time his '' Sarments: New and Selected Poems'' came out. After a divorce, James married the poet Wendy Mulford in the 1970s, with whom he had a daughter. Later he would live with Patricia Coyle who was doing media studies at Anglia Ruskin University where James was an educator on literature and film. His translation of '' The Prince of Homburg'' was developed into a stage production in 1982 for

Cottesloe Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. In ...

. Prior to his death, James became also known as a communist and trade unionist. James died on 14 May 2018.

Bibliography

*''mmm … ah yes'' (1967) *''The Welsh Poems'' (1967) *''Trägheit'' (1968) *''The Small Henderson Room'' (1969) *''In One Side & Out the Other'' (1970), with Andrew Crozier and Tom Phillips *''Letters from Sarah'' (1973) *''Striking the Pavilion of Zero'' (1975) *''A Theory of Poetry'' (1977) *''War'' (1978) *''A Former Boiling'' (1979) *''Toasting'' (1979) *''Inaugural Address'' (1979) *''Berlin Return'' (1983) *''Poem for Bruce McLean'' (1983) *''Lines for Richard Long'' (1988) *''The Ghost of Jimi Hendrix at Stokesay Castle'' (1988) *''Local'' (1990) *''Dreaming Flesh'' (1991) *''Kinderlieder'' (1992) *''Schlegel Eats a Bagel'' 1996 *''Collected Poems'', Cambridge, UK: Salt, 2002 *''In Romsey Town'', Cambridge, UK: Equipage, 2011 *''Cloud Breaking Sun'' (2014) *''Sabots'' (2015) *''Sarments: New and Selected Poems'' (2018)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, John 1939 births 2018 deaths Welsh poets Writers from Cardiff