John Antill Millett (3 February 1921 – 19 May 2019) was an Australian poet, reviewer and poetry editor.Guide to the Papers of John Millett
/ref> He was editor of ''Poetry Australia'' magazine from 1987 until its demise in 1992.

Early years

Millett was born in the Sydney suburb of

Woollahra Woollahra is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woollahra is located 5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra. W ...

. His grandmother introduced him to adventure classics such as ''Robinson Crusoe'', ''Ivanhoe'', ''The Last of the Mohicans'' and the poems of Walter Scott. Millett served in England during World War II as a wireless air gunner with the all-Australian

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

No 10 Squadron, from which experience he wrote the popular ''Tail Arse Charlie'', also adapted for ABC Radio. After the war he worked in the Repatriation Department. He then went to study law at Sydney University graduating with LLB. His book ''Blue Dynamite'' was dramatised by Bradley R. Strahan (editor of ''Visions International'', where he had been regularly published) with the assistance of the Source theater group in Washington, D.C. where it was performed at several venues in 1988, including the Australian Embassy. From 1962 he was involved with '' Poetry Australia'', advising on legal and accountancy matters then becoming editor from 1987. The magazine was conceptualised by Grace Perry to be international while maintaining an Australian presence. International contributors included

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

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 ...

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

, Richard Murphy, Robert Peters and

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...

. Translations included early Russian poets by

Rosemary Dobson Rosemary de Brissac Dobson, AO (18 June 192027 June 2012) was an Australian poet, who was also an illustrator, editor and anthologist.Anderson (1996) She published fourteen volumes of poetry, was published in almost every annual volume of ''Au ...

and David Campbell, Laurence Springarn's translations from Portuguese and Mark Scrivener's translations of German classics. ''Poetry Australia'' also published special issues of New Zealand, Canadian, Italian, Japanese, Dutch and Flemish, American, Gaelic, French, Austrian, Swedish and Papua New Guinean poetry.

Later years

John Millett continued as editor until 1992 when ''Poetry Australia'' ceased production. Millett subsequently helped to establish the Poetry Australia Fund and this fund was instrumental in the establishment in 2002 of the magazine ''Blue Dog: Australian Poetry'', which editor Ron Pretty declared was in "direct line of succession from ''Poetry Australia''". His poetry has been likened to that of

Kenneth Slessor Kenneth Adolphe Slessor (27 March 190130 June 1971) was an Australian poet, journalist and official war correspondent in World War II. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences int ...

. He became a member the Gold Coast Writers' Association. Millett won many rewards; the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, the Scottish International Poetry Competition twice, the Max Harris Literary Award for poetry, and being short listed four times for the NSW Premier’s Awards. He was also honored in 1999 with a Medal of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for services to literature. He died in May 2019 at the age of 98.

Poetry and other works

*''Calendar Adam'' (1971) *''The Silences'' (1973) *''Love Tree of the Coomera'' (1975) *''West of the Cunderan''g (1977) *"Tail Arse Charlie" in ''Poetry Australia'' (1982) *A chapbook in the USA in 1983, ''Come Down Cunderang'' (1985) *''The Nine Lives of Big Meg O'Shannessy'' (1990) *A play with Grace Perry, ''Last Bride at Longsleep'' (1981) *''Blue Dynamite'' (1987), also distributed in the USA by Black Buzzard Press and adapted for stage in 1988.

References

External sources

Brief BioMore details
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millett, John 1921 births 2019 deaths Australian male poets Sydney Law School alumni Australian public servants Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Royal Australian Air Force airmen 20th-century Australian poets Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Military personnel from Sydney