Peter George Whigham (March 6, 1925 –August 6, 1987) was an English poet and translator, widely known for his translation of the poems of

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...

published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

. He helped popularize the writings of authors like

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 ...

George Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...

, and

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

Early life

Whigham was born on March 6, 1925 in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England where he was largely self-educated. His parents were Robert George Murray Whigham (1903-1941) and Ellen Rose Carr (1903-1988).

Career

He worked as a gardener, a school teacher, an actor, a newspaper reporter, and a script writer. He was the grandson of General Sir Robert Whigham (1865-1950). In the 1950s, he contributed to '' The European'', a magazine edited by

Diana Mosley Diana, Lady Mosley (''née'' Freeman-Mitford; 17 June 191011 August 2003) was one of the Mitford sisters. In 1929 she married Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne, with whom she was part of the Bright Young Things social group o ...

. In the early 1960s he moved to Italy to devote himself entirely to writing. In 1965 Whigham moved to the United States after working as an actor, broadcaster, and scriptwriter for the British Broadcasting Corp. At the BBC, he coordinated the first features focusing on Pound, Santayana, and Williams. In 1968–69 he was a guest lecturer in poetry at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

, as was Basil Bunting, Fred Turner, and Kenneth Rexroth. His seminar classes were popular among undergraduates new to the experience of living, modern poetry. In the mid-1970s he taught a graduate poetry seminar in the Comparative Literature Department at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. ''The The Blue Winged Bee'' was honored by the

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) was founded in 1953 by T. S. Eliot and friends, including Sir Basil Blackwell, "to propagate the art of poetry". Eric Walter White was secretary from December 1953 until 1971, and was subsequently the society's chair ...

in 1969 in England. The dust jacket and frontispiece for this book was done by artist and professor

Gary Hugh Brown Gary Hugh Brown (born 1941) is an American artist, painter, draftsman, and professor emeritus of art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Brown has a drawing in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He has exhibited hi ...

. Whigham's poetry appeared in several poetry anthologies, including ''23 Modern Poets,'' ''Penguin Book of Love Poems,'' and ''Twenty Times in One Place.''

Death

Whigham died on August 6, 1987, in

Humboldt County, California Humboldt County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 136,463. The county seat is Eureka. Humboldt County comprises the Eureka–Arcata–Fortuna, California Micropolitan Statistica ...

of injuries he suffered in a car crash. He was 62 years old. He buried in Santa Barbara, California.

Books

* ''Ezra Pound'' (1955) * ''Clear Lake Comes From Enjoyment'' (1958) * ''The Marriage Rite'' (1959) * ''Poems of Catullus'' (1966) * ''The ingathering of Love,'' Work in Progress, Santa Barbara, (1967) * ''The Blue Winged Bee: Love poems of the VIth Dalai Lama,'' Anvil Press (1969), * ''Spectrum,'' Volume IX, Number 2 (1967) * ''The Crystal Mountain'' (1970) * ''The Poems of Meleager'' (1976) * ''Things Common, Properly: Selected Poems 1942 - 1982,'' Black Swan Books (1984), .

External links

Obituary
in the ''New York Times''
''The Poems of Catullus'', Peter Whigham (Translator)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whigham, Peter 1925 births 1987 deaths 20th-century English poets English male poets 20th-century English male writers