Richard Caddel (13 July 1949 – 1 April 2003) was a poet, publisher and editor who was a key figure in the

British Poetry Revival "The British Poetry Revival" is the general name given to a loose poetry movement in Britain that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The revival was a modernist-inspired reaction to the Movement's more conservative approach to British poetry. T ...

Biography

Caddel was born in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

and grew up in Gillingham,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He studied music at the University of Newcastle, but changed to English after meeting poets

Basil Bunting Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of '' Briggflatts'' in 1966, generally regarded as one of the major achievements of the modernist traditio ...

and

Tom Pickard Tom Pickard (born 1946, Newcastle upon Tyne, England) is a poet, and documentary film maker who was an important initiator of the movement known as the British Poetry Revival. Biography Pickard grew up in the working-class suburbs of Cowgate, Newc ...

. He helped Tom and Connie Pickard organise the seminal

Morden Tower The Morden Tower in Back Stowell Street on the Newcastle town wall, West Walls of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade 1 listed building. Since June 1964, Connie Pickard has been custodian of Morden Tower, and ...

poetry readings. Caddel's work was influenced by Bunting, by the Americans

Lorine Niedecker Lorine Faith Niedecker (English: pronounced Needecker) (May 12, 1903 – December 31, 1970) was an American poet. Niedecker's poetry is known for its spareness, its focus on the natural landscapes of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest (particularly wa ...

Louis Zukofsky Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was an American poet. He was the primary instigator and theorist of the so-called "Objectivist" poets, a short lived collective of poets who after several decades of obscurity would reemerge a ...

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Char ...

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 ...

, and by the English landscape tradition as represented by

John Clare John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th ce ...

. He published a number of small pamphlets, most of which were collected in three books: ''Sweet Cicely'' (1983), ''Uncertain Time'' (1990) and ''Larksong Signal'' (1997). A volume of selected poems, ''Magpie Words'', appeared in 2002. His final book, ''Writing In The Dark'', was published in late 2003. With his wife Ann Caddel, he ran Pig Press, through which he published a number of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

poets of the latter half of the 20th century. Caddel edited Bunting's ''Uncollected Poems'' in 1991 and his ''Complete Poems'' in 1994. With Peter Quartermain, he edited the anthology ''Other: British And Irish Poetry Since 1970'' (1998). He served as Director of the Basil Bunting Poetry Centre at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

for a number of years up to his death. A lifelong

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...

tic, Caddel died of

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

on 1 April 2003.

Works

Poetry

* ''Heron'', Makaris, 1973. * ''Quiet Alchemy'', Ceolfrith Press, 1976. * ''Burnt Aces and the Shangri-Las'', Ceolfrith Press, 1978. * ''Baby Days and Moon Diaries'', Galloping Dog Press, 1979. * ''Shelter'', Oasis Books, 1979. * ''A Short Climate-Atlas of the Soul'', Figs, 1982. * ''Sweet Cicely: New and Selected Poems'', Taxus Press, 1983 * ''Summer Poems'', Taxus Press, 1986. * ''Fantasia in the English Choral Tradition'', Slug Press, 1986. * ''Against Numerology'', North and South, 1988. * ''Uncertain Time'', Galloping Dog Press, 1990. * ''Larksong Signal'', Shearsman Press, 1997. * ''Underwriter'', Maquette Press, 1998. * ''For the Fallen'', Wild Honey Press, 2000. * ''Monksnailsongs'', with Tony Baker, Wild Honey Press, 2002. * ''Magpie Words: Selected Poems 1970-2000'', West House Books, 2002. * ''Writing in the Dark'', West House Books, 2003.

Prose

* ''The Wire Book'', X Press, 1977. * ''Wine Tales'', with

Lee Harwood Lee Harwood (6 June 1939 – 26 July 2015) was a poet associated with the British Poetry Revival. Life Travers Rafe Lee Harwood was born in Leicester to maths teacher Wilfred Travers Lee-Harwood and Grace Ladkin Harwood, who were then living i ...

, Galloping Dog Press, 1984. * ''Deadly Sins'', Taxus Press, 1984.

Editor

* ''Blocks from the Collection of Roger Tomlin'', Arc Press, 1979. * ''Pete Laver: Offcomers'', Pig Press, 1985. * ''Basil Bunting: A Note on Briggflatts'', Basil Bunting Poetry Archive, 1989. * ''Twenty-Six New British Poets'', New American Writing, 1991. * ''Basil Bunting: Uncollected Poems'', Oxford University Press, 1991. * ''The Complete Poems: Basil Bunting'', Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1994. * ''Other: British and Irish Poetry Since 1970'', with Peter Quartermain, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1999.

External links

A poemRecordings of Caddel reading six poemsAn article on ''Writing in the Dark'' in ''The Guardian''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caddel, Richard 1949 births 2003 deaths Deaths from leukemia British Poetry Revival Alumni of Newcastle University Academics of Durham University English male poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers