John Lucas (born 1937) is a poet, critic, biographer, anthologist and literary historian. He runs a poetry publishers called Shoestring Press, and he is the author of ''92 Acharnon Street'' (

Eland Eland may refer to: Animals *''Taurotragus'', a genus of antelope ** Common eland of East and Southern Africa ** Giant eland of Central and Western Africa Places * Eland, Wisconsin, United States * An old spelling of Elland, West Yorkshire * Ela ...

, 2007), which won the

Dolman Best Travel Book Award The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards celebrate the best travel writing and travel writers in the world. The awards include the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year and the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing ...

in 2008.

Biography

Lucas was born in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

in 1937. He has taught English at universities throughout the world, and is Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Loughborough and Nottingham Trent. He has written and translated over forty books, including critical studies of Dickens, John Clare and

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...

, books on English poetry, an anthology of the works of Nancy Cunard, as well as a life of his maternal grandfather, which combines

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

with

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

. In 2010 he published ''Next Year Will Be Better: A Memoir of England in the 1950s''. Since 2011, Lucas has also written several novels, including ''Waterdrops'' (2011). His collections of poetry include ''Studying Grosz on the Bus'', winner of Aldeburgh Festival Poetry Prize, ''A World Perhaps: New & Selected Poems'', ''Flute Music'' and ''Things to Say''. He has also edited an anthology, ''The Isles of Greece'', for Eland. For over ten years he was poetry reviewer for the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

''. His most recent books include ''A World Perhaps: New and Selected Poems'', ''The Radical Twenties: Writing, Politics, Culture'', and ''The Good That We Do''. Lucas plays jazz cornet and trumpet with the Nottingham-based Burgundy Street Jazzmen. In 1994 he founded Shoestring Press.

Bibliography

* ''Tradition and Tolerance in Nineteenth-century Fiction: critical essays on some English and American novels'' (with David Howard and John Goode) 1966 * ''A Selection from

George Crabbe George Crabbe ( ; 24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people. In the 177 ...

'' (as editor) 1967 * ''The Melancholy Man: a study of Dickens's novels'' 1970 * ''About Nottingham: twelve poems'' 1971 * ''Literature and Politics in the Nineteenth Century: essays'' (as editor) 1971 * ''A Brief Bestiary: Poems'' 1972 * ''

, a study of his fiction'' 1974 * ''Literature of Change: Studies in the Nineteenth-century provincial novel'' 1977 * ''The 1930s: A Challenge to Orthodoxy'' (as editor) 1978 * ''Mansfield Park'' by

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

(editor) 1980 * ''Poems of G. S. Fraser'' (edited with Ian Fletcher) 1981 * ''Romantic to modern literature: essays and ideas of culture, 1750-1900'' 1982 * ''The Days of the Week'' (poems) 1982 * ''Moderns and Contemporaries: novelists, poets, critics'' 1985 * ''The Trent Bridge Battery: the story of the sporting

Gunns Gunns Limited was a major forestry enterprise located in Tasmania, Australia. It had operations in forest management, woodchipping, sawmilling and veneer production. The company was placed into liquidation in March 2013. History Founded in 187 ...

'' (with Basil Haynes) * '' Egil's saga'' (translator, with Christine Fell) 1985 * ''Modern English Poetry from Hardy to Hughes'' 1986 * ''Selected Writings:

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, who is best known for his novel ''The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1766), his pastoral poem ''The Deserted Village'' (1770), and his pl ...

'' (as editor) 1988 * ''Studying Grosz on the Bus'' (poems) 1989 * ''England and Englishness: ideas of nationhood in English poetry, 1688-1900'' 1990 * ''

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

: Selected Poetry and Non-Fictional Prose'' (as editor) 1990 * ''

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

: the Major Novels'' 1992 * ''Flying to Romania'' 1992 * ''New Lines from Leicestershire: a verse anthology'' (as editor) 1992 * '' John Clare'' 1994 * ''Writing and Radicalism'' (as editor) 1996 * ''The Radical Twenties'' 1997 * ''One For the Piano: Poems'' 1998 * ''For John Clare: An Anthology of Verse'' 1997 * ''

Robert Bloomfield Robert Bloomfield (3 December 1766 – 19 August 1823) was an English labouring-class poet, whose work is appreciated in the context of other self-educated writers, such as Stephen Duck, Mary Collier and John Clare. Life Robert Bloomfield wa ...

: Selected Poems'' (as editor, with John Goodridge) 1998 * ''

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

'' 1998 * ''

Stanley Middleton Stanley Middleton FRSL (1 August 1919 – 25 July 2009) was a British novelist. Life He was born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1919 and educated at High Pavement School, Stanley Road, Nottingham, and later at University College Nottingha ...

at Eighty'' (as editor, with David Belbin) 1998 * ''On the Track'' (poems) 2000 * '' Ivor Gurney'' 2001 * ''Starting to Explain: essays on twentieth century British and Irish poetry'' 2003 * ''The Long and the Short of it'' 2004 * ''A World Perhaps: New and Selected Poems'' 2004 * ''Poetry: the Nottingham Collection'' (as editor) 2005 * ''Poems of Nancy Cunard: from the Bodleian Library'' (as editor) 2005 * ''The Winter's Tale'' 2005 * ''Flute Music'' (poems) 2006 * ''92 Acharnon Street: A Year in Athens'' 2007 * ''Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy: Richard II - Henry V'' 2007 * ''I, the poet Egil : versions of the poems of Egil's saga'' 2008 * ''Harry Chambers & Peterloo Poets: 37 years of poetry publishing'' 2009 * ''Shoestring's Commons'' (as editor) 2009 * '' All My Eye & Betty Martin'' 2010 * ''The Isles of Greece: a collection of the poetry of place'' 2010 * ''Next Year Will Be Better: A Memoir of England in the 1950s'' 2010 * ''Things to Say'' 2010 * ''Waterdrops'' 2011 (novel) * ''Second World War Poetry in English'' 2013 * ''A Brief History of Whistling'' (with Allan Chatburn) 2015 * ''Portable Property'' 2015 * ''The Awkward Squad: rebels in English cricket'' 2015 * ''Ten Poems About Nottingham'' 2015 (as editor) * ''The Plotting'' 2016 (novel) * ''Summer Nineteen Forty-Five'' 2017 (novel) * ''Julia'' 2019 (novel) * ''Remembered Acts'' 2020 (novel) * ''The Life in Us'' 2021 (novel)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, John 1937 births Living people British non-fiction writers British travel writers British poets British biographers 21st-century British novelists