Thomas Eliel Fenwick Blackburn (10 February 1916 – 13 August 1977) was a British poet. His work is noted for its self-examination and spiritual imagery.
His memoir, ''A Clip of Steel'' (1969), portrays the effects of a childhood under a repressive clergyman father.
Early life
Blackburn was born in
Hensingham
Hensingham is a suburb of Whitehaven and former civil parish, now in the parish of Whitehaven, in the Copeland district, in the county of Cumbria, England. The ward population taken at the 2011 census was 4,145. In 1931 the parish had a popula ...
,
Cumberland, England. He had mixed ancestry. His father, Eliel, was the product of an affair his missionary grandfather had with a
Mauritian
Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably ...
woman.
The mother, who was supposedly beautiful but unstable, disappeared once she returned to
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
and the young Eliel was given to the care of an Uncle, where he was brought up to be a passionate
Anglican.
When Thomas Blackburn was a young boy, Eliel forced him to wear a painful chastity contraption on his groin, to prevent him from being tempted by masturbation.
He also had to put up with his father, haunted by feelings of racial inferiority, repeatedly scrubbing his face with peroxide in order to lighten his complexion.
The poet
Alan Morrison, discussing this experience, noted that 'Blackburn' is 'a cruelly apt surname for someone whose father used to literally try to burn the black off his skin'.
He studied law at
Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (18 ...
– which he did not enjoy – at the insistence of his father. He made himself unpopular with some of the students after socialising and partying with two visiting black musicians he had invited into halls.
Numerous incidents of misbehaviour, culminating in the discovery of a contraceptive in his room, saw him expelled from college during his third year.
This was followed by a short spell as an articled clerk at a law firm; then Brookfield Hall, a treatment centre for alcoholics and drug-addicts, where he was expelled for drunkenly attempting to seduce the wife of one of the medical staff; and finally several months of shock therapy at the hands of a
Harley Street doctor.
He completed a course in psychology at
Birkbeck, University of London, before going on to study English at
Durham University (
Hatfield College)
– the same institution his father had studied theology.
On graduating from Durham in June 1940, he moved down to London and became involved with the
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
literary scene.
Here he was called up to the Merchant Navy but left after suffering
jaundice and instead worked as a lecturer with the
National Fire Service, which proved to be his first steps into the world of teaching.
Career
From 1945 Blackburn worked in a succession of schools across London and at
King's School, Rochester
The King's School, Rochester, is an English independent school in Rochester, Kent. It is a cathedral school and, being part of the foundation of Rochester Cathedral, the Dean of Rochester serves as chair of the school's governing body. The sc ...
. In 1954 he became English Master at Marylebone Grammar School.
He held a Gregory Fellowship in poetry at the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
between 1956 and 1958. He had been nominated for the position by his predecessor,
John Heath-Stubbs
John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs (9 July 1918 – 26 December 2006) was an English poet and translator. He is known for verse influenced by classical myths, and for a long Arthurian poem, ''Artorius'' (1972).
Biography and works
Heath-Stub ...
, and agreed to take the role once he had been approached by the Leeds academic
Bonamy Dobrée
Bonamy Dobrée (2 February 1891 – 3 September 1974), British academic, was Professor of English Literature at the University of Leeds from 1936 to 1955.
Dobrée declared himself a Channel Islander, and was rather proud that both his Bonam ...
.
These were apparently two of the busier years of his life, with Blackburn throwing himself into university and student activities: he edited an undergraduate poetry journal, ''Poetry and Audience''; held regular poetry sessions at his home in
Headingley
Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...
, sometimes with the participation of his friends and fellow poets
Michael Hamburger
Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger (22 March 1924 – 7 June 2007) was a noted German-British translator, poet, critic, memoirist and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and ...
and
George Barker; and helped produce the ''Leeds University Verse'' anthology.
During his time in Leeds he also developed a close friendship with the literary critic
G. Wilson Knight
George Richard Wilson Knight (1897–1985) was an English literary critic and academic, known particularly for his interpretation of mythic content in literature, and ''The Wheel of Fire'', a collection of essays on Shakespeare's plays. He was a ...
.
However, this period was also marred by the breakdown of his marriage with the painter, Rosalie de Meric. At the end of his fellowship he returned to being a teacher in
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...
.
Blackburn taught at the
College of St. Mark and St. John in Chelsea, London, as well as other educational institutions.
He eventually became head of the English department at St. Mark and St. John. In 1973, when the college decided to move to
Plymouth, he decided he would rather stay in London and soon found a job at
Whitelands College
Whitelands College is the oldest of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton.
History
Whitelands College is one of the oldest higher education institutions in England (predating every university except Oxford, Cambridge, Lo ...
(now part of the
University of Roehampton
The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...
), retiring in early 1976.
In 1969 Blackburn published ''A Clip of Steel'', a memoir of his childhood and early adulthood – republished in 2014 by
Valancourt Books
Valancourt Books is an independent American publishing house founded by James Jenkins and Ryan Cagle in 2005. The company specializes in "the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction," in particular gay titles and Gothic and ho ...
. This book was followed two years later by ''The Feast of the Wolf'', a novel inspired by the
vampire myth, which is again back in print.
Blackburn also published a collection of critical essays and a monograph on
Robert Browning.
Personal life
He was married three times; with his second wife Rosalie he had a daughter,
Julia Blackburn, born in 1948. During the marriage he was regularly violent and, on the birth of Julia, became a frequently absent parent returning home drunk after many infidelities which he did not keep secret. Rosalie was described in Julia’s memoir as sexually prolific, though it is suggested this occurred before and then after the end of the marriage to Blackburn, often boasting of her many partners. Blackburn was also an alcoholic and suffered several mental breakdowns during his life.
He died from a
cerebral haemorrhage at his cottage in
Snowdonia
Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951.
Name and extent
It was a commonly held belief that the na ...
as he was getting into bed, immediately after finishing a letter to his brother
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
.
See also
*
List of Hatfield College alumni
*
List of Durham University people
This is a list of people associated with Durham University, divided for user convenience into multiple subcategories. This includes alumni, those who have taught there, conducted research there or played a part in its founding.
Durham is a coll ...
References
External links
* Archival material at
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackburn, Thomas
1916 births
1977 deaths
Academics of the University of Leeds
Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge
Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham
Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London
English people of Mauritian descent
20th-century English poets
British Merchant Navy personnel of World War II
Civil Defence Service personnel