Veronica Elizabeth Marian Forrest-Thomson (28 November 1947 – 26 April 1975) was a
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
and a
critical theorist
A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from socia ...
brought up in Scotland. Her 1978 study ''Poetic Artifice: A Theory of Twentieth-Century Poetry'' was reissued in 2016.
Life and education
Veronica was born in
Malaya to a rubber planter, John Forrest Thomson and his wife Jean, but grew up in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, Scotland. She opted to hyphenate the surname, having originally been published under the name Veronica Forrest.
She studied at the
University of Liverpool
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
(BA, 1967) and
Girton College
Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...
,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
(PhD, 1971) where her first supervisor was the poet
J. H. Prynne
Jeremy Halvard Prynne (born 24 June 1936) is a British poet closely associated with the British Poetry Revival.
Prynne grew up in Kent and was educated at St Dunstan's College, Catford, and Jesus College, Cambridge. He is a Life Fellow of Gonvil ...
. Her Cambridge friends included the poets
Wendy Mulford and
Denise Riley
Denise Riley (born 1948, Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is ...
.
Forrest-Thomson later taught at the universities of
Leicester and
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
.
Writings
Forrest-Thomson's critical study ''Poetic Artifice: A Theory of Twentieth-Century Poetry'' was published by Manchester University Press in 1978. It was reissued with notes and an introduction by Gareth Farmer in 2016 wit
Shearsman press Her poetry collections included ''Identi-kit'' (1967), the award-winning ''Language-Games'' (1971) and the posthumous ''On the Periphery'' (1976). Subsequent gatherings of her work include ''Collected Poems and Translations'' (1990) and ''Selected Poems'' (1999). A further ''Collected Poems'', minus the translations, was published in 2008 by Shearsman Books with Allardyce Books.
Forrest-Thomson died in her sleep on 26 April 1975 at the age of 27, after an accidental overdose of prescription drugs and alcohol. She was married to the writer and academic
Jonathan Culler from 1971 to 1974; he became the executor of her literary estate. In November 2019, Jonathan Culler passed the role of literary executor to the academic and poet Gareth Farmer.
[Harriet Staff, 'Introducing the Veronica Forrest-Thomson Archive', ''Poetry Foundation'', 2 July 201]
/ref>
Further reading
*Veronica Forrest-Thomson, ''Collected Poems and Translations'', 1990
*Veronica Forrest-Thomson, ''Poetic Artifice: A Theory of Twentieth-century Poetry'', 1978
*Veronica Forrest-Thomson, ''Poetic Artifice: A Theory of Twentieth-century Poetry'', ed. Gareth Farmer, 2016
*Alison Mark, ''Veronica Forrest-Thomson and Language Poetry'', 2001
*Gareth Farmer, ''Veronica Forrest-Thomson: Poet on the Periphery'', 2017
*Gareth Farmer, ''Veronica Forrest-Thomson, Poetic Artifice and the Struggle with Forms'' (Sussex: unpublished PhD thesis
*Gareth Farmer, "Veronica Forrest-Thomson's 'Cordelia', Tradition and the Triumph of Artifice", ''Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry'', 1.1 (September, 2009) pp. 55–78
*Gareth Farmer, "The slightly hysterical style of University talk: Veronica Forrest-Thomson and Cambridge", ''Cambridge Literary Review'' 1.1 (September, 2009), pp. 161–177
*Isobel Armstrong, ''The Radical Aesthetic'', 2000
*Jane Dowson and Alice Entwistle, ''A History of Twentieth-Century British Women's Poetry'', 2005
*Alison Mark, "Poetic Relations and Related Poetics: Veronica Forrest-Thomson and Charles Bernstein" in Romana Huk (ed.), ''Assembling Alternatives: Reading Postmodern Poetries Transnationally'', 2003
*Christian R. Gelder, "Veronica Forrest-Thomsom's ABC of Atoms: Poetry, Knowledge, Technique", ''Cambridge Quarterly'', 51.1, (March, 2022), pp. 1–19
References
External links
Veronica Forrest-Thomson, Five poems
* ttp://jacketmagazine.com/20/pbs.html#sotp Peter Robinson, A review of ''On the Periphery''br>James Keery, ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ and the Levels of Artifice: Veronica Forrest-Thomson on J H Prynne
Kenyon Review Online Web Feature
*https://beds.academia.edu/GarethFarmer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forrest-Thomson, Veronica
1947 births
1975 deaths
Academics of the University of Birmingham
Academics of the University of Leicester
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
Critical theorists
Writers from Glasgow
Scottish women poets
20th-century Scottish poets
20th-century Scottish women writers
Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge