Charles Tomlinson
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Alfred Charles Tomlinson,
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(8 January 1927 – 22 August 2015) was an English poet, translator, academic, and illustrator. He was born in
Penkhull Penkhull is a district of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, part of Penkhull and Stoke electoral ward, and Stoke Central parliamentary constituency. Penkhull is a conservation area, and includes Grade II listed buildings suc ...
, and grew up in Basford, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.


Life

After attending
Longton High School Longton High School was a school in Longton and later Meir, Staffordshire from 1760 to 2010. History The school was founded in 1760 with an endowment from John Bourne and was known as the Longton Free School. By 1763, enough money had been pr ...
, Tomlinson read English at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied with
Donald Davie Donald Alfred Davie, FBA (17 July 1922 – 18 September 1995) was an English Movement poet, and literary critic. His poems in general are philosophical and abstract, but often evoke various landscapes. Biography Davie was born in Barnsley, ...
. After leaving university he taught for several years in Camden Town, London, followed by a brief period as secretary to
Percy Lubbock Percy Lubbock, CBE (4 June 1879 – 1 August 1965) was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer. His controversial book ''The Craft of Fiction'' gained influence in the 1920s. Life Percy Lubbock was the son of the ...
in Italy, before returning to London as an M.A. student at Royal Holloway, University of London. He subsequently taught for thirty-six years in the English Department of Bristol University, where he became Emeritus Professor. He was also a graphic artist, and ''In Black and White: The Graphics of Charles Tomlinson'', with an introduction by Nobel prize-winner
Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...
, was published in 1975 and was the focus of a December 1975 edition of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television series
Arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...
.


Poetry

Tomlinson's first book of poetry was published in 1951, and his ''Collected Poems'' was published by the
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
in 1985, followed by the ''Selected Poems: 1955–1997'' in 1997. His poetry won international recognition and received many prizes in Europe and the United States, including the 1993 Bennett Award from
Hudson Review ''The Hudson Review'' is a quarterly journal of literature and the arts. History It was founded in 1947 in New York, by William Arrowsmith, Joseph Deericks Bennett, and George Frederick Morgan. The first issue was introduced in the spring of ...
; the New Criterion Poetry Prize, 2002; the Premio Internazionale di Poesie Ennio Flaiano, 2001; and the Premio Internazionale di Poesia Attilio Bertolucci, 2004. He was an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences and of the Modern Language Association. Tomlinson was made a
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 2001 for his contribution to literature. His ''Selected Poems'', his collections ''Skywriting'', ''Metamorphoses'', and ''The Vineyard Above the Sea'', among others, are published by Carcanet Press. His last collection, ''Cracks in the Universe'', was published in May 2006 in Carcanet Press' Oxford Poets series. In his book ''Some Americans'' Tomlinson acknowledges his poetic debts to modern American poetry, in particular
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 ...
, George Oppen,
Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood ...
, and
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 ...
, as well as artists like
Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...
and
Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky (; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, hy, Ոստանիկ Մանուկ Ատոյեան; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of hi ...
. In his critical study ''Lives of Poets'', Michael Schmidt observes that '
Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
was the guiding star omlinsoninitially steered by'.Schmidt, Michael: ''Lives of the Poets'', page 641. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007. Schmidt goes on to define the two characteristic voices of Tomlinson: "one is intellectual, meditative, feeling its way through ideas" while the other engages with "landscapes and images from the natural world".Schmidt, Michael: ''Lives of the Poets'', page 642. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007. Tomlinson's poetry often circles around these themes of place and return, exploring his native landscape of Stoke and the shifting cityscape of modern Bristol. In his poem "Against Extremity," Tomlinson expresses a distrust of confessional verse and rejects the "willed extremism of poets like
Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, '' Th ...
and
Anne Sexton Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book '' Live or Die''. Her poetry details ...
". Inspired poem is dedicated to the Argentine philosopher and poet Eduardo Sanguinetti, which he calls "Dialectic" From 1985 to 2000, Tomlinson recorded all of his published poetry for Keele University as well as his translations (with Henry Gifford) of poetry by Antonio Machado and Fyodor Tyutchev. He also recorded ''
The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...
'' by T. S. Eliot. All these recordings, apart from ''The Waste Land,'' but including Tomlinson's interviews with Octavio Paz, Hugh Kenner and Sean Street, can be heard online at the Charles Tomlinson page of PennSound, University of Pennsylvania.


Translations and editions

Tomlinson was an authoritative translator of poetry from the Russian, Spanish and Italian, including work by Antonio Machado, Fyodor Tyutchev,
César Vallejo César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators ...
, and
Attilio Bertolucci Attilio Bertolucci (18 November 1911 – 14 June 2000) was an Italian poet and writer. He was father to film directors Bernardo and Giuseppe Bertolucci. Biography Bertolucci was born at San Lazzaro ( province of Parma), to a family of agricult ...
. He collaborated with Octavio Paz, Jacques Roubaud and Edoardo Sanguinetti in the writing of ''Renga,'' and with Paz alone in the writing of ''Airborn/Hijos del Aire.'' He edited ''The Oxford Book of Verse in English Translation'' and the ''Selected Poems'' of
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 ...
. Other edited works include ''
Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood ...
: A Collection of Critical Essays'', ''
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 ...
: A Critical Anthology'', '' George Oppen: Selected Poems'', ''Eros English'd: Classical Erotic Poetry in Translation from Golding to Hardy'', and ''
John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
: Poems''. His poetry has been translated into Spanish by Jordi Doce and
Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...
, into Italian by Silvano Sabbadini, Edoardo Zuccato, and others, and into French by Michele Duclos.


Works

*''Relations and Contraries'', Hand and Flower Press, 1951 *''The Necklace'', Fantasy Press, 1955; Oxford University Press,1966 *''Seeing is Believing'', McDowell, Obolensky, 1958; Oxford University Press, 1960 *''A Peopled Landscape'', Oxford University Press, 1963 *''American Scenes and Other Poems'', Oxford University Press, 1966 *''The Way of a World'', Oxford University Press, 1969 *''Penguin Modern Poets'', with
Alan Brownjohn Alan Charles Brownjohn (born 28 July 1931) is an English poet and novelist. He has also worked as a teacher, lecturer, critic and broadcaster. Life and work Alan Brownjohn was born in London and educated at Merton College, Oxford. He taught in ...
and
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 ...
, Penguin 1969 *''America West Southwest'', San Marcos Press, 1970 *''Renga: A Chain of Poems'', with
Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...
,
Jacques Roubaud Jacques Roubaud (; born 5 December 1932 in Caluire-et-Cuire, Rhône) is a French poet, writer and mathematician Life and career Jacques Roubaud taught Mathematics at University of Paris X Nanterre and Poetry at EHESS. A member of the Oulipo gr ...
, and
Edoardo Sanguineti Edoardo Sanguineti (9 December 1930 – 18 May 2010) was a Genoese poet, writer and academic, universally considered one of the major Italian authors of the second half of the twentieth century. Biography During the 1960s he was a leader of th ...
. (Braziller, 1971) *''Written on Water'', Oxford University Press, 1972 *''The Way in and Other Poems'', Oxford University Press, 1974 *''In Black and White: The Graphics of Charles Tomlinson'', Carcanet, 1975 *''The Shaft'', Oxford University Press, 1978 *''Selected Poems 1951–1974'', Oxford University Press, 1978 *''Airborn/Hijos del Aire'', with
Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...
, Anvil Press,1981 *''Some Americans: A Personal Record'', University of California Press, 1981 *''Poetry and Metamorphosis'', Cambridge University Press, 1983 *''Notes from New York and Other Poems'', Oxford University Press, 1984 *''Collected Poems'', Oxford University Press, 1985, 1987 *''Eden: Graphics and Poetry'', Redcliffe Press, 1985 *''The Return'', Oxford University Press, 1987 *''Annunciations'', Oxford University Press, 1989; Carcanet Press, 1999 *''The Door in the Wall'', Oxford University Press, 1992; Carcanet Press, 1999 *''Jubilation'', Oxford University Press, 1995 *''Selected Poems 1955–1997'', Oxford University Press,1997; Carcanet Press, 1999 *''The Vineyard Above the Sea'', Carcanet Press, 1999 *''American Essays: Making it New'', Carcanet Press, 2001 *''Metamorphoses: Poetry and Translation'', Carcanet Press, 2003 *''Skywriting'', Carcanet Press, 2003 *''Cracks in the Universe'', Carcanet Press, 2006 *''New Collected Poems'', Carcanet Press, 2009 *''Swimming Chenango Lake: Selected Poems'', Carcanet Press, 2018


Recordings

* The complete volumes from "The Necklace" to "The Vineyard Above the Sea," Keele University, 1985–2000 * "The Modern Age: A Conversation with Hugh Kenner," Keele University, 1988 * "Charles Tomlinson Reads His Poems," Keele University, 1985 * "Charles Tomlinson Reads His Stoke Poems," Keele University, 1985 * "Charles Tomlinson Reads His Poems on Music," Keele University, 1987 * "Charles Tomlinson Reads
The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...
by T. S. Eliot," Keele University, 1989 * "Octavio Paz Talks to Charles Tomlinson," Keele University, 1989 * "Charles Tomlinson Reads Machado and Tyutchev," Keele University, 1993 * "Charles Tomlinson Reads Selected Poems by Attilio Bertolucci," Keele University, 1995


Further reading

* O'Gorman, Kathleen. ''Charles Tomlinson: Man and Artist''. University of Missouri Press, 1988 * John, Brian. ''The World as Event: The Poetry of Charles Tomlinson''. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1989 * Swigg, Richard. ''Charles Tomlinson and the Objective Tradition''. Bucknell University Press, 1994 * Clark, Timothy. ''Charles Tomlinson''. Northcote, 1999 * Kirkham, Michael. ''Passionate Intellect: The Poetry of Charles Tomlinson''. Liverpool University Press, 1999 * Swigg, Richard. ''Look with the Ears: Charles Tomlinson's Poetry of Sound''. Peter Lang, 2002 * Saunders, Judith P. ''The Poetry of Charles Tomlinson: Border Lines''. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003


References


External links

*
The Charles Tomlinson Resource Centre

Carcanet Press page for Charles Tomlinson

Addressing One's Peers: The Letters of Charles Tomlinson and George Oppen,1963–

Audio: Charles Tomlinson: The Complete Poems, 1955–1999; Charles Tomlinson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomlinson, Charles 20th-century English poets Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge People from Penkhull People from Wotton-under-Edge 1927 births 2015 deaths English translators 21st-century English poets 21st-century English male writers Academics of the University of Bristol Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century British translators 21st-century British translators English male poets 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers