James Crain Michie (24 June 1927 – 30 October 2007) was an English poet, translator and editor, of Scottish and American descent .

Early life

Michie was born in

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge district in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a cro ...

, Surrey, one of the three sons of James Kilgour Michie and his American wife Marjorie Crain Pfeiffer. His father was a banker and East India merchant, originally from

Falkland, Fife Falkland is a village, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, at the foot of the Lomond Hills. According to the 2022 census it has a population of 1,041. Etymology The earliest forms of this name include ''Falleland'' (c. 1128) and ...

, in Scotland. Michie was educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...

and

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

, where he held an

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

in Classics but took a BA in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

. Instead of undertaking

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

, he was accepted as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

and spent two years with the

International Voluntary Service for Peace International Voluntary Service (IVS), formerly International Voluntary Service for Peace (IVSP), is the British branch of the Service Civil International (SCI). Founded in 1931, IVS promotes peace through volunteering, both in the United Kingd ...

, during which he helped to build refugee housing in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

and

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. He was also a porter at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital founded by philanthropist Thomas Guy in 1721, located in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the Kin ...

. Michie then joined

John Lehmann Rudolf John Frederick Lehmann (2 June 1907 – 7 April 1987) was an English publisher, poet and man of letters. He founded the periodicals '' New Writing'' and ''The London Magazine'', and the publishing house of John Lehmann Limited. Early ...

's ''

The London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and poetry. A number of Nobel Laureates, including Annie Ernaux, Albert Camus, Doris Les ...

'' and the

Workers' Educational Association Workers' Educational Associations (WEA) are not-for-profit bodies that deliver further education to adults in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. WEA UK WEA UK, founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult edu ...

, beginning a career in publishing."James Michie" (obituary)
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 21 November 2007, accessed 8 June 2023 His younger brother

Donald Michie Donald Michie (; 11 November 1923 – 7 July 2007) was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, contributing to the effort to solve " Tunny ...

became a researcher in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. Their oldest brother, Ian, became a banker.

Translator and poet

The texts that Michie translated included ''The Odes of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

'', ''The Art of Love'' by

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

, ''The Poems of

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...

'', ''The

Epigrams An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia. ...

of Martial'' and selections from La Fontaine's and Aesop's fables. He was the editorial director of

The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1887 by John Lane and Elkin Mathews, The Bodley Head existed as an independent entity or as part of multiple consortia until it was acquired by Random ...

, a British publishing company, and lecturer at

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

. His ''Collected Poems'' won the 1995

Hawthornden Prize The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award given annually to a British, Irish or British-based author for a work of "imaginative literature" – including poetry, novels, history, biography and creative non-fiction – published in the pre ...

. Beginning in the 1970s, Michie devised and judged literary competitions for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' under the pen-name of Jaspistos. He caused controversy in 2004 when his poem, "Friendly Fire," was published in ''The Spectator'' under then-editor

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

.Outrage at Spectator's poetic attack on Scots
'' The Herald'', August 13, 2004

Personal life

In 1950 Michie married firstly Daphne Segré, and they were divorced in 1960. In 1964, he married secondly Sarah Courtauld. They had two sons and a daughter, and were divorced. Michie also had a son with Lady Clare Asquith, a daughter of

Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith Julian Edward George Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (22 April 1916 – 16 January 2011) was a British colonial administrator and hereditary peer. Background and education Asquith was the only son of Katharine Asquith, Katharine (né ...

, and a daughter with Tatiana Orlov.

Selected publications

*''Oxford Poetry 1949'' (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1949, co-editor, with

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social crit ...

) *''Possible Laughter'' (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959, verse) *''Odes of Horace'' (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1964, translations) **''The Odes of Horace'', new edition illustrated by

Elisabeth Frink Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in ...

(London: Folio Society, 1988) *''The Poems of Catullus'' (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1969, translations) *''La Fontaine Selected Fables'' (London: Viking Press, 1979) *''New and Selected Poems'' (London: Chatto & Windus, 1983) *''Oxford Book of Short Poems'' (Oxford University Press, 1985, co-editor, with P. J. Kavanagh) *''Aesop's Fables retold in verse'', illustrated by

John Vernon Lord John Vernon Lord is an illustrator, author and teacher. He is widely recognized for his illustrations of various texts such as ''Aesop's Fables'',''The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear''; and the Folio Society's ''Myths and Legends of the British ...

(London: Jonathon Cape, 1989) *''Collected Poems'' (London: Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd, 1994) *''Last Poems'', with Foreword by

Richard Ingrams Richard Reid Ingrams (born 19 August 1937) is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine ''Private Eye'', and founding editor of ''The Oldie'' magazine. He left the latter job at the end of May 2014.B ...

(Oldie Publications, 2008)

Awards

(1995)

References

1927 births 2007 deaths English poets People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford {{UK-writer-stub