John C Bayliss (1919–2008) was a British

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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and significant

literary editor A literary editor is a editor responsible for refining and overseeing the quality of written content in a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Literary editor deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews. A literary ...

of the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

period; later in life, he became a civil servant. He was born in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, and was an undergraduate at

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...

. He served in the RAF during the war. He edited: ''The Fortune Anthology'' (1942) with

Nicholas Moore Nicholas Moore (16 November 1918 – 26 January 1986) was an English poet, associated with the New Apocalyptics in the 1940s, whose reputation stood as high as Dylan Thomas’s. He later dropped out of the literary world. Biography Moore wa ...

, and Douglas Newton; ''New Road'' (1943 and 1944) with

Alex Comfort Alexander Comfort (10 February 1920 – 26 March 2000) was a British scientist and physician, writer and activist, known best for his nonfiction sex manual, '' The Joy of Sex'' (1972). He was a poet and author of both fiction and nonficti ...

; ''A Romantic Miscellany'' (1946) with Derek Stanford. His collection ''The White Knight and other poems'' was published in 1944. He contributed in the war years to ''Poetry London'' and ''Poetry Quarterly''; later to ''Poetry Review''. He was also published in ''Air Force Poetry'' (1944). In 1977 he published "Venus in Libra" in full, some sections of which had been published in "Poetry Quarterly" and "New Road 1944" He is sometimes associated with the

New Apocalyptics The New Apocalyptics were a poetry grouping in the United Kingdom in the 1940s, taking their name from the anthology ''The New Apocalypse'' ( 1939), which was edited by J. F. Hendry (1912–1986) and Henry Treece. There followed the further antho ...

, perhaps because of his poem ''Apocalypse and Resurrection''; he is also called a

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

, or New Romantic. John Bayliss died on 18 August 2008.

References

John Bayliss, biography
All Poetry 1919 births 2008 deaths Writers from Gloucestershire Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge British literary editors Royal Air Force personnel of World War II English male poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English male writers {{England-poet-stub