Peter George Whigham (6 March 1925 – 6 August 1987) was an English poet and translator, widely known for his translation of 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 ...

published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

. He helped popularize the writings of authors like

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

George Santayana George Santayana (born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the Un ...

, and

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His '' Spring and All'' (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land'' (1922). ...

Early life

Whigham was born on 6 March 1925 in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, England, where he was largely self-educated. His parents were Robert George Murray Whigham (1903-1941) and Ellen Rose Carr (1903-1988).

Career

He worked as a gardener, a school teacher, an actor, a newspaper reporter, and a script writer. He was the grandson of General Sir Robert Whigham (1865-1950). In the 1950s, he contributed to '' The European'', a magazine edited by

Diana Mosley Diana, Lady Mosley (''née'' Mitford; 17 June 1910 – 11 August 2003), known as Diana Guinness between 1929 and 1936, was a British fascist, aristocrat, writer, and editor. She was one of the Mitford sisters and the wife of Oswald Mosley, lea ...

. In the early 1960s he moved to Italy to devote himself entirely to writing. In 1965 Whigham moved to the United States after working as an actor, broadcaster, and scriptwriter for the British Broadcasting Corp. At the BBC, he coordinated the first features focusing on Pound, Santayana, and Williams. In 1968–69 he was a guest lecturer in poetry at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

, as were

Basil Bunting Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of '' Briggflatts'' in 1966, generally regarded as one of the major achievements of the modernist traditi ...

, Fred Turner, and

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Althoug ...

. His seminar classes were popular among undergraduates new to the experience of living, modern poetry. In the mid-1980s he taught a graduate poetry seminar in the Comparative Literature Department at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. ''The Blue Winged Bee'' was honored by the

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) is a British subscription-based book club dedicated to selecting, recommending and publicising new poetry books. Every quarter, it selects two Poetry Book Society Choices and four Poetry Book Society Recommendations. ...

in 1969 in England. The dust jacket and frontispiece for this book was done by artist and professor Gary Hugh Brown. Whigham's poetry appeared in several poetry anthologies, including ''23 Modern Poets,'' ''Penguin Book of Love Poems,'' and ''Twenty Times in One Place.''

Death

Whigham died on 6 August 1987 in

Humboldt County, California Humboldt County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 136,463. The county seat is Eureka, California, Eureka. Humboldt County compri ...

, of injuries he suffered in a car crash. He was 62 years old. He is buried in Santa Barbara, California.

Books

* ''Ezra Pound'' (1955) * ''Clear Lake Comes From Enjoyment'' (1958) * ''The Marriage Rite'' (1959) * ''Poems of Catullus'' (1966) * ''The ingathering of Love,'' Work in Progress, Santa Barbara, (1967) * ''The Blue Winged Bee: Love poems of the VIth Dalai Lama,'' Anvil Press (1969), * ''Spectrum,'' Volume IX, Number 2 (1967) * ''The Crystal Mountain'' (1970) * ''The Poems of Meleager'' (1976) * ''Things Common, Properly: Selected Poems 1942 - 1982,'' Black Swan Books (1984), .

External links

Obituary
in the ''New York Times''
''The Poems of Catullus'', Peter Whigham (Translator)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whigham, Peter 1925 births 1987 deaths 20th-century English poets English male poets 20th-century English male writers