John Lucas (born 1937) is a poet, critic, biographer, anthologist and literary historian. He runs a poetry publishers called Shoestring Press, and he is the author of ''92 Acharnon Street'' ( Eland, 2007), which won the Dolman Best Travel Book Award in 2008.

Biography

Lucas was born in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

in 1937. He has taught English at universities throughout the world, and is Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Loughborough and Nottingham Trent. He has written and translated over forty books, including critical studies of

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the great ...

John Clare John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and his sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20t ...

and

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...

, books on English poetry, an anthology of the works of

Nancy Cunard Nancy Clara Cunard (10 March 1896 – 17 March 1965) was a British writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class, and devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the ...

, as well as a life of his maternal grandfather, which combines

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

with

social history Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians. Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...

. In 2010 he published ''Next Year Will Be Better: A Memoir of England in the 1950s''. Since 2011, Lucas has also written several novels, including ''Waterdrops'' (2011). His collections of poetry include ''Studying Grosz on the Bus'', winner of Aldeburgh Festival Poetry Prize, ''A World Perhaps: New & Selected Poems'', ''Flute Music'' and ''Things to Say''. He has also edited an anthology, ''The Isles of Greece'', for Eland. For over ten years he was poetry reviewer for the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''. His most recent books include ''A World Perhaps: New and Selected Poems'', ''The Radical Twenties: Writing, Politics, Culture'', and ''The Good That We Do''. Lucas plays jazz cornet and trumpet with the Nottingham-based Burgundy Street Jazzmen. In 1994 he founded Shoestring Press.

Bibliography

* ''Tradition and Tolerance in Nineteenth-century Fiction: critical essays on some English and American novels'' (with David Howard and John Goode) 1966 * ''A Selection from

George Crabbe George Crabbe ( ; 24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people. In the 177 ...

'' (as editor) 1967 * ''The Melancholy Man: a study of Dickens's novels'' 1970 * ''About Nottingham: twelve poems'' 1971 * ''Literature and Politics in the Nineteenth Century: essays'' (as editor) 1971 * ''A Brief Bestiary: Poems'' 1972 * ''

, a study of his fiction'' 1974 * ''Literature of Change: Studies in the Nineteenth-century provincial novel'' 1977 * ''The 1930s: A Challenge to Orthodoxy'' (as editor) 1978 * ''Mansfield Park'' by

Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...

(editor) 1980 * ''Poems of G. S. Fraser'' (edited with Ian Fletcher) 1981 * ''Romantic to modern literature: essays and ideas of culture, 1750-1900'' 1982 * ''The Days of the Week'' (poems) 1982 * ''Moderns and Contemporaries: novelists, poets, critics'' 1985 * ''The Trent Bridge Battery: the story of the sporting

Gunns Gunns Limited was a major forestry enterprise located in Tasmania, Australia. It had operations in forest management, Woodchipping in Australia, woodchipping, sawmilling and Wood veneer, veneer production. The company was placed into liquidatio ...

'' (with Basil Haynes) * ''

Egil's saga ''Egill's Saga'' or ''Egil's saga'' ( ; ) is an Icelandic saga (family saga) on the lives of the clan of Egill Skallagrímsson (Anglicised as Egill Skallagrimsson), an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald. The saga spans the years c. 850–1000 a ...

'' (translator, with Christine Fell) 1985 * ''Modern English Poetry from Hardy to Hughes'' 1986 * ''Selected Writings:

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and hack writer. A prolific author of various literature, he is regarded among the most versatile writers of the Georgian e ...

'' (as editor) 1988 * ''Studying Grosz on the Bus'' (poems) 1989 * ''England and Englishness: ideas of nationhood in English poetry, 1688-1900'' 1990 * ''

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

: Selected Poetry and Non-Fictional Prose'' (as editor) 1990 * ''

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

: the Major Novels'' 1992 * ''Flying to Romania'' 1992 * ''New Lines from Leicestershire: a verse anthology'' (as editor) 1992 * ''

'' 1994 * ''Writing and Radicalism'' (as editor) 1996 * ''The Radical Twenties'' 1997 * ''One For the Piano: Poems'' 1998 * ''For John Clare: An Anthology of Verse'' 1997 * ''

Robert Bloomfield Robert Bloomfield (3 December 1766 – 19 August 1823) was an English labouring-class poet, whose work is appreciated in the context of other self-educated writers, such as Stephen Duck, Mary Collier and John Clare. Life Robert Bloomfield ...

: Selected Poems'' (as editor, with John Goodridge) 1998 * ''

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

'' 1998 * ''

Stanley Middleton Stanley Middleton FRSL (1 August 1919 – 25 July 2009) was a British novelist. Life He was born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1919 and educated at High Pavement School, Stanley Road, Nottingham, and later at University College Nottingh ...

at Eighty'' (as editor, with David Belbin) 1998 * ''On the Track'' (poems) 2000 * ''

Ivor Gurney Ivor Bertie Gurney (28 August 1890 – 26 December 1937) was an English poet and composer, particularly of songs. He was born and raised in Gloucester. He suffered from bipolar disorder through much of his life and spent his last 15 years in psy ...

'' 2001 * ''Starting to Explain: essays on twentieth century British and Irish poetry'' 2003 * ''The Long and the Short of it'' 2004 * ''A World Perhaps: New and Selected Poems'' 2004 * ''Poetry: the Nottingham Collection'' (as editor) 2005 * ''Poems of

: from the Bodleian Library'' (as editor) 2005 * ''The Winter's Tale'' 2005 * ''Flute Music'' (poems) 2006 * ''92 Acharnon Street: A Year in Athens'' 2007 * ''Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy: Richard II - Henry V'' 2007 * ''I, the poet Egil : versions of the poems of Egil's saga'' 2008 * ''Harry Chambers & Peterloo Poets: 37 years of poetry publishing'' 2009 * ''Shoestring's Commons'' (as editor) 2009 * '' All My Eye & Betty Martin'' 2010 * ''The Isles of Greece: a collection of the poetry of place'' 2010 * ''Next Year Will Be Better: A Memoir of England in the 1950s'' 2010 * ''Things to Say'' 2010 * ''Waterdrops'' 2011 (novel) * ''Second World War Poetry in English'' 2013 * ''A Brief History of Whistling'' (with Allan Chatburn) 2015 * ''Portable Property'' 2015 * ''The Awkward Squad: rebels in English cricket'' 2015 * ''Ten Poems About Nottingham'' 2015 (as editor) * ''The Plotting'' 2016 (novel) * ''Summer Nineteen Forty-Five'' 2017 (novel) * ''Julia'' 2019 (novel) * ''Remembered Acts'' 2020 (novel) * ''The Life in Us'' 2021 (novel) * '' Closing Time at the Royal Oak'' 2021 (memoir) * ''That Little Thread'' 2023 (novel)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, John 1937 births Living people British non-fiction writers British travel writers British poets British biographers 21st-century British novelists