Nicholas Moore (poet)

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Nicholas Moore (born November 16, 1918 in Cambridge ; † January 26, 1986 ) was an English poet who was counted among the group of the so-called " New Apocalyptic " and left the literary business in the late 1940s due to a series of accidents.

Life

education

Moore, whose father was the philosopher George Edward Moore , was born in Cambridge / England. He completed his education at the Dragon School in Oxford and the Leighton Park School in Reading. He later attended the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Trinitiy College in Cambridge .

Career as a poet

Moore wrote poetry while he was still at school . In 1937 a first poem by him was published in an anthology of poetry and prose from English schools. In addition to his own work, Moore also appeared as an editor at an early age. He published the literary magazine "Seven" (1938–1940) in Cambridge - initially with John Goodland, and later alone. With the beginning of the 1940s Moore was also active in the literary scene in London. He mainly worked for Tambimuttus "Poetry London", a poetry publisher with an accompanying magazine. Moore's first independent volumes of poetry, published in 1941, were also published by Poetry London. Moore's four volumes of poetry published in 1941 were an expression of his enormous productivity. The same did not tear off in the following years either, and Moore published a number of other volumes of poetry with various publishers. One of them, the volume Glass Tower published in 1944 , was illustrated by Lucian Freud . Moore's poems were also published in the USA in the 1940s, e. B. in poetry (Chicago).

Decline as a poet

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
so many accidents and no precipitation on en:? Noticeable difference in their lust for sensation. So we would like sources for it. The horticultural book (???) doesn't seem to fit the work either. - Loaf Guard ( discussion ) 10:34, Aug 24, 2012 (CEST); Addendum; this allegedly award-winning, monotonous parallel reading, is not a reputable proof, as it could just as well be pure fiction. - Loaf guard ( discussion ) 5:45 p.m. , Aug. 24, 2012 (CEST)

Moore, who was (incorrectly) counted among the New Apocalypticists in the 1940s, had increasing problems getting his poems published around 1950 because his previous publishers had gone bankrupt or had left Great Britain . In addition, the poetry of the New Apocalyptic - and with it the Moore - was viewed by critics as out of date from the late 1940s . In addition to these literary reasons, Moore also suffered a number of personal defeats. His wife Priscilla, to whom he had dedicated a large number of his poems, left him with their daughter in 1948. A second marriage was also unhappy. Moore's wife became mentally ill, their daughter died early and the son was sent to an orphanage. Moore himself had meanwhile taken a job in a nursery, but his health went steadily downhill from the 1950s onwards. His leg had to be removed as a result of gangrene and Moore was dependent on a wheelchair from the 1960s . Although he continued to write poetry, they were no longer printed. Only one horticultural book on the high bearded sword lily appeared at this time (1956).

31 versions of Baudelaire's whimsy

In 1968, the Sunday Times, led by literary critic George Steiner , initiated a translation competition for Baudelaire's poem "Spleen" ("Je suis comme le roi"). Moore submitted a total of 31 - some very free - translations of the poem over a period of several weeks, using a large number of pseudonyms . Moore did not win the competition, but his 31 versions were published in book form in 1973. It was to remain Moore's last volume of poetry during his lifetime.

Little renaissance

In the 1980s, the British poet and essayist Peter Riley became aware of Nicholas Moore. He found the poet in a small, shabby London apartment that Moore had moved into after separating from Priscilla in 1948. Riley viewed the extensive material - around 3,000 poems in total - and published some of them after Moore's death. In November 2014 a selection of Nicholas Moore's "Selected Poems" was finally published in London's Shoestring-Press.

Reception in Germany

So far (as of August 2012) only one of Moore's poems has been published in German. This is the poem “Sunny Tree”, which was translated by Klara Blum in 1945 in the last edition of the Zeitschrift für Internationale Literatur . Scientific work on moors does not yet exist in German-speaking countries. However, the writer Francis Nenik published an essay in 2012 in which Moore's life is described in detail and is associated with the very similar fate of the Czech poet Ivan Blatný . The essay - together with an exchange of letters between Blatný and Moore discovered by Nenik - was published in English translation in book form in October 2013 and was used by numerous magazines, among others. a. the London Review of Books , received extremely positive reviews.

Works

  • A Wish in Season (1941)
  • The Island and the Cattle (1941)
  • A Book for Priscilla (1941)
  • Buzzing around with a Bee (1941)
  • The Cabaret, the Dancer, the Gentlemen (1942)
  • The Glass Tower (1944)
  • Thirty-Five Anonymous Odes (published anonymously, 1944)
  • The War of the Little Jersey Cows (published under the pseudonym "Guy Kelly", 1945)
  • The Anonymous Elegies and other poems (published anonymously, 1945)
  • Recollections of the Gala: Selected Poems 1943-48 (1950)
  • The Tall Bearded Iris (1956)
  • Anxious To Please (1968) (published under the pseudonym (anagram) "Romeo Anschilo", 1995 / Oasis Books)
  • Identity (1969)
  • Resolution and Identity (1970)
  • Whimsy. Thirty-one versions of Baudelaire's “Je suis comme le roi”. (1973 / Blacksuede Boot Press and Menard Press)
  • Lacrimae Rerum (1988)
  • Longings of the Acrobats: Selected Poems (1990)
  • Selected Poems (2014)

further reading

  • Francis Nenik: The Marvel of Biographical Bookkeeping. Translated from German by Katy Derbyshire, Readux Books 2013, Sample .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ [1] (PDF; 278 kB) Chris Beckett: Tambimuttu and the "Poetry London" Papers at the British Library. Reputation and Evidence, in: The Electronic British Library Journal (2009)
  2. ^ [2] Six Poems by Nicholas Moore, in: Poetry (Chicago), September 1945
  3. ^ Francis Scarfe: Auden and After. The Liberation of Poetry (1930-1941), London 1942, pp. 155ff.
  4. ^ Peter Riley: Poetical Histories No. 1: Nicholas Moore - Disguises of the Soul, 1985
  5. ^ Peter Riley: Afterword, in: Nicholas Moore: Spleen: Thirty-one versions of Baudelaire's "Je suis comme le roi ..."
  6. ^ [3] Nicholas Moore: The tall bearded iris, Collingridge, London 1956
  7. ^ Nicholas Moore: Selected Poems, Shoestring-Press 2014
  8. ↑ Press reviews on the-quandary-novelists.com
personal data
SURNAME Moore, Nicholas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English poet
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Cambridge
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1986