Tom Raworth facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tom Raworth
|
|
|---|---|
Raworth in 2003 (photo by Gloria Graham)
|
|
| Born | Thomas Moore Raworth 19 July 1938 Bexleyheath, Kent, England |
| Died | 8 February 2017 (aged 78) |
| Occupation | Poet, publisher, editor, teacher |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Poetry, essays, translation |
| Literary movement | British Poetry Revival, Late-Modernism |
Thomas Moore Raworth (born July 19, 1938 – died February 8, 2017) was a talented English-Irish poet. He was also a publisher, editor, and teacher. During his life, he wrote over 40 books of poetry and other writings. His work was so important that it was translated and shared in many countries. Raworth was a very important person in a movement called the British Poetry Revival.
Contents
Tom Raworth's Life and Work
Early Life and Education
Tom Raworth was born on July 19, 1938, in Bexleyheath, Kent, England. He grew up in a nearby town called Welling. His family had strong connections to Ireland. This connection helped shape his identity as a poet. His mother's family even lived in the same Dublin house as famous playwright Seán O'Casey. O'Casey was writing his play Juno and the Paycock at that time. When Raworth was 52, he got an Irish passport.
He went to St. Stephen's Primary School in Welling from 1943 to 1949. Then he attended St. Joseph's Academy in Blackheath from 1949 to 1954. He left school at age sixteen and worked many different jobs. Later, he went to the University of Essex from 1967 to 1970. He earned a Master's degree there in 1970.
Starting a Publishing Career
In the early 1960s, Raworth began his career in publishing. He started a magazine called Outburst. Through this magazine, he published works by many British and American poets. Some of these poets included Ed Dorn, Allen Ginsberg, and LeRoi Jones.
Around the same time, he also created Matrix Press. This press published small books by poets like Dorn and Piero Heliczer. In 1965, while working at an international telephone exchange, Raworth and Barry Hall started Goliard Press. This press published the first British collection by Charles Olson. These publishing efforts were very important. They helped introduce British readers to the New American Poetry movement of the 1960s.
Raworth was known as a "transatlantic writer." This means he had strong ties to both British and American literature. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s. His work as an editor and publisher helped him become well-known in the U.S. Many people thought his reputation there was unmatched by other British poets of his time.
His Poetry and Books
Raworth's first book of poetry was The Relation Ship (1966). It won the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize. He studied Spanish at the University of Essex. He was working towards a degree in Latin American Literature. After his first year, he moved to the Master's program. In 1970, he received his M.A. in the Theory and Practice of Literary Translation.
In the 1970s, he lived and worked in the United States and Mexico. He taught at universities in Ohio, Chicago, and Texas. Later, he lived in San Francisco. There, he worked with the Zephyrus Image press. After six years abroad, he returned to England in 1977. He became the resident poet at King's College, Cambridge for a year.
Raworth's early poems were influenced by the Black Mountain poets and New York School poets. These included Robert Creeley and John Ashbery. He also drew inspiration from European poetry, Dada, and Surrealism. His 1974 book Ace showed a new, more unique style. His poems used short lines without punctuation. This allowed readers to find many different meanings. It made it "increasingly impossible to keep track of the profusion of meanings on offer."
After Ace, he wrote several long poems in this new style. These included Writing (1982), Catacoustics (1991), and West Wind (1984). Later, he created a series of 14-line poems. These were not exactly "sonnets." They appeared in collections like Visible Shivers (1987), Eternal Sections (1993), and Survival (1994). Other collections include Clean & Well Lit (1996), Meadow (1999), Caller and Other Pieces (2007), and Let Baby Fall (2008).
His 550-page book, Collected Poems, was published in 2003. Many of his poems were still not collected at that time. However, most of these uncollected works were published later. They appeared in Windmills in Flames (2010), Structures from Motion (2015), and As When (2015). A book of Raworth's prose, Earn your Milk, came out in 2009. This book included all his uncollected prose. It also featured his unique prose-work, A Serial Biography (1969). This book has been described as a mix of memoir and reporting.
Many of Raworth's notebooks, typescripts, and letters from 1968 to 1977 are kept at the University of Connecticut's Dodd Research Center.
Later Life and Passing
Tom Raworth faced health challenges for most of his life. In the 1950s, he was one of the first patients to survive open heart surgery.
Raworth passed away peacefully on February 8, 2017, at the age of 78. His family was with him. His wife, Val Raworth, said that his passing was "a release from his sufferings."
See also
- Black Mountain poets
- British Poetry Revival
- Language Poetry
- New York School
- Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain
