Silkin, Jon

(1930-1997)

   Born in London, the son of Jewish solicitor, in 1958 he won a two-year Gregory Fellowship to Leeds University teaching English to foreign students, then graduated B.A. as a mature student in the School of English in 1962. He lectured in the USA, the Far East, and Australia. From 1965 until he died he lived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and in 1994 he was appointed senior fellow in poetry at the School of English there. He was founder and editor of the quarterly magazine Stand from 1952 until his death. His first poetry collection, the Peaceable Kingdom, was published in 1954. He edited several anthologies and books of criticism, most notably on the poets of the First World War. Some of his other publications: The Portrait and Other Poems, 1950. New and Selected Poems, 1966. Three Poems, 1969. Out of Battle: The Poetry of the Great War, 1972. Selected Poems, 1980. Selected Poems, 1993. Some of his poems: "A Daisy," "Caring for Animals," "Death of a Son," "Lilies of the Valley," "The Chisel Grows Heavy," "Word About Freedom and Identity in Tel Aviv."

   Sources: Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry. Keith Tuma, ed. Oxford University Press, 2001. Fine Frenzy: Enduring Themes in Poetry. Robert Baylor and Brenda Stokes, eds. McGraw-Hill, 1978. New Poets of England and America. Donald Hall and Robert Pack, eds. World, 1962. Obituary of John Silkin: Reporter 412, 15 December 1997 (http://reporter.leeds.ac.uk/412/section9. htm). Portraits of Poets. Sebastian Barker, ed. Carcanet, 1986. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World. Naomi Shihab Nye, ed. Four Winds Press, 1992. Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets. Howard Schwartz and Anthony Rudolf, eds. Avon Books, 1980. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).