Thomas, D(onald) M(ichael)

(1935- )

   Born in Redruth, Cornwall, and educated at the University High School Melbourne, Australia, he graduated M.A. in English from New College, Oxford University, in 1961. From 1963 to 1977 he was lecturer in English at Hereford College of Education, eventually becoming head of the department. Having learned Russian during national service (1951-1953), his own work is significantly influenced by Russian literature and he has translated the work of Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) and Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837). He appeared in Penguin Modern Poets 11 (1968); his poem "Dreaming in Bronze" (1981) received a Cholmondely Award. His novel The Flute-Player (1979) won the Guardian/Gollancz Fantasy Prize. His third novel, the White Hotel (1981), is a fascinating story about psychoanalysis. His autobiography Memories and Hallucinations was published in 1988. He lives in Truro, Cornwall. Thomas's themes are universallove, death, eroticism, sexuality, family relationswith a strong Cornish influence. Some of his poetry publications: Two Voices, 1968. The Shaft, 1973. Love and Other Deaths, 1975. The Honeymoon Voyage, 1978. Selected Poems, 1983. The Puberty Tree, 1992. Some of his poems: "Eden," "Poetry Reading," "Smile," "Tangier: Hotel Rif."

   Sources: Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry. Alan F. Pater, ed. Monitor Book Com388 pany, 1980. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Biography and Works of DM Thomas (http://www.falpublications.co.uk/falhtm/dmthomas.htm). Biography of DM Thomas: The Literary Encyclopedia. (http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4370). Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD). Microsoft Corporation, 2006. The National Portrait Gallery. (www.npg.org.uk). New Coasts & Strange Harbors: Discovering Poems. Helen Hill and Agnes Perkins, eds. Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1974. 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 Book of Travel Verse. Kevin Crossley-Holland, ed. Oxford University Press, 1986. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Who's Who. London: A & C Black, 2005.