Todd, Ruth Ven

(1914-1978)

   Born in Edinburgh and educated at Fettes College and Edinburgh School of Art, he worked for a short time for his architect father, then as an agricultural laborer on the Isle of Mull, the Inner Hebrides, before moving into copy-writing and journalism. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and in 1947 he moved to the United States, where he worked at the University of New York and where, during the 1950s, he ran a small press, the Weekend Press. He wrote books for children under the Space Cats series and edited the works of the poet and painter William Blake (see entry). He settled in Majorca in 1958, where he died. Some of his poetry publications: Poems, 1938. Poets of Tomorrow, 1939. Ten Poems, 1940. Until Now, 1942. Poems for a Penny, 1942. The Planet in My Hand, 1944. Love Poems for the New Year, 1951. Garland for the Winter Solstice, 1961. Some of his poems: "A Mantelpiece of Shells," "Joan Miró," "Of Moulds and Mushrooms," "The Lonely Month," "Upon This Rock," "Various Ends," "Watching You Walk."

   Sources: English and American Surrealist Poetry. Edward B. Germain, ed. Penguin Books, 1978. 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 New British Poets: An Antholog y. Kenneth Rexroth, ed. New Directions, 1949. The New Penguin Book of Scottish Verse. Robert Crawford and Mick Imlah, eds. Penguin Books, 2000. The New Yorker Book of Poems. The New Yorker editors. Viking Press, 1969. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).