Tomlinson, (Alfred) Charles

(1927- )

   Born in Stoke-on-Trent, he graduated from Queens College, Cambridge University, in 1948 and gained his master's degree from London University in 1954. He has had a brilliant academic career, being professor of English in various universities in Britain, the USA and Canada, and since 1996 has been emeritus senior research fellow at Bristol University. Although he began as a painter, he is known primarily as a poet. The words he uses to paint word pictures of the sea, air, earth, stones, seasons, light and shadow ensure that the reader sees exactly the detail in the pictures. His first book, Relations and Contraries, was published in 1951. Since then, he has published many more collections and several hundred poems. His series of lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1982 was published in 1983 under the title Poetry and Metamorphosis. He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2001. He lives in Gloucestershire. Some of his poems: "Above Manhattan," "Above the Rio Grande," "Albuquerque," "Ariadne and the Minotaur," "At the Trade Center," "Ute Mountain," "Valle de Oaxaca," "Winter Encounters," "Winter Journey," "Zipangu."

   Sources: Collected Poems of Charles Tomlinson. Oxford University Press, 1985. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD). Microsoft Corporation, 2006. Selected Poems 1955-1997 of Charles Tomlinson. New Directions, 1997. Skywriting by Charles Tomlinson. Carcanet Press 2003. The Charles Tomlinson Resource Centre. (http://www3.sympatico.ca/sylvia.paul/CharlesTomlinson_poetry.htm). 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 Exeter Book of Riddles. Kevin Crossley-Holland and Lawrence Sail, eds. Enitharmon Press, 1999. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Who's Who. London: A & C Black, 2005. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).