Wright, David

(1920-1994)

   Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, he was profoundly deaf by the age of seven. At fourteen he came to England and was educated at Northampton School for the Deaf and at Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1942. He became a freelance writer in 1947 after working on The Sunday Times for five years. He co-founded and co-edited the quarterly literary review X from 1959 to 1962. His Deafness: A Personal Account (1969) was his autobiography. He edited Longer Contemporary Poems (1966), the Penguin Book of English Romantic Verse (1968) and the Penguin Book of Everyday Verse (1976). He also translated Beowulf (1957) and The Canterbury Tales (1964). He died of cancer at Waldron, East Sussex. Some of his other poetry publications: Moral Stories, 1954. Monologue of a Deaf Man, 1958. Adam at Evening, 1965. To the Gods the Shades: New and Collected Poems, 1976. Metrical Observations, 1980. Selected Poems, 1988. Elegies, 1990. Some of his poems: "A Funeral Oration," "A Peripatetic Letter to Isabella Fey," "An Anniversary Approaches; of the Birth of God," "Seven South African Poems," "The Lakes," "Winter at Gurnard's Head."

   Sources: Archives Hub: The David Wright Collection of Norman Nicholson Papers (http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/03020403.html). Miles, M. 2005. "Deaf People Living and Communicating in African Histories, c. 960s 1960s" (http://www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles2005a.html). 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 Modern Poets: An American-British Antholog y. John Malcom Brinnin and Bill Read, eds. McGraw-Hill, 1963. The Naked Astronaut: Poems on Birth and Birthdays. Ren Graziani, ed. Faber and Faber, 1983. The New Lake Poets. William Scammell, ed. Bloodaxe Books, 1991. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Penguin Book of South African Verse. Jack Cope and Uys Krige, eds. Penguin Books, 1968.