Bunting, Basil

(1900-1985)

   Born on Tyneside, the son of a physician. In 1918 he spent six months in prison for refusing military conscription on Quaker principles. Working in Paris in the early 1920s, he was sub-editor of the Transatlantic Review. By 1925 he was earning his living as music critic for Outlook and other magazines in London. During World War II he abandoned his pacifist principles, joined the Royal Air Force, was sent to Iran and stayed on after the war, first in the diplomatic service, then as a journalist, before being expelled by Mossadegh in the early 1950s. His success in Britain came in 1966 when his semi52 autobiographical poem "Briggflatts" (named after a Quaker settlement in Cumbria) was published in 1971. He was made an honorary D.Litt. of the University of Newcastle, and he was president of the Poetry Society (1972-1976) and of Northern Arts (1973-1976). Some of his poems: "Against the Tricks of Time," "At Briggflatts Meetinghouse," "Attis: Or, Something Missing," "Birthday Greeting," "Chorus of Furies," "Envoi to the Reader," "Fishermen," "Hymn to Alias Thor," "The Passport Officer," "The Pious Cat," "What the Chairman Told Tom." Sources: Basil Bunting Poetry Centre (www.dur.ac.uk/basil_bunting_poetry.centre). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. 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 Complete Poems of Basil Bunting. Richard Caddel, ed. Oxford University Press, 1994. The Literary Encyclopedia (www.LitEncyc.com). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.