Coffey, Brian

(1905-1995)

   Born in Dublin (his father was professor of anatomy and the first President of University College, Dublin), Coffey studied arts and the sciences at University College, Dublin. In France he studied physical chemistry under Jean Baptiste Perrin, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1926, and philosophy at the Catholique de Paris with the French philosopher Jacques Maritain. He worked in Paris and taught philosophy at St. Louis University, Missouri; he returned in 1954 to Europe, where he worked as a teacher of mathematics in England until his retirement. In 1934 he began contributing reviews (and one poem) to the Criterion; his interest in French poetry dates from this period. After the war he was appointed an assistant professor at St. Louis University, Missouri, supervising postgraduates in the philosophy of science and mathematical logic. In 1973, he retired from teaching to Southampton. Some of his poetry publications: Three Poems, 1933. Selected Poems, 1971. Poems and Versions 1929-1990, 1991. Some of his poems: "Cold," "For What for Whom Unwanted," "Headrock," "Missouri Sequence," "The Nicest Phantasies Are Shared," "The Prayers."

   Sources: Biography of Bob Coffey (http://www.answers.com/topic/brian-coffey). Contemporary Irish Poetry: An Anthology. Anthony Bradley, ed. University of California Press. New and rev. ed., 1988. Fred Beake: The Poetry of Brian Coffey (http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com/lynx/lynx14.html). The Missouri Sequence by Brian Coffey (http://indigo.ie/Coffey, Briantjac/Poets/Brian_Coffey/brian_coffey.htm).