Fuller, Roy Broadbent, and John Leopold

(1912- )

   • Roy, the father, 1912-1991

   Born in Lancashire, the son of a businessman, he was educated at Blackpool High School. From 1934 to 1969, with service in the Royal Navy from 1941 to 1945, he worked as a solicitor for the Woolwich Equitable Building Society. He was professor of poetry at Oxford University from 1968 to 1973; Owls and Artificers (1971) and Professors and Gods (1973) are collections of his Oxford lectures on poetry. He was made a commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970. He wrote several novels, including Image of a Society (1956), as well as crime thrillers and juvenile fiction. His memoirs were published in four volumes from 1980 to 1991. Some of his publications: Poems, 1939. Collected Poems, 1962. New poems, 1968. Off Course: Poems, 1969. An IllGoverned Coast: Poems, 1976. The Individual and His Times: A Selection of the Poetry of Roy Fuller, 1982. New and Collected Poems, 1934-1984, 1985. Some of his poems: "ABC of a Naval Trainee," "Autobiography of a Lungworm," "Autumn 1942," "Ghost Voice," "Mythological Sonnets," "The Cancer Hospital."

   • John Leopold, the son, 1937

   Born in Ashford, Kent, he was educated at New College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize in 1960 for his poem "A Dialogue Between Caliban and Ariel." He was visiting lecturer in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1962, 1963); assistant lecturer at Manchester University 1963-1966; and fellow and tutor at Magdalen College, Oxford, 1966-2002, where he is now emeritus professor. He has written many novels and stories for children. He collaborated with James Fenton (see entry) in writing Partingtime Hall (1987), a collection of satirical poems. His poetry collection Epistles to Several Persons won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1974; The Illusionists won Southern Arts Literature Prize in 1980; Stones and Fires won the Forward Poetry Prize, Best Poetry Collection of the Year, in 1996. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Some of his poems: "Alex at the Barber's," "Band Music," "Concerto for Double Bass," "Creatures," "Fox-Trot," "God Bless America," "The Butterfly," "The Red Light District Nurse," "Valentine," "Wasp Nest."

   Sources: British Poetry Since 1945. Edward Lucie-Smith, ed. Penguin Books, 1985. Biography and Works of John Fuller (http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth182). Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. New Poets of England and America. Donald Hall, and Robert Pack, ed. World, 1962. Peace and War: A Collection of Poems. Michael Harrison, and Christopher Stuart-Clark, ed. Oxford University Press, 1989. The Antaeus Anthology. Daniel Halpern, ed. Bantam Books, 1986. 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 National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Book of Death. D.J. Enright, ed. Oxford University Press, 1987. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Penguin Book of Light Verse. Gavin Ewart, ed. Penguin Books, 1980. The Sonnet: An Anthology. Robert M. Bender and Charles L. Squier, ed. Washington Square Press, 1987. Who's Who. London: A & C Black, 2005.