Gascoyne, David Emery

(1916-2001)

   Born in Harrow, Middlesex, he was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and the Regent Street Polytechnic, London. His first collection of poetry, Roman Balcony and Other Poems, was published in 1932. He quickly established himself as a leading surrealist and was one of the organizers of the London International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936. He lived in France from 1937 to 1939, 1947 to 1948 and 1953 to 1964. He was a respected translator of Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) and of the leading French surrealists. In 1996 he was made a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture for his lifelong services to French literature. Some of his other publications: A Short Survey of Surrealism, 1935. Man's Life is This Meat, 1936. Hoelderlin's Madness, 1938. Poems 1937-1942, 1943. A Vagrant and Other Poems, 1950. Night Thoughts, 1956. Collected Poems, 1965. Some of his poems: "An Autumn Park," "And the Seventh Dream is the Dream of Isis," "De Profundis," "Miserere Salvador Dali," "The Cage," "The Uncertain Battle," "The Writer's Hand," "Tinian" (translation from Hölderlin).

   Sources: David Gascoyne's Home Page (http://www.connectotel.com/gascoyne/index.html). Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). Poetry of the World Wars. Michael Foss, ed. Peter Bedrick Books, 1990. Surrealist Poetry in English. Edward B. Germain, ed. Penguin Books, 1978. 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 New British Poetry, 1968-88. Gillian Allnutt, Fred D'Aguiar and Ken Edwards, eds. Grafton Books, 1989. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.