Heath-Stubbs, John Francis Alexander

(1918- )

   Born in London, he was educated at Worcester College for the Blind and at Queen's College, Oxford. He was lecturer in English literature at the College of St. Mark and St. John, Chelsea, London. From 1960 to 1961 he was visiting professor of English at the University of Michigan. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1953 and president of the Poetry Society in 1993. In 1973 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry, and in 1988 he received the Order of the British Empire. With Sidney Keyes and Michael Meyer, he edited the poetry anthology Images of Tomorrow (1953), co-ed172 ited Eight Oxford Poets (1941), and helped edit Oxford Poetry in (1942-1943). The inspiration for his poems come from Ancient Greece, Rome, Alexandria, classical myth, Christian legend and works of art. His most recent publications: Galileo's Salad, 1996. The Sound of Light, 1999. The Return of the Cranes, 2002. Pigs Might Fly, 2005. Some of his poems: "Footnote to Belloc's 'Tarantella,'" "Not Being Oedipus," "The Broom; or, The Flower of the Desert," "Virgin Martyrs," "Wishes for the Months."

   Sources: Carcanet press (http://www.carcanet.co.uk). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Chatto Book of Modern Poetry 1915-1955. Cecil Day Lewis, and John Lehmann, ed. Chatto and Windus, 1966. 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 Oxford Book of Comic Verse. John Gross, ed. Oxford University Press, 1994. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Who's Who. London: A & C Black, 2005. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia). World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time. Katharine Washburn and John S. Major, ed. Publisher, 1338, 1998.