Plomer, William Charles Franklyn

(1903-1973)

   Born of British parents at Pietersburg, Transvaal, South Africa, his education was split between South Africa and England. His novel Turbott Wolfe (1925)-with its anti-apartheid message-aroused a storm of protest from the white population. He spent three years teaching in Japan before coming to England in 1929, and between 1938 and 1940 he edited three volumes of the diaries of the Victorian clergyman Francis Kilvert. During World War II he served in Naval Intelligence, then was literary consultant to the publishing house of Jonathan Cape and brought Ian Fleming's James Bond novels to the firm. In 1968 he was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In his career he wrote novels, short stories, memoirs, and opera librettos. His Collected Poems (1960) was republished and enlarged in 1973. He died at his home in Sussex. The Autobiography of William Plomer was published in 1975. Some of his poems: "Anglo-Swiss, or a Day Among the Alps," "Armistice Day," "Azure, or Green, or Purple," "Ganymede," "The Boer War," "The Murder on the Downs," "The Playboy of the Demi-World" (1938).

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. I Have No Gun But I Can Spit: An Antholog y of Satirical and Abusive Verse. Kenneth Baker, ed. Faber and Faber, 1980. Rhythm Road: Poems to Move To. Lillian Morrison, ed. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1988. 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 Villains. John Mortimer, ed. Oxford University Press, 1992. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse. Stephen Coote, ed. Penguin Books, 1983. The Penguin Book of Southern African Verse. Stephen Gray, ed. Penguin Books, 1989.