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C h a r l e s T o m l i n s o n
Charles Tomlinson F.R.S.L.; C.B.E.; D. LITT
English poet, artist, translator, critic, and Emeritus Professor of English Poetry, Bristol University, Alfred Charles Tomlinson was born in Stoke-on-Trent, an industrial town noted for its steelworks and Josiah Wedgwood potteries. As a child, he was influenced by the poetry which he heard recited at home by his grandmother and parents (1). These formative years also included excellent teachers at the primary level and later at Longton High School. His early teachers, Tomlinson recalls, instilled in him an appreciation of French, Roman and German poetry which was "committed to memory" (2).. and remains with him to the present day.
During weekends, the young Tomlinson was free to seek out the relatively undisturbed landscape north and south of Stoke-on-Trent where he often fished with his father (3). A "feeling for place" developed in Stoke-on-Trent, and became an endless resource for his poetry in the ensuing years. At Queen's College, Cambridge, he studied English Literature, rather than languages, and where his influential tutor in his final year, was Donald Davie. After spending a year in Italy, he taught primary school before going to Bristol University where he enjoyed a lengthy and successful teaching career.
The tradition of great English poets translating classical authors, as well as their contemporaries, has continued throughout Charles Tomlinson's writing career. His "passion for languages" has brought the works of the Italian poet, Attilio Bertolucci, and the Mexican poet, Octavio Paz, and others, to English readers through his meticulous translations. As well as publishing more than twenty volumes of his own verse, he has translated into English, the works of many international authors - Spanish, French and Russian - as well as works from poets of other nationalities. He has had several one-man exhibits of his art works including a showing at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. The publication of In Black and White: The Graphics of Charles Tomlinson, is introduced by the late Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz with whom he collaborated on many editions over the years.
In 1998, Professor Tomlinson became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he was awarded the Italian Premio Internationale Flaiano per la Poesia in 2001. He is an Honorary Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge University, and became a Companion of the British Empire in 2002. Skywriting: And Other Poems was awarded the New Criterion Poetry Prize for 2003, and his most recent book of essays, Metamorphoses: Poetry and Translation, was published the same year, 2003, by Carcanet. Cracks in the Universe, his most recent collectionof poetry, was released in 2006. Charles Tomlinson and his wife, Brenda, have two daughters and live in Ozleworth, Wotton-under-Edge, England.
1. Charles Tomlinson in an interview with David Morley, The North, No. 10, 1991. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.
(updated 20/05/07)
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The Charles Tomlinson Resource Centre | A Triptych of Poets 2007 | © S. Paul 2004 - 2007 |