Authors :

Charles Tomlinson [828 TOM]

Best read in the Collected Poems, 1985, enlarged 1987. The separate volumes are:

Relations and Contraries, Aldington, Kent, 1951, not reprinted; *The Necklace, Eynsham, 1955, revised 1966, first signs of American influence; *Seeing is Believing, New York, 1958, revised, London 1960; *A Peopled Landscape, 1963; *American Scenes, 1963; *The Way of a World, 1969; *Written on Water, 1972; *The Way In, 1974, contains a number of autobiographical poems; *The Shaft, 1978; *The Flood, 1981; Letter from New York, 1984; The Return, 1987; Annunciations, 1989; The Door in the Wall, 1992; Jubilation, 1995.

Tomlinson's translations are an important part of his work: Versions from Fyodor Tyutchev 1803-1873, 1960, and Castilian Ilexes: Versions from Antonio Machado 1875-1939, 1963. Tomlinson has also translated a good deal of the work of his friend the Mexican poet Octavio Paz (Selected Poems, 1979 [866 PAZ]). See his Translations, 1983. The recent translations from Attilio Bertolucci (Selected Poems, 1994 [858 BER]) are not so successful. His experiments with poets in other languages are extraordinarily interesting: Renga, 1972 [808.81 REN], with Jacques Roubaud, Edoardo Sanguineti and Octavio Paz, and (more successful) Airborn/Hijos del Aire, 1981 [866 PAZ], with Octavio Paz alone. This aspect of Tomlinson's work obviously ties in with his Oxford Book of Verse in English Translation, 1980 [808.91 OXF] and the first chapter of his Poetry and Metamorphosis, 1983 [808.1 TOM], (which also deals with the poetry of Eliot and Pound). See also his anthology Eros English'd; classical erotic poetry in translation, Bristol 1992 [Univ.Lib.].

Tomlinson's interest in American poetry is well to the fore in his book of prose reminiscences Some Americans: A Personal Record, Berkeley, Cal., 1981 [Univ.Lib.], which chronicles meetings with Louis Zukofsky, George Oppen, Charles Olson and others. See also the two anthologies of criticism which he compiled: Marianne Moore: A collection of critical essays, 1969, [Univ.Lib.] and William Carlos Williams, 1972 [815 Wil/W]. He has also edited a Selected Poems of W.C.Williams for Penguin.

Tomlinson was a pupil of Donald Davie at Cambridge and Davie's poem 'To a Brother in the Mystery' is addressed to him.

Tomlinson is also a graphic artist. His work is reproduced in his book In Black and White, 1976 [769.942 TOM], and Eden: Graphics and Poetry, Bristol, 1985.

Classmarks for Royal Holloway library are given in square brackets. To check our holdings of these books, and to reserve items on short loan, log into ALEPH here.

See:

• Richard Swigg, Charles Tomlinson and the Objective Tradition, 1994 [828 TOM/S].
• Kathleen O'Gorman, ed., Charles Tomlinson: Man and Artist, Columbia, U.S.A., 1988 [828 TOM/O]. Tomlinson from a largely American perspective.
• Betjeman, John, et al., 'Fifteen Ways of Looking at a Tomlinson', P.N.Review 5.1 (1977). A special issue of the journal with 'Charles Tomlinson at Fifty: A Celebration'.
• Agenda 33.2, 1995. A Tomlinson special number with the emphasis on internationalism. Henry Gifford on the translations is excellent, and there is an interview.
• Willard Spiegelman, 'Just Looking', Parnassus, 21.1-2, 1996, 147-60. A good general essay. Photocopy in the library.

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