James Fenton

Last updated

James Fenton
Born (1949-04-25) 25 April 1949 (age 75)
Lincoln, England
Alma mater Magdalen College, Oxford
Occupation(s)Poet, journalist, literary critic
Partner Darryl Pinckney
Parent John Fenton

James Martin Fenton FRSL FRSA (born 25 April 1949) is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. [1] He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.

Contents

Life and career

Born in Lincoln, Fenton grew up in Lincolnshire and Staffordshire, the son of Canon John Fenton, a biblical scholar. [2] He was educated at the Durham Choristers School, Repton and Magdalen College, Oxford. He graduated with a B.A. in 1970. [3]

While at school Fenton acquired an enthusiasm for the work of W. H. Auden. At Oxford, his tutor John Fuller, who was writing A Reader's Guide to W. H. Auden at the time, further encouraged that enthusiasm. Auden became perhaps the most significant single influence on Fenton's work.

In his first year at university, Fenton won the Newdigate Prize for his sonnet sequence Our Western Furniture. [3] Later published by Fuller's Sycamore Press, it largely concerns the cultural collision in the 19th century between the United States and Japan. It displays in embryo many of the characteristics that define Fenton's later work: technical mastery combined with a fascination with issues that arise from the Western interaction with other cultures. Our Western Furniture was followed by Exempla, a poetry sequence later published in The Memory of War. The poem is notable for its frequent use of unfamiliar words, as well as commonplace words employed in an unfamiliar manner.

While studying at Oxford, Fenton became a close friend of Christopher Hitchens, whose memoir Hitch-22 is dedicated to Fenton and has a chapter on their friendship. Hitchens praised Fenton's extraordinary talent, stating that he too believed him to be the greatest poet of his generation. He also expounded on Fenton's modesty, describing him as infinitely more mature than himself and Martin Amis. Fenton and Hitchens shared a house together in their third year, and continued to be close friends until Hitchens's death. Fenton read his poem 'For Andrew Wood' at the Vanity Fair Hitchens memorial service. [4]

His first collection, Terminal Moraine (1972) won a Gregory Award. [3] With the proceeds he traveled to East Asia, where he wrote of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and the end of the Lon Nol regime in Cambodia, which presaged the rise of Pol Pot. The poems featured in his collection The Memory of War (1982) ensured his reputation as one of the greatest war poets of his time. [3]

Fenton returned to London in 1976. He was political correspondent of the New Statesman , where he worked alongside Christopher Hitchens, Julian Barnes and Martin Amis. [3] He became the Assistant Literary Editor in 1971, and Editorial Assistant in 1972. [5] Hitchens had formally recruited Fenton to the International Socialists [6] and earlier in his journalistic career, like Hitchens, Fenton had written for Socialist Worker , the weekly paper of the International Socialists. [7] Fenton was an occasional war reporter in Vietnam during the late phase of the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. His experiences in Vietnam and Cambodia from summer 1973 form a part of All the Wrong Places (1988). [8] [9] [10] The publication of the book revealed some of Fenton's second thoughts about revolutionary socialism. [11]

In 1983, Fenton accompanied his friend Redmond O'Hanlon to Borneo. A description of the voyage can be found in the book Into the Heart of Borneo.

Fenton won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1984 for Children in Exile: Poems 1968–1984. He was appointed Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1994, a post he held till 1999. [5] He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2007. The American composer Charles Wuorinen set several of his poems to music, and Fenton served as librettist for Wuorinen's opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories (2001, premiered in 2004), based on Salman Rushdie's novel.

Fenton has said: "The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation." In response to criticisms of his comparatively slim Selected Poems (2006), he warned against the notion of poets churning out poetry in a regular, automated fashion.

Fenton has been a frequent contributor to The Guardian , [12] The Independent and The New York Review of Books . [13] He once wrote the head column in the editorials of each Friday's Evening Standard . [14] In 2007, he appeared in a list of the "100 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain" published by The Independent on Sunday . [15]

Fenton's partner is Darryl Pinckney, the prize-winning novelist, playwright and essayist perhaps best known for the novel High Cotton (1992). [16]

Musical theatre influence

Fenton has been influenced in his writing by musical theatre, as evidenced in "Here Come the Drum Majorettes" from Out of Danger:

"Gleb meet Glubb.
Glubb meet Glob.
God that's glum, that glib Glob dig.
'Dig that bog!'
'Frag that frog.'
Stap that chap, he snuck that cig.'" [17]

He was the original English librettist for the musical of Les Misérables but Cameron Mackintosh later replaced him with Herbert Kretzmer. Kretzmer credited Fenton with creating the general structure of the adaptation, [18] and Fenton is credited for additional lyrics, for which he receives royalties, as stipulated in his contract. [19]

Awards and honours

Books

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Hughes</span> English poet and childrens writer (1930–1998)

Edward James "Ted" Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008, The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. H. Auden</span> British-American poet (1907–1973)

Wystan Hugh Auden was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, form, and content. Some of his best known poems are about love, such as "Funeral Blues"; on political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles"; on cultural and psychological themes, such as The Age of Anxiety; and on religious themes, such as "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Motion</span> English poet and writer (born 1952)

Sir Andrew Motion is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio recordings of poets reading their own work. In 2012, he became President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, taking over from Bill Bryson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Brodsky</span> Russian poet (1940–1996)

Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad in the Soviet Union, Brodsky ran afoul of Soviet authorities and was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972, settling in the United States with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters. He taught thereafter at Mount Holyoke College, and at universities including Yale, Columbia, Cambridge, and Michigan. Brodsky was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity". He was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Muldoon</span> Irish poet

Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Lowell</span> American poet (1917–1977)

Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the Mayflower. His family, past and present, were important subjects in his poetry. Growing up in Boston also informed his poems, which were frequently set in Boston and the New England region. The literary scholar Paula Hayes believes that Lowell mythologized New England, particularly in his early work.

Craig Anthony Raine, FRSL is an English contemporary poet. Along with Christopher Reid, he is a pioneer of Martian poetry, a movement that expresses alienation with the world, society and objects. He was a fellow of New College, Oxford, from 1991 to 2010 and is now emeritus professor. He was the editor of Areté from 1999 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Wright (poet)</span> American writer; University of Virginia professor

Charles Wright is an American poet. He shared the National Book Award in 1983 for Country Music: Selected Early Poems and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for Black Zodiac. From 2014 to 2015, he served as the 20th Poet Laureate of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Schuyler</span> American poet

James Marcus Schuyler was an American poet. His awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1980 collection The Morning of the Poem. He was a central figure in the New York School and is often associated with fellow New York School poets John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, and Barbara Guest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. K. Williams</span> American poet, critic and translator (1936–2015)

Charles Kenneth "C. K." Williams was an American poet, critic and translator. Williams won many poetry awards. Flesh and Blood won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1987. Repair (1999) won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, was a National Book Award finalist and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The Singing won the 2003 National Book Award and Williams received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2005. The 2012 film The Color of Time relates aspects of Williams' life using his poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Berryman</span> American poet and scholar (1914–1972)

John Allyn McAlpin Berryman was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in the "confessional" school of poetry. His 77 Dream Songs (1964) won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">August Kleinzahler</span> American poet (born 1949)

August Kleinzahler is an American poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Murray (poet)</span> Australian poet and critic (1938-2019)

Leslie Allan Murray was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings.

Michael Hofmann is a German-born poet, translator, and critic. The Guardian has described him as "arguably the world's most influential translator of German into English".

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Phillips</span> American writer and poet (born 1959)

Carl Phillips is an American writer and poet. He is a Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2023, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.

John Fuller FRSL is an English poet and author, and Fellow Emeritus at Magdalen College, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Spender</span> English poet and man of letters (1909–1995)

Sir Stephen Harold Spender was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1965.

References

  1. ↑ Jenkins, David (18 November 2007). "James Fenton: 21st century renaissance man". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Canon John Fenton". The Telegraph. London. 8 January 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Professor James Fenton". British Council Literature. British Council . Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  4. ↑ James Fenton - For Andrew Wood , retrieved 12 June 2023
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 "James Fenton Website: Books Written by James Fenton". Jamesfenton.com. 10 March 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  6. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher (2010). Hitch-22: A Memoir. London: Atlantic Books. p. 144. ISBN   9781838952334.
  7. ↑ Campion, Peter. "James Fenton". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  8. ↑ "All the Wrong Places: Adrift in the Politics of the Pacific Rim by James Fenton (Atlantic Monthly Press) « Asia by the Book". Asiabythebook.thingsasian.com. 16 June 2008. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  9. ↑ Barbara Korte Represented Reporters: Images of War Correspondents in Memoirs and ... 2009 - Page 17 "The poet James Fenton, for instance, was an occasional war reporter in Vietnam during the late phase of the war. The reminiscences of his experiences in Vietnam, which form a part of All the Wrong Places, declare a literary intent that ..."
  10. ↑ Douglas Kerr, Eastern Figures: Orient and Empire in British Writing, 2008, page 159 "... at the beginning of a journey that would take him to the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, James Fenton glanced at the ... Fenton in the summer of 1973 was setting out on a journey to see and write about a war in Asia.
  11. ↑ The Listener - Volume 121 - 1989 Page 33 "As a revolutionary socialist, Fenton, in 1975, had no illusions about the Stalinist character of Vietnamese Communism but held the ... Am I wrong, or is All the Wrong Places also Fenton's journey to the end of the revolutionary socialist night"
  12. ↑ "James Fenton". The Guardian . London. 11 June 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  13. ↑ "James Fenton". New York Review of Books.
  14. ↑ "James Fenton - London Evening Standard". Thisislondon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 September 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  15. ↑ "Gay Power: The pink list - This Britain - UK - The Independent". London: News.independent.co.uk. 2 July 2006. Archived from the original on 7 January 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  16. ↑ David Jenkins 12:17AM GMT 18 November 2007 (18 November 2007). "James Fenton: 21st century renaissance man". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 December 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ↑ Quoted in Neil Corcoran (ed.), Do You, Mr Jones? (2002), pp. 185–86.
  18. ↑ Tims, Anna (19 February 2013). "How we made Les Misérables". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  19. ↑ Murphy, Hayden (February 1994). "Poet who banks on Les Miserables". The Herald. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  20. ↑ Brown, Mark (June 2015). "Jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi named co-winner of PEN Pinter prize". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 16 June 2015.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.