Poems for Anthony Thwaite, a manuscript volume of signed holograph poems collected from notable poets

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MS. 22154

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A bound volume of collected holograph, signed poems dedicated to Anthony Thwaite on his 50th birthday, 23 Jun 1980 (with an enclosed note by Ann Thwaite to Anthony Thwaite), comprising:

'Merlin', from Geoffrey Hill
'The View', from Philip Larkin
'Frogs At Lago Di Bolsena', from Peter Porter
'North', from Seamus Heaney
'The White Butterfly', from Michael Longley
'The Kingfisher', from Ted Hughes
'The Cricket', from John Fuller
'Mad Poet', from D.J. Enright
'Any Questions?', from Edwin Brock
'The Combat', from R.S. Thomas
'To Penetrate That Room', from John Lehmann
'That Singing Mesh', from Terence Tiller
'Future Work', from Fleur Adcock
'Emily Dickinson Was Right About This', from John Mole
'Nobbut God', from Norman Nicholson
'Elegy For The Lost Parish', from Douglas Dunn
'Flesh', from Laurence Lerner
'Cyril Connolly, Nov 1974', from Stephen Spender
'Mostly His Gladness (After a Memorial Film)', from Geoffrey Grigson
'To Anthony Thwaite' ['In A Bath Teashop'], from John Betjeman
'A Considered Reply To A Child', from Jonathan Price
'To A Receding Life', from Alistair Elliot
'Welfare', from Jenny Joseph
['To My Mother'], from George Barker
'At Kfar Kana', from Charles Causley
'Arcetri Observatory, Florence', from James Fenton
'The Bus To Athens', from Martin Stokes
'Fishing Boats Off Puri', from Alan Ross
'The Ruins of Carthage', from Robert Conquest
'In A Suburban Museum', from Kevin Crossley-Holland
'The British Museum Smile', from Peter Redgrove
'A Martian Sends A Postcard Home', Craig [Raine]
'Outside Inside', from Patricia Beer
'And The Grey Mare Being The Better Steed', from Pete Morgan
'Horse-sense', from Freda Downie
'The Children and the House', from Peter Scupham
'Dream', from Robert Gittings
'Blizzard Song', from D.M. Thomas
'The Conservatory', from Andrew Motion
'Boiled Egg', from Elma Mitchell
'A Christmas Message', from Gavin Ewart
'Sabbath Triptych', from Richard Kell
'Grime's Graves', from William Peskett
'Going In The Rain', from Tom Paulin
'Ireland', from Paul Muldoon
'Passing The Crematorium', from Frank Ormsby
'A Pill For The Impressionable' and 'three little tips', from Kingsley [Amis]
'Spot-check At Fifty', from Vernon Scannell
'Palindrome', from Alan Brownjohn
'Apples', from Laurie Lee
'Days', from Vicki Feaver
'Theme and Reflection', from Edward Lowbury
'Nothing', from Dannie [Abse]
'May', from P.J. Kavanagh
'Returning', from Ian Hamilton
'Autumnal', from Al Alv[arez]
'The Questions', from J.C. Hall
Poem opening 'I have consumed forty-seven years', from Peter Levi
'Kites' from Hugo Williams
'Prospero', from Elizabeth Jennings
'The Drawer', from [George MacBeth]
'Th'Anniversary', from Roy Fuller
'To Anthony Thwaite at Fifty', from Clive James

Dates

Creation: 1980

Extent

1 volume

Language of Materials

English

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MS. 22154].

Please see our help page for further guidance on citing archives and manuscripts.

Shelfmark:

MS. 22154

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 22154

Additional Description

Abstract

A volume of signed holograph poems collected from notable poets, given by Ann Thwaite to her husband Anthony Thwaite for his 50th birthday.

Biographical / Historical

Anthony Thwaite (1930-2021) was an English poet, critic, broadcaster and editor of the poems and letters of his friend, the poet Philip Larkin. The poets whose poems are collected in this volume were all individuals Anthony Thwaite had published or broadcast, either as literary editor at The New Statesman (1968-1972) and co-editor of Encounter (1973-1985), as editor of the poetry list at publishing company Secker & Warburg, as editor at publisher André Deutsch, or as a radio producer at the BBC and literary editor of the BBC's The Listener (1958-1965). He regularly reviewed books for the Observer, Sunday Telegraph and Guardian newspapers and judged numerous literary competions.

Ann Thwaite (1932-) is a biographer, including of the authors Frances Hodgson Burnett, Edmund Gosse and A.A. Milne; an author of children's books; and a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement. She won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1985 for her biography of Gosse. Her AA Milne biography was the Whitbread Biography of the Year in 1990.

Ann and Anthony Thwaite met while studying at Oxford in 1952 and married in 1955.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Acquired from Ann Thwaite, 2022.

Existence and Location of Copies

A 2016 facsimile copy of this volume featuring an additional poem [‘With a Bunch of Birthday Flowers’ from George Szirtes] has been transferred to the Bodleian's book collections and is catalogued as Erm. e.1367.

Related Materials

The correspondence associated with the compilation of this volume as well as the bulk of the Thwaite archive are at the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.