Carcanet Press - Christopher Middleton

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Christopher Middleton was born in Truro, Cornwall, in 1926. He studied at Merton College, Oxford, and then taught at the University of Zurich, at King's College, London, and finally as Professor of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas, Austin. He has published translations of Robert Walser, Nietzsche, Holderlin, Goethe, Gert Hofmann and many others. Over the last two decades Carcanet has published six books of his poems, Intimate Chronicles (1996), one book of his experimental prose and two volumes of essays, as well as his Selected Writings and Faint Harps and Silver Voices, a collection of verse translations.

He has received various awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize.

Middleton's sceptical modernism, his multiple perspectives and self-reflexive signification, struggle with the other key element in his work, the aspiration towards an original unity of the sort that seemed available to Romantic poets like Holderlin: so his poem's attempt to reconcile opposites and site themselves on the threshold where one pole turns into the other. read more

Reviews Round-Up Credit crunch - maybe it is affecting sales of poetry but it certainly isn't affecting the publishing and material has been pouring in since the beginning of the year with all the big poetry publishers and many lesser known ones churning the stuff out. read more

If the self-belittling complacency of most mainstream volumes can elicit a weary, Marianne Moore-like ‘I, too, dislike it’ in even the most ardent poetry-enthusiast, this momentous accumulation of more than 60 years’ work by an exiled maverick luminary should act as a widespread restorer of faith, a kick-start for any writer who values imaginative exuberance over mere zany anecdotalism, and a counter-example so fecund in its untiring inventiveness and stylistic range that it reads almost like a primer of late- and post-Modernist poetics, a gloriously suggestive compendium of missed opportunities and unpursed bridleways in post-war English poetry. read more

Bold blossoms of language, the Guardian If the 19th century was about controlling the environment, then the 20th was about admitting how it controls us in return: "One is not duchess / A hundred yards from a carriage," wrote Wallace Stevens, crystallising in a single line any number of cultural and sociological drives, from Leninism to linguistic relativity. read more

Signs in Harmony In the 'Introductory Afterthoughts' to his collection of essays The Pursuit of the Kingfisher (1983), Christopher Middleton defines poetry as 'a cross-coded music of signs'. read more

Bold blooms of language Frances Leviston is entranced by an inventive, engaging collection If the 19th century was about controlling the environment, then the 20th was about admitting how it controls us in return: 'One is not duchess / A hundred yards from a carriage,' wrote Wallace Stevens, crystallising in a single line any number of cultural and sociological drives, from Leninism to linguistic relativity. read more

Music for ear and Mouth Sean O'Brien enjoys the quirkiness of Christopher Middleton's Collected Poems Now in his eighties, Christopher Middleton has spent his poetic career refusing to repeat himself or settle into a recognisable manner. read more

My initial reaction to The Anti-Basilisk was a sort of disbelief, turning into gratitude. read more

Shifting strands: � Sarah Crown finds hidden depths in Christopher Middleton's complicated collection, The Anti-Basilisk . �� Reading The Anti-Basilisk is like swimming across the surface of an ocean: beneath the playful shift and glitter of the poems themselves is a deep supporting reservoir of thought and learning. read more

How to remain human and sane in an insanely violent world? read more

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Christopher Middleton Books by this author: Collected Later Poems Collected Poems The Anti-Basilisk The Word Pavilion Faint Harps and Silver Voices Jackdaw Jiving Intimate Chronicles The Balcony Tree Selected Writings The Spectacle At the Tower (Tr.) Selected Stories (Tr.) Our Conquest (Tr.) Two Horse Wagon Going By 111 Poems The Pursuit of the Kingfisher About Reviews Christopher Middleton was born in Truro, Cornwall, in 1926. He studied at Merton College, Oxford, and then taught at the University of Zurich, at King's College, London, and finally as Professor of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas, Austin. He has published translations of Robert Walser, Nietzsche, Holderlin, Goethe, Gert Hofmann and many others. Over the last two decades Carcanet has published six books of his poems, Intimate Chronicles (1996), one book of his experimental prose and two volumes of essays, as well as his Selected Writings and Faint Harps and Silver Voices, a collection of verse translations. He has received various awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize. Middleton's sceptical modernism, his multiple perspectives and self-reflexive signification, struggle with the other key element in his work, the aspiration towards an original unity of the sort that seemed available to Romantic poets like Holderlin: so his poem's attempt to reconcile opposites and site themselves on the threshold where one pole turns into the other. read more Reviews Round-Up Credit crunch - maybe it is affecting sales of poetry but it certainly isn't affecting the publishing and material has been pouring in since the beginning of the year with all the big poetry publishers and many lesser known ones churning the stuff out. read more If the self-belittling complacency of most mainstream volumes can elicit a weary, Marianne Moore-like ‘I, too, dislike it’ in even the most ardent poetry-enthusiast, this momentous accumulation of more than 60 years’ work by an exiled maverick luminary should act as a widespread restorer of faith, a kick-start for any writer who values imaginative exuberance over mere zany anecdotalism, and a counter-example so fecund in its untiring inventiveness and stylistic range that it reads almost like a primer of late- and post-Modernist poetics, a gloriously suggestive compendium of missed opportunities and unpursed bridleways in post-war English poetry. read more Bold blossoms of language, the Guardian If the 19th century was about controlling the environment, then the 20th was about admitting how it controls us in return: "One is not duchess / A hundred yards from a carriage," wrote Wallace Stevens, crystallising in a single line any number of cultural and sociological drives, from Leninism to linguistic relativity. read more Signs in Harmony In the 'Introductory Afterthoughts' to his collection of essays The Pursuit of the Kingfisher (1983), Christopher Middleton defines poetry as 'a cross-coded music of signs'. read more Bold blooms of language Frances Leviston is entranced by an inventive, engaging collection If the 19th century was about controlling the environment, then the 20th was about admitting how it controls us in return: 'One is not duchess / A hundred yards from a carriage,' wrote Wallace Stevens, crystallising in a single line any number of cultural and sociological drives, from Leninism to linguistic relativity. read more Music for ear and Mouth Sean O'Brien enjoys the quirkiness of Christopher Middleton's Collected Poems Now in his eighties, Christopher Middleton has spent his poetic career refusing to repeat himself or settle into a recognisable manner. read more My initial reaction to The Anti-Basilisk was a sort of disbelief, turning into gratitude. read more Shifting strands: � Sarah Crown finds hidden depths in Christopher Middleton's complicated collection, The Anti-Basilisk . �� Reading The Anti-Basilisk is like swimming across the surface of an ocean: beneath the playful shift and glitter of the poems themselves is a deep supporting reservoir of thought and learning. read more How to remain human and sane in an insanely violent world? read more	Share this... Quick Links Aspects of Portugal Audio Books Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry Comma Press FyfieldBooks Lintott Press Lives and Letters OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press The Carcanet Blog Book Launch: Distance and Memory by Peter Davidson read more Sam Ruddock: Bibliodiversity read more Lucy Burnett: An Eco-poetic Sensibility read more Chris Beckett: Looking for Abebe, the cook's son read more Richard Price: A Month in Portugal read more Let's Gimbal! read more
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