George Granville Barker

Robert Fraser (The Open University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 26 Feb 1913
Died 27 Oct 1991
Activity 1933-1991

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Barker's Works

Save to Bookshelf

George Barker, one of the neglected voices of the twentieth century, is a poet who is difficult to classify and has frequently been misunderstood. He rose to prominence shortly before the Second World War, just as the influence of the great modernist poets was starting to fade and when the Auden generation was already past its first peak. An approximate contemporary of Dylan Thomas, Barker went his own way, developing through a succession of highly individual stylistic changes. Arguably the poet whose work his own most resembles is his one-time friend and rival in love W. S. (“Jock”) Graham (1918-1986), whose aspiration towards purity of diction and whose taut and singing rhythms are sometimes reminiscent of him. Barker was, however, more prolific than Graham, and is harder to assign…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

990 words

Citation: Fraser, Robert. "George Granville Barker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=258, accessed 21 November 2024.]