Peter Porter (poet)
Peter Neville Frederick Porter ( born February 16, 1929 in Brisbane, † April 23, 2010 in England ) was a British poet australischstämmiger. In 2002, he received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, and in 2007 he was appointed by the Royal Society of Literature to one of ten Companions of Literature.
Life and work
Porter grew up as an only child in a formerly well-off family in Brisbane. His mother died unexpectedly early in 1938. At 17 he left school and took a one-year internship at The Courier -Mail in Brisbane. He moved to London in 1951 and initially worked in bookstores and in advertising. Later, he was also a literary critic at the Observer. In the 1950s, he was with the London group The Poets Group in conjunction, but only in the late 1960s, he began to live as a freelance writer.
In 1961, Porter's first book of poems appeared, and he married his first wife, Jannice Henry, who committed suicide in 1974. Since the 1970s he regularly published volumes of poetry, for which he was again awarded several literary prizes, including in 1987 with the Whitbread Poetry Award. He was also a writer-in -residence at the Royal Albert Hall and at several British and Australian universities. In 2001 he collaborated with the composer Nicholas Maw, the result of the cooperation was premiered in Melbourne.
Porter's poetry was regarded as intellectually demanding and influential on a number of poets of him next generation. His themes were the various aspects of modern civilization; the sound varies between elegiac, satirical, mocking or solemn. In later works he also found more often back to his native Australia.
Porter lived since 1968 in Paddington. Since 1991, he was married to Christine. He died in 2010 at the age of 81 years. His death was preceded by a cancer.