George Barker (poet)

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George Barker (poet)

George Granville Barker (26 February 1913 – 27 October 1991) was an English poet known for his imaginative, often surreal style. He belonged to the New Apocalyptics, a group that used myth and dreamlike imagery to challenge the realism of the 1930s.

Life in brief
- Born in Loughton, Essex, Barker grew up in London’s Battersea and Holland Park. His father had a varied career; his mother came from County Meath.
- He left school early after studying at Regent Street Polytechnic and spent years working different jobs while writing poetry.
- Early books include Thirty Preliminary Poems (1933), Poems (1935), and Calamiterror (1937), which attacked the Spanish Nationalists and the Spanish Civil War.

Career highlights
- In 1939, with help from T. S. Eliot, Barker was appointed Professor of English Literature at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, where he wrote the Pacific Sonnets. World War II cut his time there short.
- In the United States, he had a famous and tumultuous affair with Elizabeth Smart, with whom he had four children.
- Barker also had a first wife, Jessica, with whom he had two children (twins Anthony and Anastasia).
- He returned to England in 1943. In the late 1960s he lived at Itteringham, Norfolk, with his second wife, the writer Elspeth Barker. There he wrote At Thurgarton Church (1969).

Poetry and legacy
- Barker’s work blends myth, vivid imagery, and intense emotion, hallmarks of the New Apocalyptics.
- Notable works include Calamiterror (1937), The Dead Seagull (1951), The True Confession of George Barker (1965), and Collected Poems (1957). His later books continued to explore his distinctive voice.
- Barker’s life was as dramatic as his verse, influencing both his poetry and Elizabeth Smart’s writing. A comprehensive biography, The Chameleon Poet: A Life of George Barker by Robert Fraser, was published in 2002.