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D. H. Lawrence -- Selected Poems


D. H. Lawrence: Selected Poems

James Fenton edited a new edition of D. H. Lawrence's poems for Penguin. To purchase the collection, please visit the publisher's website at www.penguin.co.uk. It is also available from Amazon.co.uk.

 
The Poetry Archive


Click to purchase this CD from the Poetry Archive Website

Visit Fenton's special Poetry Archive webpage and listen to recordings of him reading the poems 'Wind', 'Blood and Lead', 'Jerusalem', and 'In Paris with You'.

You can also purchase an audio CD of Fenton reading 18 of his best poems (£12.99

 

 


James Fenton was born in Lincoln in 1949 and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford where he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry. He has worked as political journalist, drama critic, book reviewer, war correspondent, foreign correspondent and columnist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was Oxford Professor of Poetry for the period 1994-99. In 2007, Fenton was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

Fenton's Selected Poems is published by Penguin and Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He is also the editor of The New Faber Book of Love Poems and D. H. Lawrence's Selected Poems (Penguin).


Fenton Reviews ...


Fenton reviews Marjorie Garber's Patronizing the Arts (Princeton University Press, 2008). Read the review at The First Post.

"When writers began to be able to break free of aristocratic patrons, in the 18th century, they were mightily relieved. It was a matter of self-respect, for the old system was full of opportunities for humiliation. One artist of the 17th century, as Marjorie Garber tells us in Patronizing the Arts, upon entering a noble household in Rome, was put on the same payroll level as three slaves, a gardener, a dwarf and an old nurse."

 
The Guardian
 
The New York Review of Books


James Fenton wrote a series of articles for The Guardian under the heading Things That Have Interested Me.

 


Fenton frequently writes for the NYRB. Visit their website for a list of articles ranging back to 1984.

 
Fenton on Books: The Cultural Flaneur


Fenton is one of several authors asked to select books to read on holiday. For the full recommendation, please visit The Guardian website (6 July 2008).

 
The Complete Works of W.H. Auden


W. H. Auden: Prose, Vol. 3James Fenton reviews The Complete Works of W.H. Auden: Prose, Volume III 1949-1955, edited by Edward Mendelson (Faber, £40).

You may read the article in The Sunday Times (25 May 2008) and purchase the book online via Faber's website or via Amazon.co.uk.

Also of interest are W.H. Auden Prose 1925-1938, and W.H. Auden Prose 1939-1948, both available from Faber.

 
Songs of the Tsunami


Alone in Hamburg in January 2005, James Fenton was bombarded by images from the Boxing Day tsunami. In an essay published in The Guardian, Fenton tells how he came to write the lyrics for a commemorative piece of music.

Read the article in The Guardian.

Note: Dominic Muldowney's Tsunami was made possible by the Elgar Bursary, which is administered by the Royal Philharmonic Society. Poetry by James Fenton commissioned by the BBC. Tsunami has its world premiere at the Barbican, London EC2, this Friday, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Details: barbican.org.uk

 
Ian McEwan on James Fenton


"There is a strong case to be made that James Fenton is the finest poet writing in English. His technical virtuosity is beyond doubt; his long experience as war correspondent, journalist and traveller has given him an unmatched range of subject matter - war and revolution, the dementia of collective passions, reflections on fate, and love - he has written some of the most beautiful love poems of our times. He is a poet of great emotional depth and wisdom. Increasingly, his work has a strong connection with song. He also has a taste for light verse of exquisite charm and humour. He is a modern master."

-- Ian McEwan, responding to a question from the National Book Critics Circle

 

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Last update: 4 October 2008
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