The Chameleon Poet: A Life of George Barker (Paperback)

Review
George Barker was praised by Yeats and supported by Eliot, yet, after a high point in the 1950s, interest in his work declined, although his poetry continued to develop and mature. Robert Fraser, the editor of Barkers Collected Poems, knew the poet in later life and here presents a rounded view of a singular and uncompromising character. Barker was born in 1913 to an English father and an Irish mother, whose Catholicism he both accepted and disputed for the rest of his life. Despite his childhood poverty, he decided at the age of nine to become a poet, left school at 14, educated himself and lived as a poet for the rest of his life, relying on occasional teaching and on the generosity of others to find the means to live. Barker married young, but, in bohemian style, went on to have relationships with many women and to father 15 children. His most famous love affair was with Elizabeth Smart and is commemorated in her book By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept. Fraser gives a full account of this and other relationships. At the same time, he vividly depicts Barker against other backdrops: 1950s Soho, where he encountered Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud; unhappy teaching appointments in Japan and in various American universities; Europe, especially Italy, where he loved to travel; and the variety of houses where he established his various menages, particularly his last relatively peaceful years in Norfolk where he died in 1991. Using generous examples from Barkers poetry and prose as well as letters and journals, Fraser traces the development of Barkers poetry and elicits the truth behind the false trails he laid about the exact details of his life. He also places Barker firmly within the movements, politics and personalities of the post-war British poetry scene. This is a moving and memorable portrait of a poet who did not belong to any school or interest group but who followed his own chameleon path. (Kirkus UK)

Product Description
The first biography of one of the finest and most bohemian British poets of the twentieth century.

Eliot wrote of his "genius". Yeats thought him the most interesting poet of his generation. Dylan Thomas envied his power over women. This biography of George Barker (1913-91) offers both a portrait of a talented, tormented and irresistibly entertaining man, and a who's who of the Brit