John Forbes (poet)
Encyclopedia
Life
John Forbes was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, but during his childhood his family lived in northern Queensland, Malaya and New Guinea. He went to Sydney University and his circle of friends included the poets Robert Adamson
Robert Adamson (poet)
Robert Adamson is an Australian poet and publisher.-Biography:Adamson grew up in Neutral Bay and spent much of his teenage years in Gosford Boys Home for juvenile offenders. He discovered poetry while educating himself in Gaol in his 20s. His first book, Canticles on the Skin, was published in 1970...
, Martin Johnston
Martin Johnston
Martin Johnston was an Australian poet and novelist.Martin Johnston was born in Sydney in November 1947, son of the writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift. His early childhood was spent in London and Sydney. In 1954 the family moved to Greece...
, and John Tranter
John Tranter
John Ernest Tranter is an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting...
. It was at this time that the work of the American poets Ted Berrigan
Ted Berrigan
-Early life:Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army in 1954 to serve in the Korean War. After three years in the Army, he finished his college studies at the University of Tulsa in...
, John Ashbery
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
and Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara
Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara was an American writer, poet and art critic. He was a member of the New York School of poetry.-Life:...
made a strong and lasting impression on him.
He returned to live in Melbourne in the late 1980s, where he became the poetry editor of Scripsi
Scripsi
Scripsi was an Australian literary periodical published from 1981 to 1994 in Melbourne, first from the English Department and subsequently from Ormond College of the University of Melbourne...
. His friends around this time included the poets Gig Ryan
Gig Ryan
Gig Ryan, born Elizabeth Anna Martina Ryan, 5 November 1956, is an Australian poet, and daughter of notable Australian surgeon Peter John Ryan...
, Laurie Duggan
Laurie Duggan
Laurence "Laurie" James Duggan is an Australian poet, editor, and translator.-Life:Laurie Duggan was born in Melbourne and attended Monash University, where his friends included the poets Alan Wearne and John A. Scott. Both he and Scott won the Monash Poetry Prize...
and Alan Wearne
Alan Wearne
Alan Wearne is an Australian poet.Alan Wearne was born and grew up in Melbourne. He studied history at Monash University where he met the poets Laurie Duggan and John A. Scott...
.
Forbes died in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
, aged 47.
Works
- Collected Poems, 1970-1998; 2001, Brandl & Schlesinger, ISBN 1-876040-27-0.
- Damaged Glamour; 1998, Brandl & Schlesinger, ISBN 1-876040-10-6.
- New and Selected Poems; 1992, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-207-16951-9.
- The Stunned Mullet; 1988, Hale & Iremonger.
- Stalin's Holidays; 1981, Transit Poetry.
- Drugs; 1979, Black Lamb Press.
- On the Beach; 1977, Sea Cruise Books.
- Tropical Skiing; 1976, Angus & Robertson.
External links
- Poems, links etc.
- Forbes issue of Jacket
- Essay on Forbes by Philip Mead