American poets in England

britwrit · Jun 28, 2009

Hi. I'm writing a screenplay set in London about the son of a fictional American poet. I was curious if anyone knew of any other well-known poets from the US who've lived in England over the years?

I already know about Eliot, Ezra Pound, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, and Conrad Aiken but I was looking for more. For example, I have my hero passing by the square/former hotel in Earls Court where Allen Ginsberg stayed for in the 1950s. Any other references I could subtly work in?

waylander · Jun 28, 2009

WH Auden was born in the UK, but moved to the US in 1939 at the age of 32, and became a US citizen. Most of his better known work was written after he became as US citizen.

Wiiliam Dickey studied at Oxford 1959/60

Swordswoman · Jun 28, 2009

Hi, britwrit,

For me the simple answer is 'no' - at least, not 'well known'. There were minor US poets in the Pound group - eg H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) lived here, and so did Guy Davenport for a while. Robert Lowell lived in the UK for some years towards the end of his life, but otherwise I can only think of people who visited - eg Longfellow.

If you count Nabokov, who at least lived a long time in the US, he was at Trinity, Cambridge - but it sounds as if you're really looking just at London?

Did Herbert Kauffman ever live in the UK? He certainly had strong connections with the London newspaper, The Evening Standard.

Sorry not to be more helpful.

Louise

britwrit · Jun 29, 2009

Wow. Thank you very much. That's exactly what I was looking for. I'd never known that Lowell spent a lot of his last few years here and I'd never even HEARD of HD. I'm going down to the library this weekend to check out her stuff.

frimble3 · Jun 29, 2009

While you are at the library, look for "Americans in London" by Brian N. Morton, 1986, it has all sorts of literary and political Americans who were in London, quotes from and about them, and little maps of their milieu.

American poets in England

britwrit

waylander

Who's going for a beer?

Swordswoman

Resilient and kind

britwrit

frimble3

Heckuva good sport