Editing Nicholas Moore

{{Short description|English poet}}
{{other people}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2020}}

{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. --> 
| image         = 
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = 
| pseudonym     = Guy Kelly (1945), Romeo Anschilo (1968) 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|df=y|1918|11|16}}
| birth_place   = [[Cambridge]], England
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=y|1986|1|26|1918|11|16}}
| death_place   = [[St Mary Cray]], Kent, England
| resting_place = 
| occupation    = Poet, publisher
| alma_mater    = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]
| movement      = [[New Apocalyptics]]
| notableworks  = 
| spouse        = Priscilla Craig (1940–1948)<br>Shirley Putnam (1953– )
| children      = 2
| relatives     = [[G. E. Moore]] (father), [[Thomas Sturge Moore]] (uncle), [[Herbert Strang|George Herbert Ely]] (grandfather)
| awards        =  Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize, Contemporary Poetry's Patron Prize
}}

'''Nicholas Moore''' (16 November 1918 – 26 January 1986) was an English poet, associated with the [[New Apocalyptics]] in the 1940s, whose reputation stood as high as [[Dylan Thomas]]’s. He later dropped out of the literary world.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Ousby | first1 = Ian | authorlink1 = Ian Ousby | title = The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1996 | location = Cambridge, England | pages = [https://archive.org/details/cambridgepaperba00ousb/page/267 267] | isbn = 0-521-436273 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgepaperba00ousb/page/267 }}</ref><ref name=sorrell/><ref name="pf"/>

==Biography==
Moore was born in [[Cambridge]], England, the elder child of the philosopher [[G. E. Moore]] and Dorothy Ely.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=012-moor_3&cid=0&kw=moore%20g#0 | title = The Papers of George Edward Moore (1873–1958) Philosopher | access-date = 21 January 2014 | publisher = The National Archives}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/391567/Nicholas-Moore | title=Nicholas Moore (British poet) | encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] | access-date=4 October 2011}}</ref> His paternal uncle was the poet, artist and critic [[Thomas Sturge Moore]], his maternal grandfather was [[OUP]] editor and author [[Herbert Strang|George Herbert Ely]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Father in law G. H. ("Gaffer") Ely and his wife Margaret|url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0012%2FMS%20Add.8330%204%2F13|website=George Edward Moore: Personal Papers and Correspondence|publisher=Cambridge University Library|access-date=2 August 2015}}</ref> and his brother was the composer Timothy Moore (1922–2003).<ref>{{cite news | first = Nicholas | last = Marshal | title = Obituaries: Timothy Moore – Composer and eccentric, his influences included madrigals and jazz | date = 10 March 2003 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/mar/10/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1 | work = [[The Guardian]] | access-date = 21 January 2014}}</ref>

He was educated at the [[Dragon School]] in [[Oxford]], [[Leighton Park School]] in [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]], the [[University of St Andrews]], and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. Moore was editor and co-founder of a literary review, ''Seven'' (1938–40), while still an undergraduate. ''Seven, Magazine of People's Writing'', had a complex later history: Moore edited it with John Goodland; it later appeared edited by Gordon Cruikshank, and then by Sydney D. Tremayne, after [[Randall Swingler]] bought it in 1941 from [[Philip O'Connor]].<ref name=reading>{{cite web | url = http://www.reading.ac.uk/adlib/Details/archiveSpecial/110014362 | title = Nicholas Moore Collection | access-date = 21 January 2014 | last = Moore | first = Nicholas | publisher = University of Reading}}</ref>

While in Cambridge Moore became closely involved with literary London, in particular [[Tambimuttu]]. He published pamphlets under the [[Poetry London]] imprint in 1941 (of [[George Scurfield]], [[G. S. Fraser]], [[Anne Ridler]] and his own work). This led to Moore becoming Tambimuttu's assistant. Moore later worked for the [[Grey Walls Press]].<ref name=reading/> In the meantime he had registered as a [[conscientious objector]].<ref name=ford/>

''The Glass Tower'', a selected poems collection from 1944, appeared with illustrations by the young [[Lucian Freud]]. In 1945 he edited ''The PL Book of Modern American Short Stories'', and won Contemporary Poetry's Patron Prize (judged that year by [[W. H. Auden]]) for ''Girl with a Wine Glass''. In 1947 he won the [[Harriet Monroe]] Memorial Prize for ''Girls and Birds'' and various other poems.<ref name="Ubuweb"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Tolley|first1=A. Trevor|title=The Poetry of the Forties|date=1985|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=9780719017087|pages=110–111|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZB4NAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA111|access-date=27 November 2015}}</ref>

Later Moore encountered difficulty in publishing; he was in the unusual position for a British poet of having a higher reputation in the United States. His association with the "romantics" of the 1940s was, in fact, rather an inaccurate reflection of his style.<ref name=sinclair>{{cite book | last1 = Sinclair | first1 = Ian | authorlink1 = Ian Sinclair| title = Downriver | publisher = Penguin UK | year = 2004 | location = London | isbn = 9780-141906157}}</ref>

In the 1950s he worked as a horticulturist, writing a book ''The Tall Bearded Iris'' (1956). In 1968 he entered 31 separate pseudonymous translations of a single [[Baudelaire]] poem, in a competition for the ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|Sunday Times]]'', run by [[George Steiner]].<ref name=ford>{{cite book |last1=Ford |first1=Mark |authorlink1=Mark Ford (poet) |editor1-last=Eeckhout |editor1-first=B. |editor2-last=Ragg |editor2-first=E. |title=Wallace Stevens across the Atlantic |date=2008 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |isbn=978-1-349-35850-2 |pages=165–185 |chapter=Nicholas Moore, Stevens and the Fortune Press|doi=10.1057/9780230583849_12 }}</ref> Each translation focused on a different element of the poem: rhyme, pattern, tropes, symbolism, etc. producing vastly different results, to illustrate the inadequacies and [[Lacuna (linguistics)|lacunae]] produced in translation.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Lloyd | first1 = Rosemary | title = Baudelaire's World | publisher = Cornell University Press | year = 2002 | location = Ithaca, New York | isbn = 978-0-8014-4026-7}}</ref> This work was published in 1973 as ''Spleen'';<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Moore | first1 = Nicholas | title = Spleen: thirty-one versions of Baudelaire's Je suis comme le roi | publisher = The Menard Press/The Blacksuede Boot Press | year = 1973 | location = London | isbn = 978-0951375303}}</ref> it is also available online.<ref name=sorrell>{{cite journal | title = On Nicholas Moore | journal = The Fortnightly Review | date = 25 January 2012 | first = Martin | last = Sorrell| url = http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2012/01/pomenvylope-nicholas-moore/ | access-date = 25 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="Ubuweb">{{cite web |url=http://www.ubu.com/ubu/moore_spleen.html | title=Ubu Editions: Nicholas Moore — Spleen, 31 Translations of Je suis commme le roi |work=Moore | access-date=19 September 2011}}</ref>

''Longings of the Acrobats'', a selected poems volume, was edited by [[Peter Riley]] and published in 1990 by [[Carcanet Press]]. An interview with Riley concerning Moore's rediscovery and later years appears as a documentary element within the "Guilty River" chapter of [[Iain Sinclair]]'s novel ''Downriver''. According to Riley, Moore was extremely prolific and left behind many unpublished poems. An example of one of Moore's "pomenvylopes" – idiosyncratic documents consisting of poems and comments typed onto envelopes and posted to friends and acquaintances – appears online at ''[[The Fortnightly Review]]''.<ref name=sorrell/><ref name=sinclair/>

His ''Selected Poems'' was published by Shoestring Press in 2014.<ref name="pf">{{cite web |title=Nicholas Moore |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nicholas-moore |website=Poetry Foundation |access-date=13 May 2020 |location=Chicago, IL}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* ''A Book for Priscilla'' (1941)
* ''A Wish in Season'' (1941)
* ''The Island and the Cattle'' (1941)
* ''Buzzing Around with a Bee, and Other Poems, etc'' (1941)
* ''The Cabaret, the Dancer, the Gentlemen'' (1942)
* ''The Glass Tower'' (1944)
* ''Thirty-Five Anonymous Odes'' (published anonymously, 1944)
* ''The War of the Little Jersey Cows'' (published under the pseudonym "Guy Kelly", 1945)
* ''The Anonymous Elegies and other poems'' (published anonymously, 1945)
* ''Recollections of the Gala: Selected Poems 1943–48'' (1950)
* ''The Tall Bearded Iris'' (1956)
* ''Anxious To Please'' (1968) (published under the pseudonym (anagram) "Romeo Anschilo", 1995 by Oasis Books)
* ''Identity'' (1969)
* ''Resolution and Identity'' (1970)
* ''Spleen'' (1973)
* ''Lacrimae Rerum'' (1988)
* ''Longings of the Acrobats: Selected Poems'' (1990)
* ''Dronkhois Malperhu and Other Poems'' (1996)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Moore|first1=Nicholas|title=Dronkhois Malperhu and Other Poems|date=1996|publisher=Writers Forum|location=Bournemouth|isbn=9780861626595}}</ref>
* ''The Orange Bed'' (2011)<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Moore | first1 = Nicholas | title = The Orange Bed | editor = Peter Riley | editor-link = Peter Riley | year = 2011 | url = http://www.aprileye.co.uk/TheOrangeBed.pdf | access-date = 11 February 2014}}</ref>
* ''Selected Poems'' (2014)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Moore|first1=Nicholas|editor1-last=Lucas|editor1-first=John|editor2-last=Welton|editor2-first=Matthew|title=Selected poems|date=2014|publisher=Shoestring Press|location=Beeston, UK|isbn=9781910323182|pages=250}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Milne|first1=Drew|authorlink1=Drew Milne|title=A Neo-Modernist Chameleon|url=http://poetrylondon.co.uk/a-neo-modernist-chameleon/|website=[[Poetry London]]|date=30 May 2015 |access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
Francis Nenik: The Marvel of Biographical Bookkeeping. Translated from German by Katy Derbyshire, Readux Books 2013, [http://www.readux.net/file_download/3/Nenik+website+extract1.pdf Sample].

==External links==
* [http://hyperallergic.com/173897/nicholas-moore-touched-by-poetic-genius/ ''Nicholas Moore, Touched by Poetic Genius''], an article by John Yau in ''Hyperallergic''
* [http://www.ubu.com/ubu/moore_spleen.html Spleen: Thirty-one versions of Baudelaire's Je suis comme le roi... by Nicholas Moore] was first published in book form as ''Spleen'' 1973 by Blacksuede Boot Press and Menard Press.
* [http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2012/01/pomenvylope-nicholas-moore/ "A Pomenvylope by Nicholas Moore"], an essay with an example, by Martin Sorrell in The Fortnightly Review.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Nicholas}}
[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Cambridge]]
[[Category:People educated at The Dragon School]]
[[Category:People educated at Leighton Park School]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of St Andrews]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:British modernist poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:English conscientious objectors]]