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Dannie Abse

1923–2014
http://www.dannieabse.com/
Tight cropped black and white portrait of Dannie Abse.

The title of Dannie Abse’s collected poems, White Coat, Purple Coat (1989), refers to his lifelong professions of physician and poet. Of these careers, Abse has stated, “I like to think I’m a poet and Medicine my serious hobby.”

Considered one of the most important Welsh writers of the past century, Abse was born in Cardiff, Wales, to non-Welsh-speaking parents, but lived mostly in London. His poetry collections include Selected Poems (1970), winner of an Arts Council of Wales Literature Award; Pythagoras (1979); Way Out in the Centre (1981); Ask the Bloody Horse (1986); and Running Late (2006), for which he was awarded the Roland Mathias prize. Judge Glyn Mathias wrote that the volume contained “wonderful evocations of atmosphere, regret, longing for the simple, familiar things—and anticipation of it all passing. Every poem has something—some phrasing, some image that gives the reader that tremor of sudden recognition.”

Abse cites Dylan Thomas and Rainer Maria Rilke as early influences. Alan Brownjohn of the New Statesman also sees the influence of Philip Larkin and Edward Thomas in Abse’s work. William H. Pritchard, in the Hudson Review, remarked upon the poet’s musicality: “Abse, like all good Welshmen, cares about, because he is so endowed with, the singing voice and the sense of humor.”

Abse was married to Joan Mercer, an art historian, with whom he edited two books, Voices in the Gallery: Poems and Pictures (1986) and The Music Lover’s Literary Companion (1988). In addition to being a poet and editor, he was a successful memoirist, essayist, playwright, and novelist. Abse was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Fellow of the Welsh Academy of Letters, Honorary Fellow at the University of Wales College of Medicine, and recipient of the Cholmondeley Award.

Poems by Dannie Abse
More About this Poet

Bibliography

PLAYS

  • Fire in Heaven (three-act in verse; also known as In the Cage; first produced in London, England, 1948; also see below), Hutchinson (London, England), 1956, prose version produced as Is the House Shut?, in West End, 1964.
  • Hands around the Wall (three-act), first produced in London, England, 1950.
  • House of Cowards (three-act; also see below), first produced in London's West End, 1960.
  • The Eccentric (one-act; first produced in London, England, 1961), Evans Brothers (London, England), 1961.
  • The Joker (one-act), first produced in London's West End, 1962.
  • Gone (one-act; also see below), first produced in London's West End, 1962.
  • Three Questor Plays (contains In the Cage, House of Cowards, and Gone), Scorpion Press, 1967.
  • The Dogs of Pavlov (three-act; first produced in London, England, 1969; produced in New York, 1974; also see below), Vallentine, Mitchell (London, England), 1973.
  • Gone in January, first produced in London, England, 1978.
  • Pythagoras (first produced in Birmingham, England, 1976; also see below), Hutchinson (London, England), 1979.
  • The View from Row G: Three Plays (contains House of Cowards, The Dogs of Pavlov and Pythagoras), edited and introduced by Gary A. Davis, Seren Books (Bridgend, Wales), 1990.

Plays anthologized in Best One-Act Plays, 1960- 61, edited by Hugh Miller, Harrap (London, England), 1963, and Twelve Great Plays, edited by L. F. Dean, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1970.

POETRY

  • After Every Green Thing, Hutchinson (London, England), 1948.
  • Walking under Water, Hutchinson (London, England), 1952.
  • Tenants of the House, Hutchinson (London, England), 1957, Criterion (New York, NY), 1959.
  • Poems, Golders Green, Hutchinson (London, England), 1962.
  • Dannie Abse: A Selection, Studio Vista (London, England), 1963.
  • A Small Desperation, Hutchinson (London, England), 1968.
  • Selected Poems, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1970.
  • Funland: A Poem in Nine Parts, Portland University Library (Portland, OR), 1971.
  • Funland, and Other Poems, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1973.
  • (With others) More Words, British Broadcasting Corp. (London, England), 1977.
  • Collected Poems, 1948-1976, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1977.
  • Way out in the Centre, Hutchinson (London, England), 1981, published as One-legged on Ice, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1983.
  • Ask the Bloody Horse, Hutchinson (London, England), 1986.
  • White Coat, Purple Coat: Collected Poems, 1948-1988, Hutchinson (London, England), 1989.
  • Remembrance of Crimes Past: Poems, 1986-1989, Hutchinson (London, England), 1990.
  • Selected Poems, Penguin (Harmondsworth, England), 1994.
  • On the Evening Road, Hutchinson (London, England), 1994.
  • Welsh Retrospective, Seren Books (Bridgend, Wales), 1997.
  • Arcadia, One Mile, Hutchinson (London, England), 1998.
  • Be Seated, Thou: Poems, 1989-1998, Sheep Meadow Press (Riverdale-on-Hudson, NY), 2000.
  • Encounters, Hearing Eye (London, England), 2001.
  • New and Collected Poems, Hutchinson Radius (London, England), 2003.

Poems represented in anthologies, including Faber Book of Twentieth-Century Verse, edited by J. F. A. Heath-Stubbs and D. H. Wright, Faber (London, England), 1953; Presenting Welsh Poetry, edited by Gwyn Williams, Dufour, 1959; An Anthology of Modern Verse, edited by Elizabeth Jennings, Methuen (London, England), 1961; Mid-Century: English Poetry, 1940- 60, edited by John S. Williams and Meic Stephens, J. M. Dent (London, England), 1969; Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, edited by Richard Ellmann and R. M. O'Clair, Norton (New York, NY), 1973; and The Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse, edited by D. J. Enright, Oxford University Press, 1980.

NOVELS

  • Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve, Hutchinson (London, England), 1954.
  • Some Corner of an English Field, Hutchinson (London, England), 1956.
  • O. Jones, O. Jones, Hutchinson (London, England), 1970.
  • There Was a Young Man from Cardiff, Hutchinson (London, England), 1991.
  • The Strange Case of Dr. Simmonds and Dr. Glas, Robeson (London, England), 2002, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2003.

EDITOR

  • (With Stephen Spender and Elizabeth Joan Jennings) New Poems, 1956, M. Joseph (London, England), 1956.
  • (With Howard Sergeant) Mavericks, Editions Poetry and Poverty, 1957.
  • Modern Poets in Focus, Corgi (London, England), Volume 1, 1971, Volumes 3, 5, 1973.
  • European Verse, Studio Vista (London, England), 1964.
  • Thirteen Poets, Poetry Book Society, 1972.
  • Poetry Dimension 2: The Best of the Poetry Year, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1974.
  • 1975-1980 Poetry Dimension: The Best of the Poetry Year (annual), Volumes 3-7, Robson (London, England).
  • My Medical School, Robson (London, England), 1978.
  • Poems for Shakespeare 9, Globe Playhouse (London, England), 1981.
  • (And author of introduction) Wales in Verse, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1983.
  • Doctors and Patients, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1984.
  • (With wife, Joan Abse) Voices in the Gallery: Poems and Pictures Chosen by Dannie and Joan Abse, Tate Gallery Publications (London, England), 1986.
  • (With Joan Abse) The Music Lover's Literary Companion, Robson (London, England), 1989.
  • The Hutchinson Book of Post-War British Poets, Hutchinson (London, England), 1989.
  • (With Anne Stevenson) The Gregory Anthology, 1991-1993, Sinclair-Stevenson (London, England), 1994.
  • Twentieth-Century Anglo-Welsh Poetry, Seren Books (Bridgend, Wales), 1998.

RADIO AND TELEVISION SCRIPTS

  • Conform or Die, British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Radio, 1956.
  • No Telegrams, No Thunder, BBC Radio, 1962.
  • You Can't Say Hello to Anybody, BBC Radio, 1964.
  • A Small Explosion, BBC Radio, 1964.
  • Dylan Thomas Lived Here (teleplay), BBC-1, 1975.
  • Like Poetry (teleplay), BBC 2, 1977.
  • Pythagoras, BBC Radio 3, 1978.
  • Return to Cardiff, BBC Wales Television, 1985.
  • Bookmarks (teleplay), BBC 2, 1986.
  • A Welsh Life, HTV, 1990.
  • Case History, BBC Wales Television, 1999.

OTHER

  • Medicine on Trial, Aldus Books, 1967, Crown (New York, NY), 1969.
  • A Poet in the Family (autobiography), Hutchinson (London, England), 1974, updated edition published as Goodbye, Twentieth Century, Pimlico (London, England), 2001.
  • (Contributor) Three Poets, Two Children: Leonard Clark, Vernon Scannell, Dannie Abse, Answer Questions by Two Children, Thornhill, 1975.
  • Miscellany One, Poetry Wales Press (Bridgend, Wales), 1981.
  • A Strong Dose of Myself (essays and stories), Hutchinson (London, England), 1983.
  • Journals from the Ant Heap, Hutchinson (London, England), 1986.
  • Intermittent Journals, Seren Books (Bridgend, Wales), 1994.
  • The Two Roads Taken, (essays, broadcasts, lectures), Enitharmon (London, England), 2003.

Contributor to books, including How Poets Work, edited by Tony Curtis, Seren Books (Bridgend, Wales), 1996. Contributor to periodicals, including New Yorker, Encounter, and Times Literary Supplement.