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Riley, John, 1937-1978 (poet and editor)

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1937 - 1978

Biography

John Riley was born in Leeds on 10 October 1937 and raised in the city. After National Service in the Royal Air Force from 1956 to 1958 he attended Pembroke College, Cambridge (matriculated Michaelmas 1958, B.A. 1961, M.A. 1965). In 1966 he founded the Grosseteste Press with Tim Longville, and a magazine, the 'Grosseteste Review', in 1968. He held teaching posts in schools near Cambridge and later in Bicester, until returning to Leeds in 1970 to devote his full time to writing. He was received into the Russian Orthodox Church in 1977. Riley was murdered in Leeds on October 27-28 1978. His publications in his lifetime included poems ('Ancient and Modern', 1967; 'A Legend of St Anthony', with Tim Longville, 1967; 'The Civil War', with Tim Longville, 1968; 'What Reason Was: Poems, 1967-1969', 1970; 'Ways of Approaching', 1973; 'A Meeting', 1978; 'That is Today', 1978), translations ('In The Arms of the Gods' versions of Hölderlin, volume 1, with Tim Longville, 1967; 'What I Own: Versions of Hölderlin, volume 2, with Tim Longville, 1973); and prose ('Correspondences', 1970; 'Prose Pieces', 1974). His posthumous publications include 'Stalin Ode Sequence, from the Second Voronezh Notebook', from the Russian of Osip Mandelshtam, 1979; 'John Riley, The Collected Works', edited by Tim Longville, 1980; 'Selected Poems', edited by Michael Grant, 1995; and 'What I Own: Versions of Hölderlin and Mandelshtam', with Tim Longville, 1998.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

 File

John Riley: three poems, Mid twentieth century

 File
Reference Code: GBR/0012/MS Add.10304/37
Scope and Contents

Typescript copies (two top copies, one carbon copy) of three poems by John Riley: 'A Conversation', 'Two Photographs' and 'A Picture: an Historical Perspective'. With a photocopy of a photograph of Pamela Collins, and a note by Rosemary Chorley regarding Pamela Collins and John Riley, written on a printout of Riley's Wikipedia entry.

Dates: Mid twentieth century
Conditions Governing Access: From the Fonds: Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Filtered By

  • Subject: Poetry X