John Blight

For the archaeological artist, see John Thomas Blight.

John Blight (30 July 1913 – 1995) was an Australian poet of Cornish origin, his ancestors having arrived in South Australia on the Lisander, in 1851.[1] In the 1987 recording John Blight, he describes his Cornish background and its influence on his style.[2]

Biography

Born in Unley, South Australia, in 1913, Blight was educated at Brisbane State High School.[3] During the Great Depression in Australia he tramped the Queensland coast looking for work.[4] In 1939 he became an accountant in Bundaberg, Queensland, and after World War II a part-owner of timber mills in the Gympie region. He took up full-time writing in 1973.

Blight received numerous awards, including the Dame Mary Gilmore Medal, Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, The Patrick White Literary Award and the Christopher Brennan Award. He died in 1995.[5]

Bibliography

  • The Old Pianist: Poems (1945)
  • The Two Suns Met (1954)
  • A Beachcomber's Diary (1964)
  • My Beachcombing Days: ninety sea sonnets (1968)
  • Hart : Poems (1975)
  • Selected Poems 1939-1975 (1976)
  • Pageantry for a Lost Empire (1978)
  • The New City Poems (1980)
  • Holiday Sea Sonnets (1985)
  • Selected Poems 1939-1990 (1992)

References

  1. ↑ http://www.alanrichards.org/ogb13.htm
  2. ↑ "John Blight", WorldCat.
  3. ↑ Beatrice Davis (ed.), Australian Verse: An Illustrated Treasury, State Library of New South Wales Press, 1996.
  4. ↑ William Wilde, Australian Poets and their Works, Oxford University Press, 1996.
  5. ↑ Online biographical material and sample 14-line poem, from OldPoetry.com.
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