Adrian Mitchell

Adrian Mitchell
Born(1932-10-24)24 October 1932
London, England
Died20 December 2008(2008-12-20) (aged 76)
London, England
OccupationPoet, novelist, playwright, cultural activist
LanguageEnglish
EducationDauntsey's School
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford
Notable works"To Whom It May Concern"
Notable awardsEric Gregory Award; PEN Translation Prize
SpouseCelia Hewitt

Adrian Mitchell FRSL (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008)[1] was an English poet, novelist and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament movement. The critic Kenneth Tynan called him "the British Mayakovsky".[2]

In a National Poetry Day poll in 2005, Mitchell's poem "Human Beings" was voted the one most people would like to see launched into space.[3] In 2002, he was nominated, semi-seriously, as Britain's "Shadow Poet Laureate".[4] Mitchell was for some years poetry editor of the New Statesman, and was the first to publish an interview with the Beatles.[5] His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company included Peter Brook's US and the English version of Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade.[1]

Ever inspired by the example of his own favourite poet and precursor William Blake, about whom he wrote the acclaimed Tyger for the National Theatre, Mitchell's often angry output swirled from anarchistic anti-war satire, through love poetry to, increasingly, stories and poems for children. He also wrote librettos. The Poetry Archive identified his creative yield as hugely prolific.[6]

Mitchell sought in his work to counteract the implications of his own assertion, that "Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people."[7] The Times said that Mitchell's had been a "forthright voice often laced with tenderness". His poems on such topics as nuclear war, Vietnam, prisons and racism had become "part of the folklore of the Left. His work was often read and sung at demonstrations and rallies".[8]

  1. ^ a b Kustow, Michael (21 December 2008). "Poet Adrian Mitchell dies, aged 76". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  2. ^ "Words for Adrian..." Adrian Mitchell's website. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  3. ^ "Poet Adrian Mitchell dies at 76". BBC Online. 21 December 2008. Archived from the original on 3 January 2009. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
  4. ^ Red Pepper magazine, 2002.
  5. ^ Rotterdam International Poetry Festival Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Poetry Archive, Adrian Mitchell". Archived from the original on 30 April 2010. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
  7. ^ Horovitz, Michael (23 December 2008). "Adrian Mitchell: Poet and playwright whose work was driven by his pacifist politics". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
  8. ^ Kaya Burgess (22 December 2008). "Adrian Mitchell, 'Shadow Poet Laureate', dies aged 76". The Times. London. Retrieved 5 January 2009.[dead link]