A familiar tree

by Jon Stallworthy

Lightly grubby paperback covers, with very slightly worn leading corners and faintly sunned spine. Minimal wear on edges elsewhere and light scoring front and rear. Contents include B&W illustrations and all remains clear, clean and bright with tight binding. TS

Paperback

First published November 16, 1978

About the author

Jon (Howie) Stallworthy (18 January 1935 – 19 November 2014) FBA FRSL was Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford. He was also a Fellow (and was twice Acting President) of Wolfson College, a poet, and a literary critic. From 1977 to 1986, he was the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English at Cornell.

Stallworthy was born in London. His parents, Sir John Stallworthy and Margaret Stallworthy, were from New Zealand and moved to England in 1934. Stallworthy started writing poems when he was only seven years old. He was educated at the Dragon School, Rugby School and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize. His works include seven volumes of poetry, and biographies of Wilfred Owen and Louis MacNeice. He has edited several anthologies and is particularly known for his work on war poetry.

While researching the local history of New Zealand Stallworthy discovered an obscure volume entitled Early Northern Wairoa written by his great-grandfather, John Stallworthy (1854–1923), in 1916. From this book he learned that his great-great-grandfather, George Stallworthy (1809–1859), had left his birthplace of Preston Bissett in Buckinghamshire, England, for the Marquesas as a missionary. This discovery led in turn to him finding family-related letters in the archives of the London Missionary Society. Stallworthy's book A Familiar Tree (Oxford University Press, 1978) is a collection of poetry inspired by events depicted in these documents. Singing School is an autobiography which emphasises Stallworthy's development as a poet.

Stallworthy wrote a short summary of war poetry in the introductory chapter to the Oxford Book of War Poetry (Edited by Jon Stallworthy, Oxford University Press, 1984), as well as editing several anthologies of war poetry and writing a biography of Wilfred Owen. In 2010 he received the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award from the Wilfred Owen Association. In the course of his literary career, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the British Academy.

Reviews

[Alison Thorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this. I was curious to read this as I am a distant relation in Australia. My great grandmother being a Stallworthy.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of poems inspired by old family documents Stallworthy found concerning his ancestors' migration from England, to missionary work in the Marquesas, and then to New Zealand before his parents returned to England prior to his birth in 1937. They reflect major events in his family's history from a very personal perspective, ending in recent times with poems written by Stallworthy to his own children. The poet successfully conveys his obvious wonderment at death and regeneration throughout the generations. I learned of this collection from a tribute to Stallworthy's birthday on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac.