D.J. Enright

D.J. Enright (1920-2002). Courtesy YouTube.

Dennis Joseph Enright (11 March 1920 - 31 December 2002) was an English poet, academic, novelist, and literary critic.

Life

Enright was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and educated at Leamington College and Downing College, Cambridge. After graduating he held a number of academic posts outside the United Kingdom: in Egypt, Japan, Thailand and notably in Singapore (from 1960). He at times attributed his lack of success in finding a post closer to home to writing for Scrutiny and his short association with F.R. Leavis (whose influence he mainly and early, but not entirely, rejected).

As a poet he was identified with The Movement. His 1955 anthology, Poets of the 1950s, served to delineate the group of British poets in question – albeit somewhat remotely and retrospectively, since he was abroad and it was not as prominent as the Robert Conquest collection New Lines of the following year.

Returning to London in 1970, he edited Encounter magazine, with Melvin J. Lasky, for 2 years. He subsequently worked in publishing.

The "Enright Affair"

Enright gained some notoriety in Singapore after his inaugural lecture at the University of Singapore on 17 November 1960, titled "Robert Graves and the Decline of Modernism". His introductory remarks on the state of culture in Singapore were the subject of a Straits Times article "'Hands Off' Challenge to 'Culture Vultures'" the next day. Among other things, he had said that it was important for Singapore and Malaya to remain "culturally open", that culture was something to be left for the people to build up, and that for the government to institute "a sarong culture, complete with pantun competitions and so forth" was futile. Some quotes include:

• "Art does not begin in a test-tube, it does not take its origin in good sentiments and clean-shaven, upstanding young thoughts."
• "Leave the people free to make their own mistakes, to suffer and to discover. Authority must leave us to fight even that deadly battle over whether or not to enter a place of entertainment wherein lurks a juke-box, and whether or not to slip a coin into the machine."

The following day, Enright was summoned by the Ministry for Labour and Law regarding his foreigner work permit, and was handed a letter there by the Minister for Culture Sinnathamby Rajaratnam|S. Rajaratnam, which had also been released to the press. This letter admonished Enright for "involv[ing] [himself] in political affairs which are the concern of local people", not "visitors, including mendicant professors", and said that the government "ha[s] no time for asinine sneers by passing aliens about the futility of 'sarong culture complete with pantun competitions' particularly when it comes from beatnik professors." There was also some criticism that Enright had been insensitive towards Malays and their so-called "sarong culture."

With some mediation from the Academic Staff Association of the university, it was agreed that to put the matter to rest, Enright would write a letter of apology and clarification, the government would reply, and both were to be printed in the newspapers. Although the affair was "essentially dead" after that, according to Enright, it would still be brought up periodicially in discussions of local culture and academic freedom.

Enright gives his account of the incident in his Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor (pp. 124–151).

Timeline

• 11 March 1920: Born in Warwickshire
• 1947-50: Lecturer in English, University of Alexandria
• 1950-53: Organising Tutor, Extra-Mural Department, Birmingham University
• 1953-56: Visiting Professor, Konan University, Japan
• 1956-57: Visiting Lecturer, Free University of Berlin
• 1957-59: British Council Professor, Chulalongkorn University
• 1960-70: Professor of English, University of Singapore
• 1970-72: Co-Editor, Encounter
• 1974-82: Director, Chatto & Windus
• 1975-80: Honorary Professor of English, University of Warwick
• 1981: Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
• 1991: OBE
• 31 December 2002: Died in London

Publications

Poetry

• The Laughing Hyena, and other poems. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953.
• The Year of the Monkey. Kobe, Japan: privately printed, 1956.
• Bread Rather than Blossoms. London: Secker & Warburg, 1956.
• Some Men are Brothers. London: Chatto & Windus, 1960.
• Addictions. London: Chatto & Windus, 1962.
• The Old Adam. London: Chatto & Windus, 1965.
• Selected Poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1968.
• Unlawful Assembly. London: Chatto & Windus / Hogarth Press, 1968.
• The Typewriter Revolution, and other poems. New York: Library Press, 1971.
• Foreign Devils. London: Covent Garden Press, 1972.
• Daughters of Earth. London: Chatto & Windus, 1972.
• Penguin Modern Poets 26 (by D.J. Enright, Dannie Abse, & Michael Longley). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1975.
• Sad Ires, and others. London: Chatto & Windus, 1975.
• Paradise Illustrated. London: Chatto & Windus / Hogarth Press, 1978.
• A Faust Book. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
• Collected Poems. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
• Collected Poems, 1987. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
• Selected Poems, 1990. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Old Men and Comets. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Telling Tales: 'Paradise Illustrated' & 'A Faust Book'. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Collected Poems, 1948-1998. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Novels

• Academic Year: A novel. London: Secker & Warburg, 1955; Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
• Heaven Knows Where: A novel. London: Secker & Warburg, 1957.
• Insufficeint Poppy: A novel. London: Chatto & Windus, 1960.
• Figures of Speech. London: Heinemann, 1965.
• The Way of the Cat. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1992; New York: HarperPerennial, 1992.

Non-fiction

• Commentary on Goethe's Faust. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1949.
• Literature for Man's Sake: Critical essays. Tokyo: Kenkyusa, 1955.
• The World of Dew: Aspects of living Japan. London: Secker & Warburg, 1955.
• The Apothecary's Shop: Essays on literature. London: Secker & Warburg, 1957.
• *Robert Graves and the Decline of Modernism. Singapore: University of Singapore, 1960.
• Conspirators and Poets. London: Chatto & Windus, 1966.
• Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor. London: Chatto & Windus, 1969.
• Shakespeare and the Students. London: Chatto & Windus, 1970; New York: Schoeken, 1970.
• A Kidnapped Child of Haven: The poetry of Arthur Hugh Clough. Nottingham, UK: University of Nottingham, 1972.
• Man is an Onion: Reviews and essays. London: Chatto & Windus, 1972.
• The Terrible Shears: Scenes from a twenties childhood. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1973.
• A Mania for Sentences: Essays on G. Grass, H. Boll, Frisch, Flaubert, and others. Boston: D.R. Godine, 1983.
• Instant Chronicles: A life. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
• The Alluring Problem: An essay on irony. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
• Fields of Vision: Essays on literature, language, and television. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
• Interplay: a kind of commonplace book. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Signs and Wonders: Selected essays. Manchester, UK: Carcanet Press, 2001.
• Injury Time: A memoir. London: Pimlico, 2003.

Juvenile

• Rhyme Times Rhyme (verse). London: Chatto & Windus, 1974.
• The Joke Shop (novel). London: Chatto & Windus, 1976; New York: D. Mackay, 1976.
• Wild Ghost Chase (novel). London: Chatto & Windus, 1978.
• Beyond Land's End (novel). London: Chatto & Windus, 1979.

Collected editions

• Under the Circumstances: Poems and proses. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Edited

• Poets of the 1950s: An anthology of new English Verse. Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1955.
• The Poetry of Living Japan (edited with Takamichi Ninomiya). London: Murray, 1957.
• English Critical Texts: 16th century to 20th century (edited with Ernst de Chickera). London: Oxford University Press, 1962.
• A Choice of Milton's Verse. London: Faber & Faber, 1975.
• The Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse, 1945-1980. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
• The Oxford Book of Death. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
• Fair of Speech: The uses of euphemism. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
• The Faber Book of Fevers and Frets. London & Boston: Faber & Faber, 1989.
• Ill at Ease: Writers on ailments real and imagined. London & Boston: Faber & Faber, 1989.
• The Oxford Book of Friendship. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
• The Oxford Book of the Supernatural (edited with David Rawlinson). Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Letters and journals

• Play Resumed: A journal. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

"On The Death Of A Child" By D J Enright Poem animation

See also

• List of British poets
• List of literary critics

References

• William Walsh (1974): D.J. Enright: Poet of humanism
• Jacqueline Simms, editor (1990). Life By Other Means. Essays on D.J. Enright

External links

Poems

• "The Noodle-Vendor's Flute"

Audio / video

• D.J. Enright (1920-2002) at The Poetry Archive

Books

• D.J. Enright at Amazon.com

About

• D.J. Enright in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• D. J. Enright 1920-2002 at Literary Heritage West Midlands
• Obituary: D.J. Enright in The Guardian
• Obituary: D.J. Enright in The Telegraph.
• "D.J. Enright, 82, Writer Known for Minimalist Verse at the New York Times