Al Alvarez

• Name — Al Alvarez • Born — 5 August 1929 • Birthplace — London, England • Died — 23 September 2019 • Occupation — * Poet • author • critic • Period — 1956–2019

Alfred Alvarez was born in London, to an Ashkenazic Jewish mother and a father from a Sephardic Jewish family. He was educated at The Hall School in Hampstead, London, and then Oundle School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he took a First in English. He was subsequently elected as a Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellow at Princeton University. After teaching briefly in Oxford and the United States, he became a full-time writer in his late twenties. From 1956 to 1966, he was the poetry editor and critic for The Observer, where he introduced British readers to John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Zbigniew Herbert, and Miroslav Holub. Alvarez was the author of many non-fiction books. His renowned study of suicide, The Savage God, gained added resonance from his friendship with Plath. He also wrote on divorce (Life After Marriage), dreams (Night), and the oil industry (Offshore), as well as his hobbies of poker (The Biggest Game In Town) and mountaineering (Feeding the Rat, a profile of his frequent climbing partner Mo Anthoine). His 1999 autobiography is entitled Where Did It All Go Right? His 1962 poetry anthology The New Poetry was hailed at the time as a fresh departure. It championed the American style, in relation to the perceived excessive 'gentility' of British poetry of the time. In 2010, he was awarded the Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature.

He died at the age of 90 from viral pneumonia. He is buried in Hampstead Cemetery.

• The Shaping Spirit (1958) • The School of Donne (1961) • The New Poetry (1962) • Under Pressure (1965) • Beyond All This Fiddle (1968) • The Savage God (1972) • Beckett (Fontana Modern Masters, 1973) • Hers (1974) • Hunt (1979) • Life After Marriage (1982) • The Biggest Game in Town (1983) • Feeding the Rat (1988) • Day of Atonement (1991) • Night (1995) • Where Did It All Go Right? (1999) • Poker: Bets, Bluffs, and Bad Beats (2001) • New & Selected Poems (2002) • The Writer's Voice (2005) • Risky Business (2007) • Pondlife (2013)

Al Alvarez is recorded with the occupation literary critic. Recorded with the occupation autobiographer. Recorded with the occupation editing staff. Recorded with the occupation writer. Recorded with the occupation poet. Recorded as poet, autobiographer, literary critic, writer and editing staff.