Somerset Maugham Award
1 appearances
-
Edition 0 (1959) Winner
Thom Gunn
トム・ガン
Thom Gunn
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1929-08-29 （Gravesend, Kent, England）
- Died
- 2004-04-25 （Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, California, U.S.） age 74
- Nationality
- British
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Gravesend (birthplace) → London (youth) → San Francisco (resident since c.1960, Haight-Ashbury)
Career
- Occupations
- Poet, University lecturer, Essayist
- Active Years
- 1954-2004
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (teaching), University of California, Berkeley (teaching)
- Influenced By
- Yvor Winters, Christopher Marlowe, John Keats, John Milton, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Influenced
- Contemporary English- and American-language poets (specific names not exhaustively listed)
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University College School | — | — | — | — | United Kingdom |
| Trinity College, Cambridge | English literature | Department of English | BA | 1950–1953 | United Kingdom |
University College School
Country:
United Kingdom
Secondary education (period details unknown)
Trinity College, Cambridge
English literature
/ Department of English
Degree:
BA
Period:
1950–1953
Year of Graduation:
1953
Country:
United Kingdom
First in Part I of the Tripos, Second in Part II
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize | The Man With Night Sweats | — | Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize (sponsoring organization) | 受賞 |
| 2003 | David Cohen Prize for Literature | — | — | David Cohen Prize organization | 受賞（共同受賞） |
| — | Forward Prize | — | — | Forward Arts Foundation | 受賞（年不詳） |
| 2001 | Publishing Triangle Award (inaugural Triangle Award for Gay Poetry) | Boss Cupid | — | Publishing Triangle | 受賞（2001、後にこの賞はThom Gunn Awardに改名） |
| — | Guggenheim Fellowship | — | — | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | フェローシップ受賞（年不詳） |
| — | MacArthur Fellowship | — | — | MacArthur Foundation | フェローシップ受賞（年不詳） |
| — | W. H. Smith Award | — | — | W. H. Smith | 受賞（年不詳） |
Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize
1993
Work:
The Man With Night Sweats
Organization:
Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize (sponsoring organization)
Result:
受賞
David Cohen Prize for Literature
2003
Organization:
David Cohen Prize organization
Result:
受賞（共同受賞）
Forward Prize
Organization:
Forward Arts Foundation
Result:
受賞（年不詳）
Publishing Triangle Award (inaugural Triangle Award for Gay Poetry)
2001
Work:
Boss Cupid
Organization:
Publishing Triangle
Result:
受賞（2001、後にこの賞はThom Gunn Awardに改名）
Guggenheim Fellowship
Organization:
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result:
フェローシップ受賞（年不詳）
MacArthur Fellowship
Organization:
MacArthur Foundation
Result:
フェローシップ受賞（年不詳）
W. H. Smith Award
Organization:
W. H. Smith
Result:
受賞（年不詳）
Awards & Nominations
Los Angeles Times Book Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 9 (1988) Winner
Forward Prizes for Poetry
1 appearances
-
Edition 1 (1992) Winner
Works
Major Works
Fighting Terms
1954 PoetryEarly collection showing Gunn's controlled diction and formal verse tendencies.
formal versepostwar sensibility
Touch
1967 PoetryIncludes poems marking his shift toward free verse, addressing intimacy and urban scenes.
intimacyurban lifefree verse
The Man With Night Sweats
1992 Poetry (contains many AIDS-related elegies)Collection dominated by AIDS-related elegies; widely praised and recipient of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.
mourningdeathhomosexualityfriendship
Boss Cupid
2000 PoetryLate-career collection; won Publishing Triangle's award (awarded in 2001).
sexualityurbanitywit
Collected Poems
1993 Poetry (collected/selected)Major poems collected; hailed by some critics as a highlight of century's poetry.
retrospectiveoverview of technique
Bibliography
- 1954: Fighting Terms
- 1957: The Sense of Movement
- 1961: My Sad Captains and Other Poems
- 1967: Touch
- 1976: Jack Straw's Castle
- 1992: The Man With Night Sweats
- 1993: Collected Poems
- 2000: Boss Cupid
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Early work characterized by strict meter and controlled diction; later work incorporates looser free-verseA restrained, philosophical tone
- Recurring Motifs
- urban lifesexuality and intimacydrug use and transgressive experiencemourning and death
Health
-
Acute polysubstance abuse2004（致命的）Died in 2004 from acute polysubstance use
Legacy
A British-born poet who became a major figure in American poetry. Known for moving from formal verse to freer forms and for his AIDS elegies; recipient of several major awards. The Publishing Triangle prize was later renamed in his honour, and he remains an influential figure in both gay cultural history and contemporary poetry.
Archives
- Amherst College Archives & Special Collections (Jack W. C. Hagstrom collection of Thom Gunn materials)
In Popular Culture
- Commemorated with bronze bootprints in San Francisco's South of Market Leather History Alley
Quotes
-
It is despair that nothing cannot be Flares in the mind and leaves a smoky mark Of dread. Look upward. Neither firm nor free Purposeless matter hovers in the dark.
Source: Poem: "The Annihilation of Nothing"
Trivia
- Publishing Triangle's Triangle Award was renamed the Thom Gunn Award after his death.
- Longtime partner was Mike Kitay; they lived together until Gunn's death.
- Although Gunn was HIV-negative, he wrote many elegies related to AIDS.