Heath-Stubbs, John 1918-2006

(John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs)

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born July 9, 1918, in London, England; died December 26, 2006, in London, England. Author. Heath-Stubbs was a noted poet inspired by traditional forms and mythology. Born with poor eyesight, he would become completely blind by the time he was sixty. Despite this handicap, he was a prolific poet, as well as a translator, critic, and editor. As a youth, he transferred to several schools before being taught by private tutors and also attending the Worcester College for the Blind. He enrolled at Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1939, where he was influenced by fellow classmate C.S. Lewis and the playwright Charles Williams. By the early 1940s, he was publishing poems in anthologies and his own collections, the first of the latter being Wounded Thammuz (1942). Never a slave to modern trends in verse, Heath-Stubbs followed his own muse. He enjoyed references to ancient myths and emulating epic stanzas, though he also wrote light verse and other forms. Sometimes considered unfashionable by literary critics, he was labeled a neo-Romantic whose Christian faith was evident in his writing. Though his primary focus in life was his writing, Heath-Stubbs held several jobs over the years. After work as an English master at Hall School in Hampstead from 1944 to 1945, he was an editorial assistant for Hutchinson’s Illustrated Encyclopedia for a year. He taught at Leeds University during the early 1950s, and from 1955 to 1958 was a visiting professor at the University of Alexandria in Egypt. His academic career stabilized later in life. He was a part-time lecturer at the College of St. Mark and St. John in England from 1963 to 1972, and a tutor at Merton College, Oxford, from 1975 to 1991. Over the years, he penned almost forty poetry collections, nine translated works, seven works of criticism, and ten edited works. His memoirs were released in 1993 as Hindsights. Heath-Stubbs won the prestigious Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1973, the Cholmondeley Award in 1989, and the Cross of St. Augustine in 1999, among other honors, and was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 1988. Despite his lifelong struggle with failing sight, Heath-Stubbs was remembered for producing quality literary works and always maintaining a good sense of humor—as can be seen in the title of his autobiography, as well as his self-mocking poem “Epitaph.” Among his notable books are the light verse collection A Charm and a Toothache (1954), Selected Poems (1966), and the epic Artorius (1970).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES

BOOKS

Heath-Stubbs, John, Hindsights, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1993.

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), December 30, 2006, p. 48. Washington Post, December 27, 2006, p. B5.