Val Warner was a poet, editor and translator who was best known for helping to increase the salience of poet Charlotte Mew's work.[1]
Valerie Margaret Warner | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 15, 1946 Harrow, London, England |
| Died | October 10, 2020 (aged 74) Hackney, London, England |
| Occupation |
|
| Alma mater | Somerville College, Oxford |
Warner was the only child of two schoolteachers and grew up in Harrow, London. She went on to study modern history at Somerville College, Oxford.[1]
She initially found work as a school librarian and freelance copy-editor[1] before holding the posts of Creative Writing Fellow at Swansea University and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Dundee.[2]
As well as publishing her own poetry collections, Warner also published a translation of The Centenary Corbière by Tristan Corbière in 1975[3] and an edition of Charlotte Mew's collected poems and prose in 1981. Along with other scholarly work in the 1980s, this collection helped in renewing wider interest in Mew's work.[1][4][5]
Warner became increasingly reclusive in the last years of her life.[1] She sold a house in Harrow that she had inherited from her parents and then subsequently moved to a late-Victorian terraced house in Hackney where she continued to live for the rest of her life.[2] The house lacked running water, heating and cooking facilities. She survived on a diet of raw onions, soya mince and chickpeas.[3]
Her body was discovered after a forced entry into her house by police on 10 October 2020,[3] due to a concerned friend contacting them about a lack of a communication with her.[1] She had died alone and no ascertainable cause of death was reported by the coroner after an autopsy was conducted in November 2020.[1][2]
Awards and recognition
editWarner received the Eric Gregory Award in 1975[6] and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1998.[3]
Bibliography
edit- Warner, Val (1971). These Yellow Photos. Carcanet Press. ISBN 9780902145269.
- Warner, Val (1973). Under The Penthouse. Carcanet Press. ISBN 9780902145870.
- Mew, Charlotte (1982). Warner, Val (ed.). Charlotte Mew: Collected Poems and Prose. Virago Press. ISBN 9780860682233.
- Warner, Val (1986). Before Lunch. Carcanet Press. ISBN 9780856356292.
- Warner, Val (1998). Tooting Idyll. Carcanet Press. ISBN 9781857543339.
- Mew, Charlotte (2003). Warner, Val (ed.). Collected Poems and Selected Prose of Charlotte Mew. Routledge. ISBN 9780415967570.
- Corbiere, Tristan; Warner, Val (2006). The Centenary Corbière. Carcanet Press. ISBN 9781857547115.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g Craig, Patricia (2020-11-02). "Val Warner obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
- ^ a b c "PN Review Print and Online Poetry Magazine - Val Warner: A Reminiscence - Patricia Craig - PN Review 259". www.pnreview.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
- ^ a b c d "Val Warner". Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
- ^ Parker, Sarah (2023-01-02). "This Rare Spirit: A Life of Charlotte Mew: by Julia Copus, London: Faber & Faber, 2021. 464pp., £25, ISBN 9780571313532". Women's Writing. 30 (1): 78–80. doi:10.1080/09699082.2021.1985236. ISSN 0969-9082.
- ^ Merrin, Jeredith (1997). "The Ballad of Charlotte Mew". Modern Philology. 95 (2): 200–217. ISSN 0026-8232.
- ^ "Eric Gregory Awards - The Society of Authors". 2020-05-08. Retrieved 2023-09-11.