About This Book
'In my house his Collected Poems is to be found, not on the poetry shelves (between Pope and Pushkin), but on the kitchen sideboard. His is a voice I value and honour. I need its nourishment daily.' - Martin Amis
Satirist, philosopher, elegist, aphorist, cultural historian - Peter Porter is perhaps too singular a talent to be described as 'representative' of an age: an Australian whose easy familiarity with the breadth of European culture puts most Europeans to shame, he has long held the reputation of one of our most intellectually promiscuous and culturally sophisticated writers. Porter uses the poem as a means through which a thought can be pursued; this selection from fifty years' work allows us the first opportunity to fully survey the quality and breadth of that thought, and the unfailing intensity of its light. In short, his Selected Poems is a one-volume education: Porter's subtle and profound sense of history permits him to read any event as a point in a dynamic space where the forces of time and culture converge. From these coordinates, he gives perspective, direction and bearing to our contemporary life, and allows us to read the pattern of our ideas, art and loves on the map of an ancient terrain. That he has done all this with such immense good humour and human compassion is one of the literary miracles of our time.
Awards
Duff Cooper Prize, Whitbread Prize, Australian Literary Society Gold Medal, Queen's Gold medal
About Peter Porter
Born in Brisbane, Australia in 1929 Peter Porter moved to London in 1951 and worked in bookselling and advertising before becoming a freelance writer and broadcaster working for The Observer as poetry critic. During the 1950s he was associated with poets in 'The Group' (including Martin Bell and Philip Hobsbaum). His first collection of poetry, Once Bitten, Twice Bitten, was published in 1961. The Cost of Seriousness, regarded by many critics as his best work, was written after the death of his first wife in 1974. Collected Poems (1983) won the Duff Cooper Prize and The Automatic Oracle (1987) won the Whitbread Poetry Award in 1988. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Australian Literature in 1990. Peter Porter died in April 2010.