| Description | This small literary collection contains: three notebooks containing poem drafts and rough notes, with enclosed manuscript and typescript copies, 1972-1995; two files of personal correspondence, including from John Moat, 1964-1988; one portfolio of five 'poem posters' John Fairfax and Ken Turner, undated [1980s]; one audio cassette of songs 'Spindrift' set to the words of John Moat and John Fairfax, performed by Mike Campbell Cole and Andrew Pratten, Phoenix Press (Music): Newbury, Berkshire, 1981. |
| Admin History | John Fairfax (1930-2009 ) was born and educated in Devon. He was the nephew of George and Kit Barker on his mother's side of the family and his father, Philip, was a naval photographer. In the course of his work John's father was away from home frequently, and as a consequence George Barker often acted as a surrogate parent to John; both he and Kit were an enormous influence on his life. John was at school in Plymouth during the war period and afterwards moved to London where his mother lived. London did not suit for long, however, and he joined his uncles and other poets in Zennor, Cornwall for a short period, during which time he practised writing poetry under the eye of his uncle George and wrote poems to pay for drinks at the local pub. On his return to London, he published the occasional poem and was active on the Soho scene of writers and artists. He met his wife-to-be, Esther Berk, at a Dylan Thomas party. They were married in 1952 and lived in Paris for a short period where Esther danced in a nightclub. On their return from Paris to London Fairfax took on a series of jobs to earn a living, including a private eye and excise clerk. After the birth of their first son, Michael, he secured a post as a teacher in a prep school in Berkshire and moved to the Thatched Cottage on an estate near Hermitage. He remained there for the rest of his life, and although the teaching post lasted only a few years, the course of his life continued from then on in the roles of teaching, writing poetry, editing and encouraging others to write. He inherited the Phoenix Press from his uncles and Maurice Carpenter and as its editor he gave a platform for young writers, including his partner from the mid-1980s - mid-1990s, Sue Stewart. In 1964 he met fellow writer and artist John Moat, with whom he co-founded the Arvon Foundation in 1968. The Foundation began as a small series of lectures at the Beaford Arts Centre in Devon and blossomed into an organisation with four centres and a learning ground for an enormous number of well-known writers. It now runs 100 courses a year (see ms 329, papers of the Arvon Foundation). In more recent years Fairfax collaborated on works with his two artist sons, Jo and Michael. He died on 14 January 2009.
His publications include: 'The way to write: a complete guide to the basic skills of good writing' (co-written with John Moat, and with a foreword by Ted Hughes) (1981), 'Creative Writing' (1989), 'Frontier of going: an anthology of space poetry' (selected and with an introduction by John Fairfax) (1969), 'Stop and listen: an anthology of thirteen living poets' (compiled by John Fairfax) (1969), 'The fifth horseman of the apocalypse' (1969), 'One hundred poems' (1992), 'Bone harvest done poems' (1980), 'Horizons' (ed.) (1971), 'This I say: twelve poems' (1966), 'Wild Children' (1985) and 'Zuihitsu poetic journal and jottings' (1996). |