A. S. J. Tessimond

Arthur Seymour John Tessimond (Birkenhead, July 19, 1902 - Chelsea, London May 13, 1962) was an English poet.

He went to Charterhouse School, but ran away at age 16 ["Collected Poems", p. xiv.] . After studying at Liverpool University, he moved to London where he worked in bookshops, and also as a copywriter ["Collected Poems", p. xvi.] . He later moved to France.

After avoiding military service in World War II, he later discovered he was unfit for service.

An eccentric and an Imagist, Tessimond wrote astute, elegant, urban poetry. He suffered from bipolar disorder, and received electro-convulsive therapy.

He first began to publish in the 1920s in literary magazines. He was to see three volumes of poetry were published during his life: "Walls of Glass" in 1934, "Voices in a Giant City" in 1947 and "Selections" in 1958. He contributed several poems to a 1952 edition of "Bewick's Birds".

He died in 1962 from a brain haemorrhage.

In the mid-1970s he was the subject of a radio programme entitled "Portrait of a Romantic". This, together with the publication of the posthumous selection "Not Love Perhaps" in 1972, increased interest in his work; and his poetry subsequently appeared in school books and anthologies.

A 1985 anthology of his work "The Collected Poems of A. S. J. Tessimond", edited by Hubert Nicholson, contains previously unpublished works.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.bryantmcgill.com/World_Poetry/~A/A.S.J._Tessimond/ A.S.J. Tessimond Poetry and Translations] at the Open Translation Project sponsored by Bryant H. McGill
* [http://thefilter.blogs.com/thefilter/asj_tessimond/index.html A.S.J. Tessimond: 105th Anniversary Celebration] at [http://thefilter.blogs.com The Filter^]