Alistair Elliot Explained

Alistair Elliot (13 October 1932 – 3 November 2018)^[1] was a British librarian, poet and translator.

Life

Elliot was born in Liverpool, son of a Scottish family doctor and an English mother, and educated at Asheville School in the United States, Fettes College, Edinburgh, and Christ Church, Oxford.^[2]

Elliot was a vegetable invoice clerk in Covent Garden market, night sterilizer in a food factory, waiter, film critic, supply teacher, actor (with the English Children's Theatre under Caryl Jenner) and finally librarian in Kensington, Keele, Shiraz, and lastly at Newcastle University.^[3]

Elliot's translation of Euripides's Medea was performed in theatres in London and New York in a production by Jonathan Kent with Diana Rigg in the leading rôle.

Elliot's poems appeared in Oxford Poetry,^[4] The Paris Review,^[5] and many other journals.

Awards

• 2000 Cholmondeley Award

Works

Poetry

• Air in the Wrong Place, Eagle Press, 1968.
• Contentions, Ceolftith 38, 1977, signed edition ISBN 0 90446 1 24 6. ordinary edition ISBN 0 90446 1 21 1
• Kisses: Poems collaboration with Barry Hirst, Ceolfrith, 1978. ISBN 978-0-904461-42-8
• Talking Back, 1982.
• On the Appian Way, 1984.
• Book: My country: collected poems. Carcanet. 1989. 978-0-85635-846-3 .
• Book: Turning the Stones . Carcanet. 1993. 978-1-85754-041-3 .
• Book: Facing Things. Carcanet. 1997. 978-1-85754-304-9 .
• Book: The Real Poems. Shoestring Press. 2008. 978-1-904886-71-6 .
• Book: Imaginary Lines. Shoestring Press. 2012. 978-1-907356-56-8 .
• Book: Telling the Stones. Shoestring Press. 2017. 978-1-910323-69-4 .

Translation

• Book: The Lazarus poems. registration. Heinrich Heine. Alistair Elliot. Mid Northumberland Arts Group. 1979 . 9780856352874.
• Book: Women-Men. Paul Verlaine. Alistair Elliot. The Sheep Meadow Press. 1979. 978-0-935296-44-0 .
• Book: The Georgics. Virgil, John Dryden. Alistair Elliot. Mid Northumberland Arts Group. 1981 . 978-0-904790-13-9 .
• Book: French Love Poems . Bloodaxe Books. 1991 . 978-1-85224-169-8 .
• Book: Medea. Euripides. Alistair Elliot. Oberon Books. 1993 .
• Book: Italian Landscape Poems. Bloodaxe Books. 1994. 978-1-85224-247-3 .
• Book: Paul Valéry. La Jeune Parque. Bloodaxe Books. Alistair Elliot. 1997. 978-1-85224-387-6 .
• Book: Roman food poems: a modern translation. Alistair Elliot. Prospect Books. 2003. 978-1-903018-25-5 .
• Book: Euripides. Phaethon, reconstructed from the fragments. Oberon Books. Alistair Elliot. 2008. 978-1-84002-897-3 .

Editor

• Book: Poems by James I and Others: from a Manuscript Miscellany in Newcastle University Library . Alistair Elliot. Eagle Press. 1970. 978-0-9500358-5-7 .

Notes and References

1. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/11/27/alistair-elliot-poet-translator-obituary/ "Alistair Elliot, poet best known for his translation of 'Medea' – obituary"
2. Book: Publications, Europa. International Who's Who in Poetry 2004. 2003-01-01. Taylor & Francis. 9781857431780. en.
3. Book: Jayyusi, Salma Khadra. Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology. 1987-01-01. Columbia University Press. 9780231052733. en.
4. Web site: gnelson.demon.co.uk. www.gnelson.demon.co.uk. 2016-04-11.
5. Web site: The Paris Review - Summer-Fall 1963 . 13 July 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090709031443/http://www.theparisreview.org/viewissue.php/prmIID/30 . 9 July 2009 . dead . dmy-all .