Joan Barton (1908–1986) was an English poet and bookseller. She was born in Bristol and studied at Colston's Girls' School and Bristol University.[1] While working in a bookstore in Bristol, and later running her own in Marlborough, she corresponded with a number of poets who responded positively to her poetry and encouraged her to seek publication; these included John Betjeman, Walter de la Mare and Cecil Day-Lewis.[1] A steadily increasing number of published poems led to her first collection, published when she was in her 60s; not long after, her poem "The Mistress" was included by Philip Larkin in The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse.[2] In 1975, she was profiled by Anne Stevenson for the series The Living Poet on BBC Radio 3.[1] [3] She published two more collections, including a chapbook in 1979.