| Leonard Clark | |
| Honorific Suffix: | OBE, KSS, FRSL |
| Birth Date: | 1 August 1905 |
| Birth Place: | Saint Peter Port, Guernsey |
| Death Date: | September 1981 |
| Death Place: | London, England |
| Occupation: | Poet, writer, editor, educator |
| Years Active: | 1923—1981 |
Leonard Clark (1 August 1905 – September 1981) was an English poet, writer, editor, and educator.[1] Though his works do occasionally mention Devon and Yorkshire, they always return to the Forest of Dean.[1] His pieces center around people and places familiar to him from, as well as the nature of, his hometown Cinderford.[1]
Clark was born on 1 August 1905 in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey to a governess out of wedlock.[1] He was sent to live with widow Sarah Annie George and her sons Allan, George, and Frederick in Cinderford in the Forest of Dean.[1] [2] [3] The family regularly attended St. Stephen's Church.[1] Though he came to consider Sarah Annie, Allan, George, and Frederick his family, he struggled with feeling like an outside throughout his life.[1] Clark attended Bilson Primary School and Double View School (now Heywood Community School) before earning a scholarship to Monmouth School in Monmouth, Wales; he was unable to continue his education at Monmouth due to financial constraints.[1] In his final year of school, Clark met Forest poet F.W. Harvey, who served as his mentor and helped him write and publish a collection of poetry in 1923.[1]
Clark worked as a pupil teacher with the goal of eventually becoming an educator.[1] He taught from 1922—1928 in Gloucestershire before earning his Certificate in Education from Bangor Normal College in 1930.[3] He then moved to London, where he taught from 1930—1936. In 1936, he became an Inspector of Education [HMI], a position he held until his retirement in 1970.[1] [3] [2] In this role, he worked in Devon, Yorkshire, and London. Clark married Florence Tobias in 1933 at St. Stephen's Church; Harvey served as his best man.[1] In the late 1930s, the couple moved to Plymouth.[1] Their newborn son Robin died in 1939 and they divorced shortly after.[1] Clark had at least one more son.[1]
Clark wrote more than 50 books of poetry, prose, anthologies, and essays of his own and edited more than 20 more during his career.[1] [3] Some of his best known works are The Hearing Heart, Singing in the Streets: Poems for Christmas, and English Morning and Other Poems.[2] He wrote a biography of Alfred Williams in his early years and edited collections by Andrew Young, Walter de la Mare, and Ivor Gurney.[1] He also edited the Longman's Poetry Library series, was consulting editor for Chatto & Windus' children's poetry books and to Thornhill Press, and contributed frequently to The Citizen and the Dean Forest Mercury.[1] [3]
In 1966, Clark was awarded an OBE.[1] He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and received the Children's Literature Association's award for "his critical article Poetry and Children" published in 1978.[1] [4] In 1970, he was made a knight of St. Sylvester.[3] He was on the Literature Panel of the Arts Council and on the Westminster Dioceses School Panel.[1]
Clark died in September 1981 at his London home.[3] [5] [1] [2] His son scattered half his ashes from the viewpoint in Symonds Yat and interred the other half in St. Stephen's Church.[1] A plaque marks his resting place.[1]
In 2018, Tom Cousins painted a mural on the side of a Cinderford bakery featuring Clark along with fellow Forest poets Winifred Foley and Harry Beddington.[6] [7] His poem Stillborn is written in the voice of a mother who has lost her child and wonders: "[did] you [reject] us?"[1] It is still used in support groups for families of stillborn babies.[1]
Poetry
Children's stories
Anthologies and compilations
Prose
Edited books
Biographies