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Michael Roberts (William Edward Roberts) (6 December 1902 - 13 December 1948) was a British poet, writer, critic and broadcaster, who made his living as a teacher. He was born in Bournemouth, and educated at Bournemouth School and King's College, London. He in 1922 went to Trinity College, Cambridge to read mathematics, following a custom of the time; it was at this period (to 1924) of his life he acquired the name Michael (after Lomonosov).
He went to teach in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; in the latter 1920s he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, being expelled within a year. He moved to another teaching post in London in 1931, having published a first poetry collection the year before. He started to edit anthologies, of which New Country (1933) became celebrated for the group of poets, including W. H. Auden, it featured. In 1934 he took part in a high-profile series of radio broadcasts, Whither Britain?, together with major figures such as Winston Churchill and Ernest Bevin. He married Janet Smith in 1935.
The Faber Book of Modern Verse (1936), which he edited, is the single piece of work for which he is now best remembered. He followed it with poetry and prose writing, and a study of T. E. Hulme.
He became a BBC broadcaster during World War II. He died of leukaemia in 1948.
Poets in New Signatures (1932)
W. H. Auden, Julian Bell, C. Day Lewis, Richard Eberhart, William Empson, John Lehmann, William Plomer, Stephen Spender, A. S. J. Tessimond
Poets in New Country (1933)
W. H. Auden, Richard Goodman, C. Day Lewis, John Lehmann, Charles Madge, Michael Roberts, Stephen Spender, A. S. J. Tessimond, Rex Warner
Reference
Michael Roberts: selected poems and prose (1980) edited by Frederick Grubb, Carcanet Press.
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