Biographical Sketch
Christopher Middleton, poet, essayist, and translator, was born June 10,
1926, in Truro, Cornwall, England. He attended Merton College at Oxford, where
he earned his B. A. degree in 1951 and his D. Phil. in 1954. He lectured in
English literature at Zurich University from 1952 to 1955 before accepting a
lectureship at King's College, University of London. In 1966, Middleton
accepted a professorship at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department
of Germanic Language, where he still teaches.
Among Middleton's published books of poetry, there are
Poems (1944),
Nocturne in Eden (1945),
Torse 3 (1962),
Nonsequences (1965),
Our Flowers & Nice Bones (1969),
The Lonely Suppers of W. V. Balloon (1975),
Pataxanadu and Other Prose (1977), and
Carminalenia (1980). Middleton's essays are
collected in the volumes
Bolshevism in Art and Other Expository Writings
(1978) and
The Pursuit of the Kingfisher (1983).
Middleton's translations of German literature include Robert Walser's
The Walk and Other Stories (1957) and
Jakob von Gunten (1969), Hugo von
Hofmannstahl's
Poems and Verse Plays (1961),
Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche
(1969),
Selected Poems of Hölderlin and Mörike
(1972), and Elias Canetti's
Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice
(1974), as well as translations of the works of Gottfried Benn, Paul
Celan, Günter Grass, Gerd Hofmann, and Christa Wolf. In addition, Middleton
wrote the libretto for Hans Vogt's opera,
The Metropolitans (1964).
Scope and Contents
The collection includes holograph manuscripts, typescripts, notebooks,
galleys, page proofs, an advance proof, and correspondence, arranged in two
series: I. Poetry, 1954-1968, nd (1.5 boxes); and, II. Translations, 1970-1974,
nd (1.5 boxes).
The Poetry series contains holograph and typed manuscripts of
Middleton's poems for
Nonsequences,
Our Flowers & Nice Bones, and
Torse 3. The poems do not appear to have
been arranged in any particular order. These manuscripts include Middleton's
earliest holograph drafts, multiple revised versions, and typescripts of the
final version of each poem. Among the materials for
Nonsequences, there is one outgoing
holograph letter, accompanied by two typescript poems, addressed to Mr.
Barrell. In addition, the versos of some manuscripts include materials in other
formats, including a poem in
Our Flowers & Nice Bones, which is
written on the back of a party invitation from Dr. and Mrs. Alan Ross and
Philip Klindt. Among the manuscripts for
Torse 3, there is part of a carbon copy
typescript of a lecture on Lawrence Durrell's
Justine on the verso of the
The Oystercatchers and a carbon copy
typescript of a review of Paul Celan's
Sprachgitter on the verso of
Alba After Six Years.
The Translations series contains materials for Middleton's translations
of Elias Canetti's
Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice
and the
Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin and Eduard
Mörike. Among the materials for the Canetti translation, there are a
notebook containing a draft of the translation, a corrected photocopy
typescript, a corrected advance proof copy, and correspondence between
Middleton and Beverly Colman of Schocken Books, concerning editorial matters.
Among the Hölderlin/Mörike materials, there are two notebooks of holograph
translations of the poems; notes, a holograph manuscript, and typescripts of
the Preface and the Introduction; a carbon copy typescript of the text; a set
of page proofs; a set of corrected galleys; and correspondence between
Middleton and various representatives of the University of Chicago Press,
addressing publication of the book.
Additional Middleton materials may be found in the following
collections: E. Dahlberg, Robinson Jeffers, John Lehmann,
London Magazine, Gerard Malanga,
New Departures, Peter Owen, and Dame Edith
Sitwell.