C. H. Sisson

C. H. Sisson
C. H. Sisson, by Patrick Swift, c. 1960
Born	22 April 1914(1914-04-22) Bristol
Died	5 September 2003(2003-09-05) (aged 89)
Occupation	Poet, Writer, Translator.
Nationality	English
Education	University of Bristol

Charles Hubert Sisson (also known as C. H. Sisson) CH (22 April 1914 – 5 September 2003) was a British writer, best known as a poet and translator.

Life

Born in Bristol in 1914, C. H. Sisson was noted as a poet, novelist, essayist and an important translator. He was a great friend of the critic and writer Donald Davie, with whom he corresponded regularly.^[1]

Sisson was a student at the University of Bristol where he read English and Philosophy. As a poet he first came to light through the London Arts Review, X,^[2] founded by the painter Patrick Swift and the poet David Wright. He reacted against the prevailing intellectual climate of the 1930s, particularly the Auden Group, preferring to go back to the anti-romantic T. E. Hulme, and to the Anglican tradition. The modernism of his poetry follows a 'distinct genealogy' from Hulme to Eliot, Pound, Ford Madox Ford and Wyndham Lewis.^[3] His novel Christopher Homm experiments with form and is told backwards.

Sisson served in the British Army during World War II in India and joined the Ministry of Labour in 1936. He worked as a civil servant and wrote a standard text The Spirit of British Administration (1959) arising from his work and a comparison with other European methods. Sisson was a 'severe critic of the Civil Service and some of his essays caused controversy'.^[4] In his collection The London Zoo he writes this epitaph 'Here lies a civil servant. He was civil/ To everyone, and servant to the devil.'^[5]

Sisson was married, in 1937, Nora Gilbertson (d. 2003) and they had two daughters.^[6] In 1993 C.H. Sisson was appointed a Companion of Honour for his services to Literature. He died on 5 September 2003.^[6]

Works

Poetry collections

• An Asiatic Romance(Carcanet Press, 1953. Paperback, 1995)
• Poems (1959)
• The Spirit of British Administration (1959)
• The London Zoo (1961)
• Numbers (1965), Methuen & Co Ltd
• The Discarnation, or How the Flesh became Word and Dwelt Among Us (1967)
• Metamorphoses, Poems, Methuen, London, 1968
• Roman Poems (1968)
• The Case of Walter Bagehot (1972)
• In the Trojan Ditch: Collected Poems and Selected Translations (Carcanet Press, 1974)
• The Corridor(1975), Poem, Mandeville Press, Hitchin (ISBN 0-904533-12-3 )
• Anchises(1976) (ISBN 0-85635-178-4)
• Moon-Rise and Other Poems (1979)
• Exactions (1980),(ISBN 0-85635-332-9 )
• Autobiographical and other papers of Philip Mairet (1981) editor
• Modern Poets Five (Faber and Faber 1981) editor Jim Hunter, with Andrew Waterman, Craig Raine, Robert Wells, and Andrew Motion
• Night Thoughts and Other Poems (1983)
• Collected Poems 1943–1983 (Carcanet Press, 1984) (ISBN 0-85635-498-8)
• God Bless Karl Marx! (Carcanet Press, 1987) (ISBN 0-85635-710-3)
• On the Lookout: A Partial Autobiography (Carcanet Press, 1989)
• Selected Poems (Carcanet Press, Paperback 1990)
• Nine Sonnets (1991)
• Re-active Anthology: Ghosts in the Corridor No. 2 (1992) with Andrew Crozier and Donald Davie
• The Pattern (1993), C.H. Sisson, Enitharmon Press (ISBN 1-870612-68-X)
• What and Who C. H. Sisson (Carcanet Press, 1994)
• Poems: Selected (Carcanet Press, 1995)
• Collected Poems (Carcanet Press, 1998)
• Antidotes (Carcanet Press, 2001)

Novels

• Christopher Homm, novel, (Methuen Publishing, 1965)

Critical works (books)

• Art and Action, Methuen, 1965. Literary Theory, Criticism
• Case of Walter Bagehot, C.H. Sisson, Faber and Faber 1972 (ISBN 0-571-09501-1)
• David Hume (1976)
• Jonathan Swift: Selected Poems (1977) ed. C.H. Sisson, Carcanet Press, 1990 (ISBN 0-85635-135-0)
• Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (1978) editor (ISBN 978-0-14-043131-5)
• Avoidance of Literature: Collected Essays, C.H.Sisson (Carcanet Press, 1979 (ISBN 0-85635-229-2)
• PN Review 16 , Sisson, C H (ed) I A Richards, PN Review, Publication Date: 1980
• Collected Poems and Plays, Lewis, Wyndham; Munton, Alan (ed.); C.H. Sisson (intro.), (Carcanet Press, 1981)
• English Poetry, 1900-50, ed. C.H. Sisson (Carcanet Press, 1982)
• The Rash ACT, Ford, Ford Madox, ed. C.H.Sisson (Carcanet Press, 1982. Paperback 1996)(ISBN 0-85635-399-X )
• The English Sermon (Carcanet Press, 1982)
• Anglican Essays (1983)
• The English Novel Ford Madox Ford, ed. C.H. Sisson (Carcanet Press,1983)
• A Call Ford Madox Ford, ed. C.H. Sisson (Carcanet Press, 1984)
• The Regrets, Joachim Du Bellay; Translator - C.H. Sisson, (Carcanet Press, 1984)(ISBN 0-85635-471-6)
• Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) : Selected Poems , Rossetti, Christina Georgina; Sisson, C. H. (editor), (Carcanet Press, 1985) (ISBN 0-85635-533-X)
• Ladies Whose Bright Eyes Ford Madox Ford, ed. C.H. Sisson (Carcanet Press, 1988)
• In Two Minds: Guesses at Other Writers C.H. Sisson (Carcanet Press, 1990)(ISBN 0-85635-877-0 )
• Selected Writings Jeremy Taylor, ed. C.H. Sisson (Carcanet Press, 1990)
• English Perspectives: Essays on Liberty and Government (Carcanet Press, 1992)
• Grand Street 45 , Cage; John; Gates, David; Duong Thu Huong; Richter, Gerhard; Sisson, C H, W W Norton, New York, 1993 (ISBN 0-393-30992-4)
• Is There a Church of England? (Carcanet Press, 1993)
• Poems and Essays on Poetry Edgar Allan Poe, ed. C.H. Sisson. (Carcanet Press, 1995)
• The English Novel (Carcanet Press, 1997)

Collected translations

• Versions and Perversions of Heine (1955) translations
• The Poetry of Catulus, C. H. Sisson (Trans.), The Viking Press, New York, 1966
• The Poetry of Catullus (1966 MacGibbon and Kee, 1966) translator
• The Poetic Art, Horace (Carcanet Press, 1978)
• Some Tales Of La Fontaine, La Fontaine, Translated by C.H.Sisson, (Carcanet Press, 1979)
• The Divine Comedy, Alighieri, Dante; Sisson, C. H. (translator), (Carcanet Press, 1980)
• Song of Roland trans. C.H. Sisson. (Carcanet Press, 1983)
• The Aeneid (Translator) (Carcanet Press, 1986)
• Collected Translations Carcanet, 1996
• Britannicus, Phaedra, Athaliah by Jean Racine (1987), Jean Racine; C.H. Sisson (translator), Oxford Paperbacks, 2001(ISBN 0-19-283827-X)

References

1. ^ Schmidt, Michael: Lives of the Poets, 749. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 2007.
2. ^ Michael Schmidt (founder of Carcanet Press, editor of Poetry Nation Review and Professor of Poetry at the University of Glasgow) writing in The Guardian in 2006 [1]
3. ^ Schmidt, Michael: Lives of the Poets, p754. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 2007.
4. ^ Schmidt, Michael: Lives of the Poets, p 750. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 2007.
5. ^ Schmidt, Michael: Lives of the Poets, p. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 2007.
6. ^ ^{a b} Obituary Guardian 9 September 2003

External links

• Obituary Guardian 9 September 2003

Persondata
Name	Sisson, C. H.
Alternative names	Charles Hubert Sisson
Short description	Writer
Date of birth	22 April 1914
Place of birth	Bristol
Date of death	5 September 2003
Place of death