Leonard Clark (poet)

St. Stephen's Church in Cinderford

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][4] 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][4] He then moved to London, where he taught from 1930—1936.[3] In 1936, he became an Inspector of Education for Ofsted, a position he held until his retirement in 1970.[1][4][3][2] In this role, he worked in Devon, Yorkshire, and London.[3] 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][4] 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.[3][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][4]

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][3] In 1970, he was made a knight of St. Sylvester.[4] 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.[4][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

• English Morning and Other Poems (1953)
• Near and Far: Poems for Children (1968)
• The Broad Atlantic (1974)
• The Hearing Heart (1974)
• The Way It Was: Poems (1980)
• An Intimate Landscape (1981)

Children's stories

• Robert Andrew Tells a Story (1965)
• Robert Andrew by the Sea (1965)
• Robert Andrew in the Country (1966)
• Mr. Pettigrew's Harvest Festival (1974)
• Mr. Pettigrew's Train (1975)
• Mr. Pettigrew and the Bellringers (1976)

Anthologies and compilations

• The Open Door: An Anthology of Verse for Juniors (1937)
• The Magic Kingdom: An Anthology of Verse for Seniors (1937)
• All Things New (1965)
• All Along, Down Along: A Book of Stories in Verse (1971)

Prose

• Green Wood: A Gloucestershire Childhood (1962)
• A Fool in the Forest (1965)
• Grateful Caliban (1967)
• An Inspector Remembers (1976)

Edited books

• Prospect of a Poet: Essays and Tributes by Fourteen Writers by Andrew Young (1957)
• The Collected Poems by Andrew Young (1963)
• Sound of Battle by Ivor Gurney (1969)

Biographies

• A Handlist of the Writings in Book Form (1902—53) of Walter de la Mare (1953)
• Walter de la Mare: A Checklist (1956)
• Alfred Williams: His Life and Work (1969)