Profession: poet

Jorge Luis Borges

J. L. Borges

short-story writer, essayist, poet, translator

1899 (Buenos Aires) – 1986 (Geneva)

Cansinos-Assens was an early mentor to Borges in Madrid. Fernandez was both friend and mentor back in Buenos Aires. Ocampo published his early work, and through her he met Reyes and Bioy Casares, who became a literary collaborator and lifelong friend. Neruda was another good friend, despite differences of opinion, while his relationship with Lorca (who did not like his poetry) was somewhat prickly. He may have met Calvino only once, near the end of their lives. Burgess joked to Borges that their names were the same; they spoke Anglo-Saxon with one another.

Jorge Luis Borges knew…

John Tranter

poet, publisher

1943 (Cooma, Australia) –

Tranter has made and maintained contact with poets and other writers around the world, including Enzensburger, O’Hara, Koch, Bernstein, Fisher and Ashbery (Ashbery once reciting McGonagall’s entire Tay Bridge Disaster poem at the end of a long evening with Tranter). These, as much as fellow-Australian poets like Kinsella, have contributed to publications Tranter has edited — not least his online magazine ‘Jacket.’

John Tranter knew…

John Keats

poet, critic

1795 (London) – 1821 (Rome)

Hazlitt was Keats’ most admired acquaintance; they met through Leigh Hunt, who first published his work, always kept a bed made up for him in his library, and also introduced him to Wordsworth, Lamb, Shelley and Haydon. Keats asked Haydon to be remembered to Bewick and Hazlitt. However Haydon failed to repay a loan, and they fell out. Coleridge and Keats met only once, walking for an hour on Hampstead Heath, Coleridge discoursing non-stop on a thousand things. Always more reserved with Shelley than Shelley was with him, Keats turned down his invitation to Pisa, and died of tuberculosis in Rome.

John Keats knew…

John Gay

playwright, poet

1685 (Barnstaple, England) – 1732 (London)

Gay’s good friend Swift suggested the idea for ‘The Beggar’s Opera’. Pope was the dedicatee of his first published work, and became a lifelong friend. Both Pope and Arbuthnot collaborated with him: Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot and Gay were mainstays of the ‘Scriblerus Club’. Congreve was unfailingly kind to him, while Montagu collaborated on some pieces with him and Pope that are mostly credited to her alone. He had studied with Handel, and was the principal librettist for ‘Acis and Galatea’ (Pope also contributing). Voltaire met him during his two years’ exile in England, and attended his ‘The Beggar’s Opera.’

John Gay knew…

John Dryden

playwright, poet

1631 (Aldwinkle, England) – 1700 (London)

Purcell and Dryden collaborated more than once, and seem to have respected one another. Congreve was Dryden’s protégé then friend, and said he was “exceedingly humane and compassionate”. Addison also became a friend, after addressing a poem to the former poet laureate. Locke was known from schooldays, while Pope as a 12-year-old was taken to see the veteran Dryden, in the coffee-house where he held court and spent his evenings. Shadwell had been on friendly terms, Dryden contributing a prologue to one of his plays; Shadwell then satirised him in print, Dryden responding in kind.

John Dryden knew…

John Ashbery

poet, translator

1927 (Rochester, N.Y.) – 2017 (Hudson, N.Y.)

Ashbery met Mathews in 1956, a friend and correspondent from then on. Schuyler co-authored a novel with him. Koch, Mathews and Schuyler were his co-founders and fellow-editors of Locus Solus. Auden, whom he knew slightly, saved his first collection from rejection. He socialised with Perec while the French writer was working on ‘La Vie Mode d’Emploi’, and Perec considered translating Ashbery’s work, though this never happened. He met Saint Phalle through her then-husband Mathews. Tranter published his work, as well as two long interviews, in his online magazine ‘Jacket’. Cage told him Beethoven was wrong.

John Ashbery knew…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

poet, novelist, playwright, philosopher, natural scientist

1749 (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany) – 1832 (Weimar)

Goethe met Herder as a student, and visited Lavater in Switzerland ( a great correspondent, he helped Lavater with his magnum opus on physiognomy). Hummel like him was attached to the Weimar court, where Schopenhauer’s mother had a salon. Schiller approached him in admiration: they became friends and colleagues for life. Carlyle, Schelling, Schlegel, Byron, Hegel and Fichte were among intellectuals drawn across Europe to visit him (Manzoni and he just corresponded). Beethoven set several of his poems to music (though they did not get on personally), and the young Mendelssohn charmed the old man with his playing.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe knew…

James Schuyler

poet, critic, curator

1923 (Chicago) – 1991 (New York)

Koch, Ashbery and Mathews co-founded the magazine ‘Locus Solus’ with him. He and O’Hara shared an apartment, Auden employed him as a typist, and Ashbery collaborated on a novel with him. Ashbery was also a colleague working at ‘Art News’, as were Guest and Elaine de Kooning. Willem de Kooning and Fairfield Porter were among artists he became friends with through his activities as a critic, Porter (after a brief fling) becoming a lifelong friend. Schuyler lived in the Porters’ house as a guest for over a decade, following a breakdown; Myles later took care of him.

James Schuyler knew…