Profession: poet

He was a member of Leigh Hunt’s literary circle: Lamb, Dickens, Browning and Carlyle were among his friends, Carlyle praising his “innumerable secret good deeds.” Hazlitt also had uncharacteristically high regard for him. Collins dedicated ‘The Woman in White’ to him, mentioning “many happy hours spent in his house.” Mary Shelley is said to have had hopes of remarriage with him (she probably had warmer feelings for him than for most others still bandied about as prospective matches). He helped care for Mary Lamb, both as friend, and as a member of the Metropolitan Commission for Lunacy.

Voznesensky became an iconic figure among soviet youth in the 1960’s, along with Yevtushenko, Akhmadulina, Okudzhava and Rozhdestvensky. At 14, he was befriended by Pasternak. He met Ginsberg in Moscow, became good friends, and did many public readings with him. Ehrenburg advised him on how to avoid complications. Solzhenytsin inscribed a book to him, Auden admired his craftsmanship, and Akhmadulina set up a post-soviet writers’ union with him. Miller, Picasso and Sartre all became friends. He collaborated with Schnittke, and met Heidegger in his study, the two struggling to converse in French and English.

Duncan was, unusually, a seminal member of both Black Mountain and San Francisco Renaissance poetry groups, and an anticipatory proponent of gay liberation. He knew Miller and Nin in downtown New York (where he also published their friend Durrell), corresponded with Patchen, Riding and Baraka (energetically), and was a close friend of Levertov, though they increasingly differed over art/politics relations. Olson introduced him to Creeley at Black Mountain, where Chamberlain was a kindred spirit. Rexroth took him under his wing back in California. A passionate admirer of H.D., Duncan corresponded with her for the last decade of her life.

Lowell was one of the most influential English-language poets of the 20th century. He had a lifelong friendship with Pound, and another with his erstwhile mentor Frost, had Eliot as supportive critic and editor, Plath and Sexton among his students, and treated Santayana like his priest. Bishop (for 30 years) and Nolan were among his closest friends. He met Arendt (an oasis in New York’s dry dust) at McCarthy’s. Ginsberg reinvigorated his poetry, Walcott adjusted his tie, while Evans had a thing for his wife. Mailer and he — unlikely comrades — marched arm-in-arm together on the Pentagon. Larkin thought him barking mad.

MacLean bears a great responsibility for the survival and revival of Gaelic poetry, and had an important secondary role as critic, when Gaelic literature was suffering from a general lack of critical exposure. He enjoyed a strong close friendship with the older MacDiarmid, who first contacted him to help with translation from Gaelic (probably not realising MacLean was a poet too). Friends until MacDiarmid’s death, both ardent nationalists, MacLean did for Gaelic writing what MacDiarmid did for Scots. When Heaney (who became a great fan) first heard MacLean reading, he was struck by what he called his “bardic dignity.”

Hughes was one of the major English-language poets of the later 20th C. Eliot was his first editor – Hughes appreciated his light touch. Auden (met only rarely), Spender and MacNeice were with the same publisher. Plath was determined to meet him: they were together until a few months before her suicide, for which he was persistently attacked. Hughes was responsible for getting Herbert translated into English, was a great admirer of Holub (it was mutual), and was credited by his close friend Amichai with putting him into orbit. Yevtushenko did not impress him. Heaney called him a tower of tenderness and strength.