A Poet’s Life is the definitive biography of one of the first and foremost poets in Ireland's golden generation, John Montague. Inspired by the examples of Yeats and Joyce, he consciously educated himself to play a central role in the self-understanding of his people. Ahead of the public recognition of such issues, Montague wrote personally about abortion, divorce, alcoholism, domestic violence, and clerical abuse in education. Out of where he was most hurt, his best work issued. When the Troubles erupted in his home province, he was to the forefront in engaging with events directly, sometimes in a cross-community effort with fellow poets of the other faith. This record of his life is also an intimate, familial account of modern Irish poetry and its precision, documentary basis, and reliable chronology, it is sure to become a vital conduit into a body of poetry that will never be forgotten.

Adrian Frazier was a close acquaintance of Montague for more than forty years. In this fully authorised narrative that is clear, candid, and marbled with humour, Frazier reveals the sources of poetry in Montague’s life and traces the progress of his style from book to book. Based on Montague’s archive of private papers, and informed by the counsel of the poet’s lifelong friends, partners, and fellow poets, this is a monumental work of Irish literary biography, sure to be a classic of the genre. Adrian Frazier is a graduate of TCD and professor emeritus at the University of Galway; he is the author of Behind the Scenes: Yeats, Horniman, and the Abbey Theatre (1990), George Moore 1852-1933 (2000), Hollywood Irish: John Ford, Abbey Actors, and the Irish Revival in Hollywood (2011), and, most recently, John Behan: The Bull of Sheriff Street. A Poet’s Life is published by Lilliput Press. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy. https://www.lilliputpress.ie/products/john-montague-a-poets-life

Adrian Frazier will discuss his biography in conversation with Prof Fran Brearton (QUB).

This seminar is available both in-person and online via Teams.