The Chameleon Poet: A Life of George Baker

by Robert Fraser and Robert Fraser

Book Overview

Eliot wrote of his 'genius'. Yeats thought him the most interesting poet of his generation. Dylan Thomas envied his power over women. War trapped him in Japan. In America he conducted one of the most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0224062425
• ISBN13: 9780224062428
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Random House (UK)
• Length: 573 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Grand Central Station lover

Probably the aspect of George Barker that will ring a bell with North American readers is that he is the demon lover described by Elizabeth Smart in "By Grand Central Station I sat down and wept." After that torrid love affair, bathed in Elizabeth Smart's guilt at taking him from his wife, it's a surprise to find what happened. I won't give that away. George Barker was once considered (by such people as Yeats and TS Eliot) to be a major poet of the twentieth century. Then his reputation took a mysterious nose-dive. In spite of that he continued to insist that a real poet should not deign to take a regular job and he never did. He also fathered fifteen children. It all makes a great story, even if you've never read a line of George Barker (these days very few people have) and it's wonderfully told by a great story-teller.