Cirrus@Austlit

Jon Silkin, English poet, critic and editor, was the only child of politically committed Jewish parents from Lithuania who settled in England. Expelled from Dulwich College for truancy in 1947 Silkin published his first volume of poetry after national service in 1950. In 1952 he launched the literary magazine, Stand, and The Peacable Kingdom (1954) was hailed for the outstanding quality of its poetry. Silkin gained a first class degree in English from the University of Leeds in 1962 and went on to postgraduate research on the First World War poets. This led to Out of Battle: The Poetry of the Great War (1972) and The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (1979). Stand went on to gain an international readership under Silkin's editorship and he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1986.

In 1974 Silkin visited Australia under the auspices of the Arts Council of Australia and the University of Sydney. This led to two volumes of poetry being published in Australia by Wild and Woolley. Only one, The Little Time-Keeper (1976), appears to have poems with an explicitly Australian context.

(Source: 'Silkin, Jon 1930-1997.' Contemporary Authors. New Revision Series. Vol. 89 (2000): 382-384; Roger Garfitt, 'Jon Silkin, December 2, 1930-', Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 27: Poets of Great Britain and Ireland, 1945-1960. Edited by Vincent B. Sherry Jr.(1984): 315-324).