Michael Horovitz

Michael Horovitz
Born	4 April 1935 Frankfurt am Main
Occupation	poet
Spouse	Frances Horovitz
Children	Adam Horovitz

Michael Horovitz (born 4 April 1935)^[1][2] is an English poet, artist and translator.

Life and career

Michael Horovitz was the youngest of ten children who were brought to England from Nazi Germany by their parents, both of whom were part of a network of European-rabbinical families. Horovitz studied at Brasenose College, Oxford from 1954 to 1960.^[3]

In 1959 he founded the periodical New Departures while still a student,^[4] publishing William S. Burroughs, Samuel Beckett, and Stevie Smith. He continued to edit it for fifty years, coordinating many "Live" New Departures, Jazz Poetry SuperJams and Poetry Olympics festivals. Though initially associated with the British Poetry Revival, Horovitz became widely known on his appearance at the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall on 11 June 1965, alongside Allen Ginsberg and Alexander Trocchi. In 1969 Penguin Books published his Children of Albion anthology. Introducing him to New York in 1970, Ginsberg characterized him as a "Popular, experienced, experimental, New Jerusalem, Jazz Generation, Sensitive Bard".^[5]

In 1971 Horovitz published The Wolverhampton Wanderer, an epic of Britannia, in twelve books, with a resurrection & a life for poetry united, with an original dustjacket by Peter Blake. The book is a collection of British artists of the period with illustrations and photographs by Michael Tyzack, Peter Blake, Adrian Henri, Patrick Hughes, Gabi Nasemann, Michael Horovitz, Paul Kaplan, John Furnival, Bob Godfrey, Pete Morgan, Jeff Nuttall, David Hockney and others. It is, among other things, a visual and literary elegy to the culture surrounding association football up to the 1960s, celebrating not only Wolves and its supporters, but also Arsenal, Spurs, and legendary teams from the North. Horovitz's Growing Up: Selected Poems and Pictures, 1951–79 was published by Allison & Busby in 1979.

In 2007, Horovitz published A New Waste Land: Timeship Earth at Nillennium, described by D. J. Taylor in The Independent as "a deeply felt clarion-call from the radical underground", and by Tom Stoppard as "A true scrapbook and songbook of the grave new world". In January 2011 Horovitz contributed to an eBook collection of political poems entitled Emergency Verse - Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State, edited by Alan Morrison.^[6]

Horovitz stood for election as Oxford Professor of Poetry in 2010 (supported by Tony Benn),^[7] but came second, out of eleven, to Geoffrey Hill.^[8]

Personal life

He was married to the English poet Frances Horovitz (1938–83); their son Adam Horovitz (b. 1971) is also a poet, performer and journalist.

Michael Horovitz currently fronts the William Blake Klezmatrix band.

His home is in Notting Hill, London.

Publications

Books

• Strangers (with Maria Simon; 1965)
• Nude Lines For Larking In Present Night Soho
• High Notes
• Poetry for the People (Latimer Press, 1966)
• Bank Holiday: a New Testament for the Love Generation (Latimer Press, 1967)
• Love Poems: Nineteen Poems of Love, Lust and Spirit (New Departures, 1971)
• The Wolverhampton Wanderer (Latimer, 1971; ISBN 978-0901539144)
• Growing Up: Selected Poems & Pictures 1951–79 (Allison and Busby, 1979)
• Midsummer Morning Jog Log (with Peter Blake; Five Seasons Press, 1986, ISBN 978-0950460680)
• A New Waste Land: Timeship Earth at Nillennium (New Departures, 2007, ISBN 978-0902689183)
• Wordsounds and Sightlines: New and Selected Poems (New Departures, 1994, ISBN 978-0902689206)

As editor

• Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain, New Departures 1-24 (Penguin Books, 1969, ISBN 978-0140421163)
• Poetry Olympics Anthologies 1-3
• A Celebration of & for Frances Horovitz (1938–1983) (New Departures, 1984, ISBN 978-0902689121)
• The POW! (Poetry Olympics Weekend) Anthology
• The POP! (Poetry Olympics Party) Anthology
• The POM! (Poetry Olympics Marathon) Anthology (New Departures, 2001, ISBN 978-0902689213)
• The POT! (Poetry Olympics Twenty05) Anthology (New Departures, 2007, ISBN 978-0902689251)
• Jeff Nuttall's Wake on Paper: A Keepsake Anthology of the Life, Work and Play of a Polymath Extraordinaire
• Grandchildren of Albion: An Illustrated Anthology of Voices and Visions of Younger Poets in Britain (New Departures, 1992, ISBN 978-0902689145)

As translator

• Bartók by Gyula Illyés (with Paul Zador)
• Poems by Raoul Hausmann
• Europa by Anatol Stern (with Stefan Themerson)
• The Egghead Republic by Arno Schmidt
• Poems by Andrei Voznesensky (with Richard McKane)

On art

• Alan Davie (1963)
• Michael Horovitz Goes Visual
• Michael Horovitz: Bop Paintings, Collages & Picture-Poems

See also

• Liverpool poets
• The Mersey Sound (book)
• United Kingdom Underground
• British Poetry since 1945

References

1. Poetry Olympics.
2. Michael Horovitz at Discogs.
3. Willis, Tim (15 June 2010). "Portrait of the beatnik as an old poet". Evening Standard. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
4. John-Paul Pryor, "Michael Horovitz: Grandfather of Albion", Dazed, March 2010.
5. Michael Howovitz, "The Beat goes on", openDemocracy, 12 February 2004.
6. The Recusant eZine.
7. Alison Flood, "Michael Horovitz looks to 'shake up' Oxford poetry professor race", The Guardian, 29 April 2010.
8. Alison Flood, "'A poet of great eminence': Geoffrey Hill's landslide victory restores prestige to Oxford professorship", The Guardian, 18 June 2010.

External links

• Poetry Olympics Homepage
• John May interviews Horovitz: part 1 (audio). TheGeneralist.co.uk
• John May interviews Horovitz: part 2 (audio). TheGeneralist.co.uk
• Interview with Michael Horovitz in the London Student 2012
• John-Paul Pryor, "Michael Horovitz: Grandfather of Albion", Dazed, March 2010.