Harold Massingham
{{Short description|English poet (1932–2011)}}
{{For|the British writer on ruralism and poet Harold John Massingham (1888–1952)|H. J. Massingham}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{infobox writer
|name=Harold Massingham
|birth_name=Harold W. Massingham
|birth_date={{birth date|1932|10|25|df=y}}
|birth_place=Mexborough, South Yorkshire, England
|death_date={{death date and age|2011|3|13|1932|10|25|df=y}}
|pseudonym=Mass
|occupation=Poet
|nationality=English
|alma_mater=Victoria University of Manchester
|awards=Cholmondeley Award (1968)
}}
Harold W. Massingham (25 October 1932 in Mexborough – 13 March 2011) was an English poet.
Life
He was the son of H. W. Massingham (a collier from Mexborough). He attended the same Mexborough Grammar School as the Yorkshire poet and Poet Laureate Ted Hughes but in a class two years below.
He taught at the University of Manchester; his students included Steven Waling, and Trevor Griffiths.[https://books.google.com/books?id=k5onAAAAMAAJ&q=Harold+Massingham+manchester Mike Poole & John Wyver, Powerplays: Trevor Griffiths in Television, 1984, London: BFI Publishing, p. 12]
Harold Massingham lived in Mexborough through his childhood, and then Manchester from his university days, until moving with his wife Pat to Spain in the 1990s. He published three volumes of poetry in 1965, 1972 and 1992.[http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/obituaries/Vernon-Scannell.3519869.jp Ian McMillan, Vernon Scannell, Yorkshire Post, 23 November 2007]
His work was published in The New Yorker, and Alhambra Poetry Calendar.
Under the pseudonym ‘Mass’ he set crosswords for national newspapers and magazines for more than 30 years.Jonathan Crowther (2006) A-Z of Crosswords, London: Collins {{ISBN|978-0-00-722923-9}}, {{ISBN|0-00-722923-2}} He also compiled chess puzzles.{{cite web |url=http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1413025_farewell_to_mass_crossword_king_harold_massingham_dies_aged_78 |title=Farewell to 'Mass': Crossword king Harold Massingham dies, aged 78 {{!}} Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk |website=menmedia.co.uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112174653/http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1413025_farewell_to_mass_crossword_king_harold_massingham_dies_aged_78 |archive-date=2012-11-12}}
Awards
- 1968 Cholmondeley Awards for Poets
Work
=Poetry broadsheets=
- Doomsday
- The Magician, Manchester: Phoenix Pamphlet Poets Press, 1969
- Seafarer
- Wanderer
- The Magician's Attic
=Poetry books=
- {{cite book| title=Black Bull Guarding Apples| place=London| publisher=Longmans| year=1965 }} [https://books.google.com/books?id=fa7dCpASgOcC&dq=Harold+Massingham&pg=PA13 Chris Jones, Strange likeness: the use of Old English in twentieth-century poetry, Oxford University Press, 2006]
- Frost Gods, Macmillan, 1972
- Sonatas & Dreams, Littlewood Arc, 1992
- Selected Poems, Calder Valley Poetry, 2021
=Anthology=
- {{cite book| title=An Arthurian Reader | editor=John Matthews | publisher=Aquarian Press | isbn=0-85030-778-3| date=Oct 1988| chapter=The Finding of Merlin |url=http://www.locusmag.com/index/t86.htm#A10837 }}
- {{cite book| chapter=Tree-dream | title=The Poetry Book Society Anthology 1989-90 | publisher=Hutchinson | date=October 1989| isbn=978-0-09-173992-8 }}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/community/obituaries/harold_massingham_1_3197384 Harold Massingham Obituary, Yorkshire Post, 19 March 2011]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20121112174653/http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1413025_farewell_to_mass_crossword_king_harold_massingham_dies_aged_78 Paul Britton, Farewell to ‘Mass’: Crossword king Harold Massingham dies, aged 78, Manchester Evening News, 23 March 2011]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massingham, Harold}}
Category:People from Mexborough
Category:Academics of the University of Manchester