The Chameleon Poet: A Life of George Baker

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.