Henry Treece Biography

British poet and novelist, born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, educated at the University of Birmingham. He was a schoolteacher until 1959, when he became a full-time writer. In 1938 he met J. F. Hendry, with whom he became co-founder of the New Apocalypse and co-editor of two of its anthologies, The White Horseman (1941) and The Crown and the Sickle (1943). Treece's How I See Apocalypse (1946) formed the principal critical apologia for the movement. 38 Poems (1940) was his first independent collection; numerous volumes followed, including The Black Seasons (1945) and The Exiles (1952), his last book of poetry. Collected Poems was published in 1946. While some of his poems are identifiably of the New Apocalypse in their unrestrained use of grotesque imagery, his rhythmical control and regularity of structure give his work a durably traditional character. His religious poems exhibit the historical tendencies of his imagination which are most apparent in his fiction. His numerous historical novels, which include The Dark Island (1952), Electra (1963), and The Queen's Brooch (1966), are vividly imagined and compellingly developed. Treece also produced much historical fiction for juveniles and a number of mystery stories with contemporary settings. His critical works include Dylan Thomas: ‘Dog among the Faires’ (1949), the first substantial study of the poet's work.