Roy Campbell

Roy Campbell (born Oct. 2, 1901, Durban, S.Af.—died April 22, 1957, near Setúbal, Port.) was a poet whose vigorous extrovert verse contrasted with the uneasy self-searching of the more prominent socially conscious English poets of the 1930s.

Campbell led an adventurous life—much of it in France, Spain, and Portugal—and followed a variety of occupations, including bullfighting. He fought with the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War and during World War II served in East and North Africa until disabled. Five years before his death in an automobile crash, he had settled in Portugal.

Campbell’s first long poem, The Flaming Terrapin (1924), which won him immediate recognition, exalts the instinctive vital force that brings forth intelligent human effort out of apathy and disillusionment. The Wayzgoose (1928) is a satire on South African intellectuals; and The Georgiad (1931) is a savage attack on the Bloomsbury group in England. Campbell’s lyrical works include Adamastor (1930), Flowering Reeds (1933), and Talking Bronco (1946). Campbell translated, brilliantly, a number of Spanish, Portuguese, and French writers and wrote two autobiographical books, Broken Record (1934) and Light on a Dark Horse (1951).

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