Frank Kendon

Frank Kendon. Courtesy St John's College, Cambridge.

Frank Samuel Herbert Kendon (12 September 1893 - 28 December 1959) was an English poet, prose writer, and academic.

Life

Kendon was born at Bethany, Kent, where his father, also Samuel Kendon, was headmaster of Bethany School.

Kendon was educated at Bethany School and then at St John's College, Cambridge.

He began publishing poetry in the 1920s, and later wrote and published stories and a novel. He was also worked as an illustrator and journalist. From 1935 to 1954 he was on the staff of Cambridge University Press. At the beginning of World War II he was a campaigning pacifist.

Kendon had a son named Adam Kendon, born 1934 in London.

After the war, he undertook the translations of the Psalms in the New English Bible, but died before he could complete the work.

Recognition

Kendon won Cambridge's Seatonian Prize for poetry three times: in 1942, for The Flawless Stone; in 1945, for Each Silver Fly; and in 1947, for Cage and Wing.

Kendon became a Fellow of St John's College in 1948, and remained a member of the College's fellowship until his death.

Publications

Poetry

• Poems by Four Authors (by Edward Lewis Davison, J.R. Ackerley, Frank Kendon, & A.Y. Campbell). Cambridge, UK: Bowes & Bowes, 1923.
• Poems and Sonnets. London: John Lane, 1924.
• Arguments and Emblems. London: John Lane, 1925.
• A Life and Death of Judas Iscariot (long poem). London: John Lane, 1926.
• Tristram (long poem). London: J.M. Dent, 1934.
• The Cherry Minder. London: J.M. Dent, 1935.
• "The Interrupter". Fortnightly Review 147 (1940).
• The Flawless Stone (long poem). Cambridge, UK: Cambrige University Press, 1942.
• The Time Piece (long poem). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1945.
• Each Silver Fly (long poem). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1946.
• Cage & Wing (long poem). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1947.
• Jacob & Thomas: Darkness (verse dialogue). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1950.

Novel

• Martin Makesure. London: J.M. Dent, 1950.

Non-fiction

• Mural paintings in English Churches During the Middle Ages: an introductory essay on the folk influence in religious art. London: John Lane, 1923.
• The Small Years (autobiography). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press / New York: Macmillan, 1930.
• The Adventure of Poetry. London: A. & C. Black, 1932.

Translated

• Thirty-Six Psalms: An English version. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1963.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

Fonds

• Kendon, Frank Samuel Herbert (1893-1959) at the National Archives

External links

Poems

• "Boys Bathing"

Books

• Frank Kendon at Amazon.com

About

• Frank Samuel Herbert Kendon (1893-1959): Poet at St John's College, Cambridge