Henry Treece
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Henry Treece (December 1911 – June 10, 1966) was a British poet and writer, who worked also as a teacher, and editor. He is perhaps best remembered now as a historical novelist, with series of books both for adult readers and children. His five Volumes of poetry were: 38 Poems Fortune Press nd.; then by Faber & Faber, Invitation and Warning 1942, The Black Seasons 1945, The Haunted Garden 1947 and The Exiles 1952. He appeared in the 1949 The New British Poets, an Anthology edited by Kenneth Rexroth; but from 1952 with The Dark Island he devoted himself to fiction. Representative of his children's books are the trilogy Viking's Dawn, The Road to Miklagard and Viking's Sunset. He also wrote the children's book War Dog. His play 'Carnival King'(Faber & Faber) was produced at Nottingham Playhouse in 1953 He also worked as a radio broadcaster.
He was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, and graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1933. He went into teaching, first at Tynemouth School, in 1939 married Mary Woodman and settled in Lincolnshire as a teacher at Barton on Humber Grammar School. In World War II he served as an intelligence officer in the RAF and helped John Pudney edit Air Force Poetry.
Other poetry anthologies he was involved with include The New Apocalypse (1939) with J. F. Hendry giving its name to a movement; two further anthologies with Hendry followed. He wrote a critical study of Dylan Thomas, called Dylan Thomas - Dog among the fairies published by Lindsay Drummond, London in 1949. He and Thomas fell out when Thomas refused to sign up as a New Apocalyptic.
He also wrote "Conquerors" in 1932, as a way to reflect on the horrors of war.
He edited issues of Transformation, and A New Romantic Anthology (1949) with Stefan Schimanski, issues of Kingdom Come: The Magazine of War-Time Oxford with Schimanski and Alan Rook, as well as War-Time Harvest. How I See Apocalypse (London, Lindsay Drummond, 1946) was a retrospective statement.
