STOKER, Richard 1938-

PERSONAL: Born November 8, 1938, in Castleford, Yorkshire, England; son of Bower Morrell (an inventor and research engineer) and Winifred (a homemaker; maiden name, Harling) Stoker; married Gillian Patricia Watson, July 10, 1986. Ethnicity: "Yorkshire (by descent)." Education: Attended University of Huddersfield, 1953-58, studied privately with Winifred Smith Bmus and Harold Truscott; Attended Royal Academy of music, studied privately with Lennox Berkeley; studied privately with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, France, 1962-63; also studied privately with Eric Fenby, Arthur Benjamin, and Benjamin Britten. Politics: Conservative. Religion: Agnostic. Hobbies and other interests: Skiing, swimming, squash, philosophy, nodding off.

ADDRESSES: Home—38 Lee Rd., Blackheath, London SE3 9RU, England. Office—38 Lee Road, London SE3 9RU, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Musician, painter, and writer. Royal Academy of Music, London, England, professor, tutor, fellow and associate; Royal College of Music, associate; also part-time tutor at Cambridge University and St. Paul's. Music performed in the United States at Town Hall, New York, NY, State University of New York— Binghamton, and University of Vermont. RAM Guild, founding member and treasurer, 1986—. European Atlantic Guild, member, 1987-99; Atlantic Council,

founding member, 1988—; Lewisham Visual Arts Festival, treasurer, 1990, 1992; British Academy of Composers and Songwriters (BACS), committee member 1995—, also served on BACS International and awards committee. Justice of the peace, 1995-2003, and crown court justice, 1997-2003.

MEMBER: PEN International, Royal Academy of Music (fellow), BACS, English PEN, Royal Society of Literature, Blackheath Poetry Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Manson Awards, 1960-1962; Dove Prize, Royal Academy of Music, 1962; Mendelssohn scholarship, 1962; Editor's Choice Awards, 1995-1997, Library of Poetry; Man of the Year Award, American Biographical Institute, 1997, 1999; composition awards.

WRITINGS:

Words without Music: Selected Poems, Golden Eagle (Leicester, England), 1969, published as Words without Music, Outposts Publications (Walton-on-Thames, England), 1974.

Portrait of a Town (poetry), CMP Publications, 1972.

Open Window, Open Door (autobiography), Regency Press, 1985.

Tanglewood (novel), Merlin, 1987.

Between the Lines (autobiography), CMP Publications, 1990.

Supermark (one-act play), 1991.

Screened—Take Five (two-act play), 1994.

Diva (novel and short stories), Thomas Lyster, 1995.

(With Domminick Browne) Harry-Halleluyah (play), 1995.

Collected Short Stories, 1996.

Also author of Strolling Players (poetry), Evans Brothers; author of film scripts, libretti, and song cycles; composer of works for guitar, organ, voice, piano, orchestra, opera, and chamber groups. Poetry and short stories are represented in nearly 100 collections, including Turn Back the Clock, Third Age Trust, 1998; Traveller's Tales, Third Age Trust, 1999; Tales from Dark Corners, New Fiction, 1999; Sealing Wax and String, New Fiction, 2000; and A Magic Carpet Ride, New Fiction, 2001. Contributor to book, New Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Contributor to periodicals, including Guardian, Books and Bookmen, Records and Recordings, Performance, Mind, Samaritans, and RAM. Editor, Composer, 1969-80.

ADAPTATIONS: The poetry collection Portrait of a Town was adapted as a screenplay by Standard Pictures. The plays Supermark, Screened—Take Five, and Harry-Halleluyah were also adapted as screenplays. Stoker's piano music was recorded on Piano Music of Richard Stoker, released by Priory Records; music for strings was also recorded by Gaudeamus in 1977.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel, Where Love Has Gone; also a collection of poetry; a collection of short stories.

SIDELIGHTS: Richard Stoker told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is to communicate, as communication is vital to me in all its forms. Art is useless if it fails to communicate. Although I approach writing in words in the same way as in sound and in pictures, it is word-writing that is the most understandable, followed closely by photography and cinema; poetry and music express the spiritual qualities without exactitude. The commercial is killing real art; everything will have to become simple again to stand a chance of being understood.

"A primary influence on my work is the fact that I was born on the eve of Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938. This has always stirred me, and I wrote a poem about it. Also my visits to New York inspired me to write about that great city in 1970. The psychologist Alfred Adler was also a great influence on me, especially in the essays edited by Rowena and Hans Ausbacher of Burlington, Vermont.

"A recurrent theme in my work is the surprises in everyday life, which are original and unique, often noticed and heard while traveling on a train, plane, or the subway, or crossing stations by foot or browsing in book shops. All great poetry influences me, from Donne through Shelley to Yeats, Hardy, and Eliot, then on to Auden and Spender.

"I have written poetry since the age of eight. Overheard conversations inspire me to write, and the inequalities of life witnessed each day make me think and are a kind of inspiration. Humor in all its forms is important also. A poem should have a striking quality, which makes people think or wonder. W. H. Auden, a fellow Yorkshire man, is a master of this. R. V. Emerson was also a huge influence, and his great essays stimulated me to write. It is his bicentenary as I write this, and we all owe the great American sage so very much.

"I love writing with pen and ink. I also like wordprocessing. I write very quickly and revise very little. I often find first thoughts are best. I write music and paint the same way, although I have to spend longer and revise more when writing poetry.

"I tend to write in order to influence future generations to follow my ideas and ideals. Sometimes I try to do it openly, but I like best the suggestibility of poetry; I would hate to preach or teach, but I want my writings to be of influence. My inspiration comes directly from the subjects I write about. I often get to the point when my inspiration moves ahead of my thought processes. I'm sure my New York poem is my best one. It was inspired by my time in that city and my research on it since then, tied to my boyhood experiences in our city of Leeds and the history of Gramercy Park, plus the landings there.

"My writing changes little over time, but my expression becomes easier and the words flow more freely, especially if I take long breaks. I find Paul Valéry to be right: great truths are near the surface, never ever deeply buried. To be simple in art is the great secret, but how to achieve this is a mystery. A very little encouragement goes a long way. Writing of value needs to be more than therapeutic, although most writing is therapeutic and valuable to the writers themselves. I am at last happy to spend a long time on my latest project, a novel about the future, but not like anything done before. It goes very well but at its own pace.

"The civilizing effect of art is what influences me most. My favorite artists were great civilizers: among writers—E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, T. S. Eliot; among painters—Schiele, Hockney, Piper; among composers—Brahms, Lennox Berkeley, Barber, Poulenc. All were great civilizers. It is this virtue that to me is the greatest quality to emulate as a creative artist; it will become classical in the best sense eventually. As the writer Muriel Spark has truly said, 'Nothing is lost on the artist, and wonders never cease.'"