Adrian Mitchell is one of the stars of the pop poetry movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He is committed to poetry as an oral medium and sees himself primarily as a performer; it is, therefore, not surprising that he has devoted much energy to drama. In addition to his numerous plays, libretti, and five volumes of poetry, he has also written three novels. All these works express his idealistic socialism: his goal is not only to right the world's wrongs but also to establish contact with mass audiences. The poetry he has written over the past twenty-five years is generally characterized by easy accessibility, and it expresses the sentiments of the protest subculture of the 1960s. As Mitchell wrote in 1970, "The Lowest Common Denominator are the only audience worth bothering about."

Born in London in 1932, to James Gibb Mitchell, a scientist, and Kathleen Fabian Mitchell...