Although he is the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry, Geoffrey Grigson is better known for his work as a collector, editor, and critic of the works of other men of letters and the arts. This reputation as a literary entrepreneur dates from 1933, the year in which he founded New Verse, a highly influential poetry magazine which published early poems by W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Stephen Spender, and Dylan Thomas, among a great many others. Grigson has written, edited, or contributed to scores of books on art, literature, and nature (some of these for children), has edited the works of poets from John Dryden to John Clare, and has compiled many anthologies of poetry. His often acerbic and polemical writings on art and literature have appeared in many important journals and periodicals, and several collections of his criticism have been published.

Grigson was born...