D. J. Enright
| D. J. Enright | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dennis Joseph Enright March 11, 1920 Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | December 31, 2002 (aged 82) England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Academic, poet, novelist, critic |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Poetry, fiction, essays |
Dennis Joseph "D. J." Enright (11 March 1920 – 31 December 2002) was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic. He authored Academic Year (1955), Memoirs Of A Mendicant Professor (1969) and a wide range of essays, reviews, anthologies, children's books and poems.
D. J. was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and educated at Leamington College and Downing College, Cambridge. After graduating he held a number of academic posts outside the United Kingdom: in Egypt, Japan, Thailand and notably in Singapore (from 1960). He at times attributed his lack of success in finding a post closer to home to writing for Scrutiny and his short association with F. R. Leavis; whose influence he mainly and early, but not entirely, rejected.
As a poet he was identified with the Movement. His 1955 anthology, Poets of the 1950s, served to delineate the group of British poets in question — albeit somewhat remotely and retrospectively, since he was abroad and it was not as prominent as the Robert Conquest collection New Lines of the following year. Returning to London in 1970, he edited Encounter magazine, with Melvin J. Lasky, for two years. He subsequently worked in publishing.
Enright gained some notoriety in Singapore after his inaugural lecture at the University of Singapore on 17 November 1960, titled "Robert Graves and the Decline of Modernism". His introductory remarks on the state of culture in Singapore were the subject of a Straits Times article. "'Hands Off' Challenge to 'Culture Vultures'", the next day. Among other things, he stated that it was important for Singapore and Malaya to remain "culturally open", that culture was something to be left for the people to build up, and that for the government to institute "a sarong culture, complete with pantun competitions and so forth" was futile.
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