Michael Roberts (writer)

Michael Roberts (6 December 1902 – 13 December 1948), originally named William Edward Roberts, was an English poet, writer, critic and broadcaster, who made his living as a teacher.

He was born in Bournemouth, named William Edward Roberts. He was the eldest child of Edward George Roberts (b. 7 January 1878, d. 14 March 1954) and Henrietta Mary Sellers (b. 23 March 1880, d. 28 June 1918 following the birth of a son nine days earlier). They had a farm in the New Forest. He was educated at Bournemouth School. From 1920 to 1922 he studied at King's College London, taking a BSc in Chemistry. From 1922 to 1925 he read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge; it was during this period of his life he acquired the name Michael (after Mikhail Lomonosov). In 1925 or 1926 he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain but was expelled within a year.

From 1925 to 1931 he taught at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle. Then he moved to London, teaching at Mercers' School from 1931 to 1934. He then returned to the RGS, where he worked until 1941, teaching English, mathematics, physics and chemistry. Having published a first poetry collection in 1930, he started to edit anthologies, of which New Country (1933) became celebrated for the group of poets, including W. H. Auden, it featured. In 1934 he took part in a high-profile series of radio broadcasts, Whither Britain?, together with major figures such as Winston Churchill and Ernest Bevin. In 1935 he married Janet Adam Smith, critic and anthologist, and fellow mountaineer; they lived in Fern Avenue, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne where they were visited by W. H. Auden in September 1937. In 1939 they went to Penrith in Cumberland when the school was evacuated there. There they briefly shared a house with the poet Kathleen Raine.

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