Charles (Stanley) Causley (1917-2003) Biography

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for SATA sketch: Born August 24, 1917, in Launceston, Cornwall, England; died November 4, 2003, in Launceston, England. Educator and author. Strongly influenced by folk songs and ballad forms, Causley was a prolific, award-winning author of poetry for children and adults. Educated at Launceston College, he was interested in poetry as a young man, though he never considered himself a poet in fact until he experienced war in the Royal Navy during World War II. It was during his six years in the navy that he felt he had found an important subject to write about, as well as the form in which to put it. Returning home in 1946, he completed his college education and became a teacher in Cornwall. His first collection, Farewell, Aggie Weston, was published in 1951. Over three dozen collections would follow, including Johnny Alleluia (1961), Six Women (1973), Secret Destinations (1984), and, most recently, Collected Poems, 1951-2000 (2000). Many of Causley's books were written for younger audiences, and he kept publishing children's verses even after he left teaching in 1976. Some of these works include Dick Whittington: A Story from England (1976), Jack the Treacle Eater (1987), and The Merrymaid of Zennor (1999). Although his name might not be the most recognizable in the field of poetry, Causley was much lauded by critics, and many of his poems have become standards, especially in his native England. His honors in clude being named a Commander of the Order of the Brit ish Empire in 1986, and receiving the Ingersoll/T. S. Eliot Award in 1990 and the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in 2000. In 2001, Causley was also one of ten writers to be named a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature.

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