Vivian Brian Smith

Background

Smith was born in Hobart, Tasmania and studied French at the University of Tasmania from which he graduated with a Master of Arts.

Education

Bachelor, University Tasmania, Hobart, 1954. Master of Arts, University Tasmania, Hobart, 1955. Doctor of Philosophy, University Sydney, Australia, 1970.

Career

He is considered one of the most lyrical and observant Australian poets of his generation. He left Tasmania in the late 1950s and has lived since then in Sydney, where he was a longtime professor at the University of Sydney until his retirement in the early 2000s. He returns to Tasmania every year and his poetry is still influenced by the landscape there.

Smith has published criticism as well as a bibliography of the work of Patrick White.

He has been an advocate of Australian literature and of many individual Australian writers. The most recent collection is Along The Lincolnshire (Salt, 2007).

He is a highly respected critic, having produced key studies on Australian literature and contributed much to the growth and sophistication of criticism surrounding Australian poetry.

Achievements

• Vivian Brian Smith has been listed as a noteworthy English literature educator, poet by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Nettie and Vance Palmer (World Authors)

    (First Edition hardcover, number 332 in Twayne's World Aut...)

  • The poetry of Robert Lowell
  • Letters of Vance and Nettie Palmer, 1915-1963
  • Tide country
  • The Poetry of Robert Lowell (Sydney Studies in Literature)

Membership

Fellow Academy of Humanities of Australia.

Connections

Married Sybille Maria Gottwald. Children: Vanessa, Gabrielle, Nicholas.

Father:

Vivian S.

Mother:

Sybil Olive Daniels

Spouse:

Sybille Maria Gottwald

child:

Gabrielle Smith

child:

Nicholas Smith

child:

Vanessa Smith