Anne Ridler

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Standard Name: Ridler, Anne
Birth Name: Anne Barbara Bradby
Married Name: Anne Barbara Ridler
AR was a twentieth-century poet and verse playwright whose work has been called metaphysical. She also edited and wrote introductions and commentary for literary works by others, produced translations of opera libretti, and left memoirs which were published after her death. Writing about personal experiences (including childbirth), about her faith, and about public or political concerns (much of her earlier poetry is filled with dread and darkness connected with the two World Wars), she links this world closely with her belief in God. AR creates a meditative quality in her poems through complexly structured metaphor. Critic Kathleen Morgan comments that she writes as one who experienced the happiest of family relationships. . . . and her life within that of the family is related to the larger life of the individual child of God.
Morgan, Kathleen. “’The Holiness of the Heart’s Affections’: Poetry of Anne Ridler”. Christian Themes in Contemporary Poets, SCM Press, pp. 144-53.
144-5

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Leisure and Society William Empson
Anne Ridler later remembered him at a poetry reading in October 1943 at the Wigmore Hall in London, held in support of Aid to China and of the National Council for Women . While...
Occupation T. S. Eliot
Eliot now left Lloyds Bank . His most significant work apart from his own writing was his long career in publishing, which made him a mentor to a whole series of distinguished authors. From late...
Textual Production T. S. Eliot
It was an inauspicious time for an opening, because of gathering war-clouds. Anne Ridler later wrote, it was a great pity that Eliot had refused to offer the part [of Harry, the pivotal character] to...
Literary responses T. S. Eliot
Anne Ridler calls this Eliot's finest play.
Ridler, Anne. Memoirs. The Perpetua Press, p. 240 pp.
125

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Ridler, Anne. The Trial of Thomas Cranmer. Faber and Faber, 1956.
Ridler, Anne. Who is My Neighbour?; and, How Bitter the Bread. Faber and Faber, 1963.
Ridler, Anne. “Working for T.S. Eliot: A Personal Reminiscence”. Poetry Review, Vol.
73
, No. 1, pp. 46-9.