Edward Archibald (E.A.) MARKHAM ( 1939 - 2008 )
News reached us recently of the death of E.A. (Archie) Markham, poet, novelist, editor, teacher and all-round good guy, a great loss to literature in general and his many friends, former students and readers. He was one of a generation of Caribbean writers who transformed the landscape of English language publishing between the late 1960s and the 1990s, and rarely did what was expected of him, operating like a cricketer whose bowling always has the opposite spin to the one the reader felt prepared for.
His discursive, eloquent and deceptively conversational written style was always both challenging and engrossing, moving between identities (his poetic personae included a white woman, Sally Goodman, a young black man writing of inner city experience, Paul St Vincent, and in later years his own self deprecating alter ego Pewter Stapleton among many others) and admirably refused to be pinned down as a ‘Black’ writer, a ‘British’ writer, or any other kind of writer except himself.
I had the good fortune to study with Archie between 1993 and 1996 in Sheffield, and to teach part time in his department until 1998, contributing articles to Sheffield Thursday while he edited it, and keeping sporadically in touch with him thereafter.
It’s fair to say that long sessions during which Archie would dissect and reassemble my raw draft poems in his cluttered room on Collegiate Crescent remain an influence, with lines even now scrutinised with the thought ‘would Archie let this stock phrase, dull rhythm or florid analogy pass?’ as I write and revise. The answer is usually ’probably not’, and the necessary improvements are duly made.
I’m deeply saddened that there is now no prospect of an end to what I hoped was merely a rather lengthy gap between meetings, where he might again embark on one of his famously digressive chats - Archie was a man perfectly capable of taking twenty minutes to explain why he couldn’t spare five, often reaching his point by way of fascinating detours through subjects as diverse as Virginia Woolf’s prose style, Papua New Guinea, 1970s housing co-operatives, bread recipes and the latest essays by Martin Carter or Joseph Brodsky.
This love of the unexpected was of a piece with the writing, where digression became both a strategy and a method of undermining received opinion. Markham as a critic, author and editor held many strong views, and was vocal in promoting the causes, works and subjects he cared about, but in his writing the unexamined position is always something suspect. Without digression, how can we possibly arrive at the most important thoughts, those we hadn’t anticipated before we began?
Despite the lapse of time since our last meeting, Archie’s voice remains a strong one when I write and revise work, or edit an issue of Staple. I suspect those afternoons and evenings in Sheffield have ensured he’ll remain one of those readers I always have in mind, against whose expectations I’m measuring every word, line, idea and stanza. Those who didn’t have the pleasure of knowing the man personally can be assured that his voice remains available in his many books, and I hope more of Staple’s readers will make his acquaintance that way.
Our condolences go out to his friends, colleagues and family.
NEW ISSUE OUT NOW! EAST MIDLANDS SPECIAL!
Featuring stories by Clare Brown, Michael Pinchbeck, Roberta Dewa, Marilyn Ricci, Karen Jardine, Peter de Ville, James K Walker, Georgina Lock, Pascale Quiviger, Anthony Cropper, Richard Pilgrim and Jonathan Taylor, poems by Martin Stannard, Rosie Garner, Derek Buttress, D.A. Prince, Alan Baker, Sheila Smith, Deborah Tyler Bennett, Shaun Belcher, Sue Dymoke, Robert Hamberger, Robin Maunsell and Pat Marum, texts and photographs by Graham Lester George, documentary film-maker Jeanie Finlay’s ’Goth Till I Die’, John Lucas translating Baudelaire, a history of Nottingham Writers’ Studio, reviews, comments and much more. Catching the spirit of the East Midlands in a handy anthology with a picture of a man sitting on a duck on the front.
STILL AVAILABLE: SPRING SUMMER 2007 DOUBLE HELPING!
Bumper double spring and summer number featuring poems from Peter Porter, Mimi Khalvati, Douglas Houston, Mairi Macinnes, Roger Caldwell, Sophie Mayer, Desmond Graham, Clare Crossman, John Seed, Paul Groves, Christine McNeill, John Barnie and many more, alongside short fiction and prose from Mary Michaels, Jill Campbell and Chris Sewart. The issue also includes artwork and natural history photographs by rising Edinburgh-based artist Andrea Roe, a new translation of a story by Czech author and associate of Franz Kafka, Oskar Baum, Douglas Houston’s fascinating memoir of taking ‘Tea With Dr Larkin’, and a speculative article on mysterious artist Cyril Seaton, known as ‘the sexy surrealist from naughty Nottingham’.
Our readers may also be interested to know that James Caruth, whose debut collection A Stone’s Throw was published by Staple earlier in the year, has been selected for the latest Forward Poetry Anthology. Copies of Jim’s book are still available at £5 (free P&P).
