Life
1905-1995; b. 8 June, Dublin; son of Denis Coffey (1st President of UCD,
1908-40; ed. Mount St. Benedict,
Gorey, Co. Wexford, 1917-19; Clongowes Wood College, 1919-22; then in
Paris (studying for Baccalauréat); and UCD, 1924-1930 (BA, BSc.,
and MSc.); also BA from Institution St. Vincent (Senlis, Oise), 1924;
amateur boxer; issued translations of Claudel and others with poems by
Denis Devlin (Poems, 1930), in the year they first met; studied
Physical Chemistry, Paris, under Jean-Baptiste Perrin [1926 Nobel winner],
1930-33; changed to philosophy and studied at Institut Catholique de
Paris under Jacques Maritain, 1933, taking licentiate exam in 1936; met
Thomas MacGreevy, 1932-33; published Three Poems in Paris (Librairie
Jeannette Monnier [F. Paillait] 1933) [150 copies]; introduced to Beckett
by MacGreevy in summer 1934 and praised with McGreevy in Beckett’s
Bookman article, ‘Recent Irish Poetry’; associated with
Beckett and Devlin in Bar du Depart, Paris; played golf in Dublin with
Beckett; contrib. to Radio Éireann programmes; returned to Paris
as exchange student to work on philosophy doctorate; m. 1938; contrib.to
Eliot’s journal Criterion; issued Third Person (London:
George Reavey 1938); m. Bridget Rosalind Baynes; holidaying in Ireland
and unable to return to Paris at outbreak of war; settled in London with
young family; became RAF VR instructor in Maths; spent two years school-teaching
[at Winchester College] and working in bank; received doctoral degree
from Institut Catholique, Paris 1947; moved to US, teaching philosophy
at St. Louis, Missouri, 1947-52, where he was often on bad terms with
his Jesuit employers and where his identity as a poet was virtually unknown;
contrib. to The Modern Schoolman, 1948-49; resigned 1952; lived
penuriously at eastern edge of Ozarks; worked as 6th-form maths. teacher
in London and Southampton, 1954-69; wrote ‘Missouri Sequence’,
1961-65, first appearing in University Review (1962) and dealing
with a premature birth [2nd edn. ded. Leonard Eslick, Professor of Phil.,
St. Louis]; also published ‘Nine-A
Musing’ [Univ. Rev.]; his Selected Poems issued
by Michael Smith (New Writers’
Press 1971); published “Advent”, a poem about a mother’s
morning for her son killed in a motorbike accident, with “Leo”
and a selection of trans. from Eluard, Mallarmé et al. in Brian
Coffey special issue of Irish University Review (Spring 1975);
named literary executor of Denis Devlin, issuing his Collected Poems
(1964) and Heavenly Foreigner (1967); issued Death of Hektor
(Circle Press 1979; Menard 1982); Augustus Young’s BBC radio tribute
(London 1983) in which Cyril Cusack read Advent and Death of
Hektor; Seán Ó Mórdha made a feature programme
(RTE 1985); living in Brimingham in 1992; d. 14 April; publications &
papers incl. typescript of Missouri sequence (21pp.) held in TCD Library.
DIW OCIL FDA
[ top ]
Works
Poetry, [with Denis Devlin,] Poems (Dublin: [priv.] Alex
Thom 1930), 32pp. [4 by Devlin; 5 by Coffey]; Three Poems (Paris:
Librairie Jeannette Monnier 1933), 15,[1]pp.; Third Person [Europa
Poets, No. 7] (London: G. Reavey - Europa Press 1938), 28pp.; Collected
Poems (Dolmen Press 1964), xxiv, 132pp.; Dice Thrown Never Will
Annul Chance (Dublin: Dolmen Press 1965), 32pp.[trans. of Mallarmé’s
Coup de Dés; rep. in [Mallarmé], Selected Poems
and Prose, ed. Mark Ann Caws (NY: New Directions 1982), pp.112-13,
127 [cited in Davis, op. cit., infra., 1995]; Selected Poems (Dublin:
New Writers’ Press 1971), 68pp. [250 signed ltd. edn. ]; “Advent”,
in Irish University Review, Vol. 5., No. 1 (Spring 1975), and Do.
[rep.] (London: Menard Press 1986), [8]pp.; “Death of Hektor”
[1964], in Irish University Review, No. 5, 1 [Special Issue]
(1975), pp.11-29 [intro. by J. C. C. Mays]; later printed as Death
of Hektor (Guilford: Circle Press 1979), ill. S.W. Hayter [ltd. edn.],
and Do. as Death of Hektor: Poem (London: Menard Press 1982),
15pp.; The Big Laugh (Dublin: Sugar Loaf 1976), 29pp; Monster:
A Concrete Poem (London: Advent 1966), ill. John Parsons, [14]pp.;
ltd. edn. 500]; Death of Hektor, in Irish University
Review, No. 5, 1 [‘Special Coffey Issue’] (1975), pp.11-29,
and Do. [rep. edn.] (Guilford: Circle Press 1979; London: Menard
Press 1982), 15pp.; Chanterelles: Short Poems 1971-83 (Cork: Melmoth
Press 1985); Selected Poems (Dublin: New Writers’ Press [Zozimus
Books] 1971), 68pp.; Topos and Other Poems (Bath: Mammon Press
1981), [27]pp.; Poems and Versions 1929-1990, pref. by J. C. C.
Mays (Dublin: Dedalus Press 1991), 243pp.; Poems from Mallarmé
(Dublin: New Writers Press/Menard Press 1991).
Philosophy & Criticism, ‘The Philosophy of Science and the Scientific Attitude: I’, in The Modern Schoolman, 36 (1948), pp.23-35; ‘The Notion of Order According to St. Thomas Aquinas’, in The Modern Schoolman, 28 , 1 (1949), pp.1-18; ‘Notes on Modern Cosmological Speculation’, in The Modern Schoolman, 29, 3 (1952), pp.183-96; ‘Memory’s Murphy Maker’, in Threshold vol. 17 (1962), p.33 [on Beckett]; ‘Of Denis Devlin: Vestiges, Sentences, Presages’, in Irish University Review 2, 10 (1965), pp.3-18; ‘A Note on Rat Island’, in Irish University Review, Vol. 3. no. 8 (1966), pp.25-8; ‘Denis Devlin: Poet of Distance’, in Andrew Carpenter, ed., Place, Personality and the Irish Writer (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1977), 137-57; ‘Extracts from “Concerning Making”’, in The Lace Curtain, 6 (Autumnn 1978), pp.31-7; ‘Memory’s Murphy Maker: Some Notes on Samuel Beckett’, in Threshold, 17 (1962), pp.28-32; “About Poetry”, Dedalus Irish Poets: An Anthology [ed. J. F. Deane] (Dublin: Dedalus Press 1992) [c.p.253-54].
Fiction, Blood Risk [A Contact Book] (London: Futura 1972, 1974, 1975), [4],160pp. Surrounded [Barker Suspense] ([prev. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill 1974; London: Barker 1975), [4], 167pp.
Miscellaneous, ed., Denis Devlin: Poems University Review [Special Issue] (1963; Dolmen 1964) [with epigraph from Douglas Hyde: ‘Bíonn a shlighe féin ag gach file / Agus a chaint féin ag gach bard / Ní lia tír ná gnás / A’s ní ceann ná céard; A way of his own has every poet / And every bard his own way finds; / So many lands, so many habits / so many heads, so many minds.’ [no source.] Also issued Denis Devlin’s The Heavenly Foreigner (Dublin: Dolmen Press 1967), 71pp.
[ top ]
Criticism
Stan Smith, ‘On Other Grounds: The Poetry of Brian Coffey’,
in Douglas Dunn, ed., Two Decades of Irish Writing (Manchester:
Carcanet 1975), pp.59-80.
James Mays, ed. & intro., Irish University Review, Vol. 5, No. 1 [Brian Coffey Special Issue] (Spring 1975), incl. ‘Biographical Notice and Introductory Essay’ and works by Coffey incl. ‘Advent’.
Parkman Howe, ‘Brian Coffey: An Interview [...]’, Éire-Ireland, 13, 1 (1978), p.119.
J. C. C. Mays, ‘Passivity and Openness in Two Long Poems of Brian Coffey’, Irish University Review, Vol. 13, No.1 (Spring 1983), pp.67-82.
Stan Smith, Parkman Howe, Time and Place, The Poetry and Prose of Brian Coffey (Ph.D. thesis UCD 1981).
J. C. C. Mays, ‘Brian Coffey’s Work in Progress’, in Krino, 4 (Autumn 1987), p.65.
Bernard Tucker, ‘What is The Colour of Pi?’ Conversations with Brian Coffey’, Irish Studies Review (Winter 1994/95), pp.35-37 [with photo-port.].
Alex Davis, ‘“Poetry is Ontology”: Brian Coffey’s Poetics’, in Patricia Coughlan & Alex Davis, eds., Modernism in Ireland: The Poetry of the 1930s (Cork UP 1995), pp.150-72.
Jack Morgan, ‘Yeats and Brian Coffey: Poems for their Daughters’, in Deborah McWilliams, ‘Across the Pond: Reflections on Irish Writing, A View from the Irish States’ , Studies, Vol. 88, No. 351 [Special Issue] (Autumn 1999), pp.270-76.
Dónal Moriarty, The Art of Brian Coffey (UCD Press 2000), 143[160]pp.
Alex Davis, ‘The Irish Modernists and Their Legacy’, in Matthew Campbell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry (Cambridge UP 2003), pp.76-93, espec. p.81ff.
Gerald Dawe [with D. E. S. Maxwell & Riana O’Dwyer], ‘20th Century Irish literature’, in Irish Studies, A General Introduction, ed. Bartlett et al., Gill & Macmillan 1988), p.178.
Augustus Young, obituary of Brian Coffey, in The Guardian (21 April 1995).
[Q. auth.], review of Brian Coffey, Poems and Versions 1929-1990 (Dedalus P. 1991) and Poems from Mallarmé (New Writers Press; Menard Press 1991), in [?Irish Times, 1991].
Aisling Ó Domhnaill, review of Poems and Versions (1991) in Books Ireland (Summer 1992).
Alex Davis, ‘“Poetry is Ontology””: Brian Coffey’s Poetics’, in Patricia Coughlan & Alex Davis, eds., Modernism in Ireland: The Poetry of the 1930s (Cork UP 1995), pp.150-72.
Frank Ormsby, Rage for Order: Poetry of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Belfast: Blackstaff 1992), incls. extract.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3.
[ top ]
Notes
Family
album: There is a pencil portrait of Denis Coffey (1864-1945) by Seán
O’Sullivan in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Dr. Coffey [father of the above] trans. De Wulf's Introduction a la philosophie néo-scholastique in Dr. Coffey's translation of 1907 and is cited in Constantine Curran, James Joyce Remembered (1968), p.37.
COPAC (Victoria Univ. Manchester) lists with Denis Devlin, Poems (Dublin: [for authors] Alex Thom 1930), [1-4] 5-23 [24-32]pp. [2 leaves: B4, *4, C2 [D]4; 18.5 cm.]; Three poems (Paris: Librairie Jeannette Monnier 1933), 15,[1]pp. ; Third person [Europa poets, No. 7] (London: G. Reavey - Europa Press 1938), 28pp.; Collected poems (Dolmen Press 1964), xxiv, 132pp.; Dice Thrown Never will Annul Chance: a translation, Mallarme (Dublin: Dolmen Press 1965), [32]pp.; Monster: A Concrete Poem (London: Advent 1966), ill. John Parsons, [14]pp.; ltd. edn. 500]; The heavenly foreigner (Dublin: Dolmen Press 1967), 71pp.; The Time the Place (London: Advent Books 1969), [8]p. [ltd. edn. 226]; rep. as The time and the Place and Other Poems [Advent No. 3] (Southampton: Advent 1976), 17pp.; Selected poems [Zozimus Books] (Dublin: New Writers’ Press 1971), 68pp.; Versheet 1 (Dublin: New Writers’ Press 1971), 6pp.; Abecedarian (Southampton: Advent Books 1974), 32pp., ill. Sandra Hill; The Big laugh (Dublin: Sugar Loaf, 1976), 29pp.; Topos and Other Poems (Bath: Mammon Press 1981), [27]pp.; Death of Hektor: Poem (London: Menard Press 1982), 15pp.; Advent (London: Menard Press 1986), [8]pp., orig. as in Brian Coffey Special Issue. Irish University Review, No. 5, 1 (Dublin 1975).; Advent (London: Menard Press 1986), 42pp.; Poems of Mallarme: bilingual version (London: Menard; Dublin: New Writers’ Press [1990], 34 pp.; The Coloured Word, lith. by Sarah James (Winchester School of Art Press 1988), [32]pp.; Salut: Versions of Some Sonnets of Mallarme (Dublin: HardPressed Poetry [1988], [13]pp.; Poems and versions 1929-1990 (Dublin: Dedalus Press 1991), 243pp.; “form and existence ... [Form Card No. 2; reposte to harry Gilonis’ Form Card No. 1] (London: Form Books 1993); Salute/verse/circumstance [keepsake ... Brian Coffey’s reading at SubVoicive in London] (London: Form Books 1994), [8]pp.; “lines from the conclusion of Part VII of ’Advent’, re-published here to mark Brian Coffey’s 90th year ...” (London: Form Books [Menard Press] 1994 ; Alice Notley, Wendy Mulford, Brian Coffey, Etruscan reader [No. 7] (Buckfastleigh [Newcastle upon Lyne]: Etruscan Press 1997), 141pp. Fiction, ; Blood risk [A contact book] (London: Futura 1972, 1974, 1975), [4],160pp. [fiction]; Surrounded [Barker suspense] (London: Barker 1975), [4], 167pp. [prev. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974) Also, Missouri sequence, 21pp. typescript in TCD Library. Bibl. query: The Voice of the Night (London: Hale 1981), and Do. rep edn. by Dean R. Koontz (London: Star 1985), 277pp.; Gerald Cubitt, Wild New Zealand [photographs], text by Les Molloy; consultants Sue Miller & Brian Coffey (London: New Holland 1994); K.R. Dwyer, The face of fear (London: P. Davies, 1978, 1980 ) [5],244pp. [orog. under name of Brian Coffey (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977). [English in fiction.]
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)