Reginald John Clemo (Jack Clemo) (March 11 1916 - July 25 1994) was a British poet and writer, strongly associated both with his native Cornwall and his Christian belief. His work is visionary and inspired by the Cornish landscape. He was the son of a clay-kiln worker, and his mother, Eveline Clemo (née Polmounter, died 1977), was a dogmatic Nonconformist.

He was born near St. Austell, and had no formal schooling after age 13. He became deaf around age 20, and blind in 1955 (19 years later). His early work was published in the local press; he first received recognition in connection with the Festival of Britain.

The massive china clay mines and works around which he grew up feature strongly in his work.

His former home was demolished by the Goonvean china clay company on September 6 2005 to make way for laboratories. This has provoked much anger locally and from fans of the poet.

There is a small museum of his life and works at Trethosa chapel which is run by volunteers.

His literary papers, including manuscripts of prose and poetry works, are held by the University of Exeter.

Works

• Wilding Graft (1948) novel ISBN 0907746179
• Confession of a Rebel (1949) autobiography
• The Clay Verge (1951) poems
• The Invading Gospel (1958) theology
• The Map of Clay(1961) poems
• Cactus on Carmel (1967) poems
• The Echoing Tip (1971)
• Broad Autumn (1975)
• The Marriage of a Rebel 1988 ISBN 0340488956
• Selected Poems (1988) ISBN 1852240520
• Approach to Murano (1993) poems Bloodaxe
• The Cured Arno (1995) poems Bloodaxe
• The Awakening - Poems Newly Found edited by John Hurst, Alan M. Kent and Andrew C. Symons
• The Shadowed Bed novel
• The Clay Kiln novel ISBN 1900147203

External Links

• Jack Clemo literary papers at the University of Exeter

1916 births | 1994 deaths | Deafblind people | English poets | Natives of Cornwall | Cornish writers | Cornish poets