Godfrey John
Godfrey John was born and grew up in Wales. He was a poet and teacher of Christian Science.
He served in the Royal Air Force. John graduated from Cambridge University[1] where he was boxing team captain and a "light blue", and was a British amateur heavyweight boxing champion. For more than 40 years, poems and essays by John were published in the Christian Science Monitor.[2]
Godfrey John moved to the United States in 1958, where he lived and worked and received a first award from the Academy of American Poets.[3] He taught English at several colleges in the United States,[1] and later worked as an arts critic for the Christian Science Monitor. He became a public practitioner of Christian Science.[4] In 1970, he moved to Canada, where he became a dual citizen (Canadian and British). In Canada, he also became a Christian Science teacher and served briefly on the Christian Science Board of Lectureship. For many years he was also active as a voluntary probation and parole officer.
Publications
Godfrey John was widely published in the Christian Science periodicals. He published a collection of poems and essays in the books Five Seasons (Foursquare Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1977) and Compassion Wins (Thomson-Shore, Inc., Dexter, Michigan, 2001).[4] The foreword of his second book was written by Rushworth Kidder.[5] Some of his poems are in the Welsh cywydd form.
References
- 1 2 "Christian Science Lecture Scheduled for Monday" Ludington Daily News, Ludington, Michigan (June 13, 1991). Retrieved November 19, 2013
- ↑ "Thanks awfully" Christian Science Monitor (July 24, 2003). Retrieved November 19, 2013
- ↑ Biographical notes, back cover. Five Seasons (1977)
- 1 2 Kim Shippey, "Writing...a kind of prayer" Christian Science Sentinel (September 19, 2005). Retrieved November 19, 2013 (subscription required)
- ↑ Foreword, Compassion Wins, pp. v-vi. (2001) ISBN 0-9707341-0-7