The first event in a new series of Legatum Institute lectures marking the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Her Majesty the Queen. Lord Gowrie discusses how poets writing in Britain and the United Sates have influenced each other, and the societies in which they live, during the period 1953-2013.
The literary titans of the epoch include T. S. Eliot, an American who established himself in London life, and W.H. Auden whose imagination was nourished by the experience of living in New York City. Grey Gowrie speaks with a particular authority on this subject since he was an assistant to the poet Robert Lowell at Harvard and then a lecturer in American literature at University College, London before embarking on a distinguished public career which has included periods as a Cabinet Minister with responsibility for the Arts and later as a Chairman of the Arts Council of England.
The Domino Hymn: Poems from Harefield (2005), a collection of his own verse, has been garlanded with praise.
Speaker
Lord Gowrie, Poet, former Cabinet Minister and Company Chairman
Introduction
Jeffrey Gedmin, President and CEO, Legatum Institute
Chair
Hywel Williams, Senior Advisor, Legatum Institute
About 'The Promise of Freedom' Series
‘The Promise of Freedom’
series focuses on the relationship between British and American culture in the period 1953-2013. How did the creative arts in the UK impact on the American cultural scene, and vice versa? And what was the nature of the contribution made by poets, visual artists, musicians and playwrights to the wider political, social and economic life of these two countries?
The series includes
Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery,
Dame Harriet Walter, British actress, and a senior military commander. In addition, the world premiere of
Sir John Tavener's Three Poems by George Herbert, a work commissioned by the Legatum Institute, will be performed at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C.
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