Al Alvarez

1929 –
2019
Read poems by this poet

Alfred Alvarez was born on August 5, 1929, in London, England. A poet, critic, novelist, and essayist, Alvarez published under the names A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez. He graduated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was a visiting fellow at Princeton University. 

Alvarez is the author of numerous books, including the poetry collections Apparition (University of Queensland Press, 1971); Autumn to Autumn and Selected Poems 1953–1976 (Macmillan, 1978); and New & Selected Poems (Between the Lines, 2002).

The youngest scholar chosen to give the Christian Glass Lectures at Princeton University, Alvarez was poetry critic and editor of The Observer from 1956 to 1966, where he published Robert Lowell, Robert Graves, and Sylvia Plath. 

Alvarez lived in London until his death on September 23, 2019.