Paul Hugh Howard Potts (19 July 1911 – 26 August 1990), a British-born poet who lived in British Columbia in his youth, [1] [2] was the author of Dante Called You Beatrice (1960), a memoir of unrequited love. One of the women treated in the memoir was Jean Hore, who married the writer Philip O'Connor but ended up confined as a schizophrenic for over fifty years until her death. [3] [4] [5]
Potts was born in Datchet, Berkshire [6] to (Arthur George) Howard Potts (1869-1918), who had emigrated to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where he was a partner in a bakery and confectionery business, [7] and his Irish wife Julia Helen Kavanagh (also recorded as Cavanagh). [8] Arthur Potts's father, Dr Walter Jeffery Potts (1837-1898), [9] had married Julia, daughter of Sir Thomas Branthwaite Beevor, 3rd Baronet; [10] many descendants with the name 'Beevor-Potts' live in Canada. [11] [12] [13]
He was educated in Canada, England (at Stonyhurst until the age of sixteen [14]) and Italy (at a Jesuit college in Florence), [15] but from the early 1930s he lived in London. He frequented the Soho- Fitzrovia area where he would sell broadsheet copies of his poetry in the streets and pubs. [16] [17]
Among Potts's literary friends were George Orwell and the English poet George Barker. [18] [19] [20] Potts's memoir of Orwell, "Don Quixote on a Bicycle", appeared in The London Magazine in 1957 [21] [22] and became a chapter of Dante Called You Beatrice. His 1948 essay “The World of George Barker” appeared in Poetry Quarterly. [23]
In late middle-age, Potts was '...balding' with 'a stutter that he mixed with rapid blinking and an amused chuckle as he started a sentence', eventually becoming a dissolute figure 'barred from Soho pubs'. [24]
Potts died in 1990 of smoke inhalation from a fire in his bedroom; he had been house-bound for some years. [25]
Paul Hugh Howard Potts (19 July 1911 – 26 August 1990), a British-born poet who lived in British Columbia in his youth, [1] [2] was the author of Dante Called You Beatrice (1960), a memoir of unrequited love. One of the women treated in the memoir was Jean Hore, who married the writer Philip O'Connor but ended up confined as a schizophrenic for over fifty years until her death. [3] [4] [5]
Potts was born in Datchet, Berkshire [6] to (Arthur George) Howard Potts (1869-1918), who had emigrated to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where he was a partner in a bakery and confectionery business, [7] and his Irish wife Julia Helen Kavanagh (also recorded as Cavanagh). [8] Arthur Potts's father, Dr Walter Jeffery Potts (1837-1898), [9] had married Julia, daughter of Sir Thomas Branthwaite Beevor, 3rd Baronet; [10] many descendants with the name 'Beevor-Potts' live in Canada. [11] [12] [13]
He was educated in Canada, England (at Stonyhurst until the age of sixteen [14]) and Italy (at a Jesuit college in Florence), [15] but from the early 1930s he lived in London. He frequented the Soho- Fitzrovia area where he would sell broadsheet copies of his poetry in the streets and pubs. [16] [17]
Among Potts's literary friends were George Orwell and the English poet George Barker. [18] [19] [20] Potts's memoir of Orwell, "Don Quixote on a Bicycle", appeared in The London Magazine in 1957 [21] [22] and became a chapter of Dante Called You Beatrice. His 1948 essay “The World of George Barker” appeared in Poetry Quarterly. [23]
In late middle-age, Potts was '...balding' with 'a stutter that he mixed with rapid blinking and an amused chuckle as he started a sentence', eventually becoming a dissolute figure 'barred from Soho pubs'. [24]
Potts died in 1990 of smoke inhalation from a fire in his bedroom; he had been house-bound for some years. [25]