22 Facts About Clive Wilmer

Clive Wilmer was a British poet, who published nine volumes of poetry.

Clive Wilmer was a critic, literary journalist, broadcaster and lecturer.

Clive Wilmer was born on 10 February 1945 in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England.

Clive Wilmer grew up in South London, where he attended Emanuel School, going on to read English at King's College, Cambridge.

Clive Wilmer was the brother of writer and photographer Val Wilmer.

Clive Wilmer had a daughter, a son and two grandsons, and shared his life with the historian of science Patricia Fara.

Clive Wilmer lived latterly in Cambridge, where he was Emeritus Fellow of Sidney Sussex College.

Clive Wilmer had been an Honorary Fellow of Anglia Ruskin University, an Anniversary Fellow of Whitelands College, University of Roehampton, and an Honorary Patron of the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow.

Clive Wilmer died in Cambridge on 13 March 2025, at the age of 80.

Clive Wilmer saw religion as fundamental to what he wrote, yet he did not associate himself with a parochial view of spiritual matters.

Clive Wilmer's work is marked by an enthusiasm for architecture and visual culture.

Clive Wilmer was an advocate for the work of the Victorian critic, artist, philanthropist and social reformer John Ruskin.

Clive Wilmer was a Director of the Guild from 2004 to 2019 and the Master from 2009 to 2019.

Clive Wilmer was the editor of Penguin selections of John Ruskin and William Morris.

In 2023, Clive Wilmer received the annual Lifetime Achievement Award of the Ruskin Society of North America.

Clive Wilmer was interested in the art of verse translation and has translated from several languages, In particular, he translated in collaboration with the Hungarian poet George Gomori.

In recognition of this work, Clive Wilmer was awarded the Endre Ady Memorial Medal by the Hungarian PEN Club in 1998; the Pro Cultura Hungarica medal by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture in 2005; and in Budapest, in 2018, he received the Janus Pannonius Prize for a lifetime's achievement in translation from Hungarian.

Clive Wilmer was the prime mover of the Ezra Pound centenary exhibition Pound's Artists: Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts in London, Paris and Italy, held at Kettle's Yard and the Tate Gallery in 1985.

From 1986 to 1990, Clive Wilmer was one of the four founding editors of the magazine Numbers.

Clive Wilmer contributed poems and articles to a wide range of newspapers and periodicals, including the Times Literary Supplement, PN Review and The London Magazine.

Clive Wilmer's annotated edition of Gunn's Selected Poems was published by Faber and Faber in 2017.

Clive Wilmer co-edited The Letters of Thom Gunn, and edited The Essays of Thom Gunn.