Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Al Alvarez

Alfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was a British poet, novelist, essayist, and critic whose multifaceted career bridged literature, personal memoir, and explorations of risk and human extremity.^[1]^[2]^[3] Born in London to a family of Sephardic Jewish heritage that had resided in the UK for over two centuries, Alvarez was educated at Oundle School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he earned a first-class degree in English in 1952.^[1]^[2] He died in London at age 90 from viral pneumonia, survived by his second wife, Anne Adams, whom he married in 1966, and their two children, Luke and Kate; his son Adam from his first marriage to Ursula Barr (1956–1961) predeceased him in 2016.^[1]^[2]^[3] Alvarez's literary influence was profound, particularly as poetry editor of The Observer from 1956 to 1966, where he championed emerging voices and shifted British poetry toward confessional styles inspired by American poets like Robert Lowell.^[1]^[2]^[3] His seminal anthology The New Poetry (1962, revised 1966) introduced works by Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath—whose unpublished poems he published—and Philip Larkin, establishing it as a standard text that critiqued the staid "Movement" poets while embracing raw emotional depth.^[1]^[2]^[3] Alvarez's own poetry collections, including The Survivor (1960), reflected a stark, introspective style, while his nonfiction works like The Savage God (1971)—a bestselling meditation on suicide informed by his close friendship with Plath, whom he saw shortly before her 1963 death—explored themes of despair and creativity.^[1]^[2]^[3] His autobiography Where Did It All Go Right? (1999) candidly recounted his privileged yet troubled upbringing and personal struggles, including a suicide attempt in 1960.^[1]^[2] Beyond literature, Alvarez's writings extended to his passions for risk and adventure, notably in The Biggest Game in Town (1983), which chronicled high-stakes poker in Las Vegas and elevated the game's cultural profile, and Feeding the Rat (1988), a memoir of rock climbing that captured the thrill of peril.^[1]^[2]^[3] Later works like Pondlife: A Swimmer’s Journal (2013) reflected on his ritual swims in Hampstead Heath ponds, blending personal reflection with observations on aging and nature.^[1] An honorary fellow of Corpus Christi College from 2001, Alvarez's diverse oeuvre—spanning over a dozen books—cemented his reputation as a versatile intellectual who bridged high art with the visceral experiences of gambling, climbing, and survival.^[1]^[2]

Early Life

Family Background

Alfred Alvarez was born on 5 August 1929 in Bloomsbury, London to Katie Levy, an Ashkenazic Jewish homemaker from a family involved in property, and Bertie Alvarez, a Sephardic Jewish businessman whose ancestors had migrated from Spain to England centuries earlier and prospered in the clothing trade.^[2]^[1]^[4] He was the youngest of three children.^[4] The family soon relocated to a spacious mansion in Hampstead, where they maintained a lifestyle of economic and cultural privilege, complete with servants and immersion in classical music and the arts, reflecting their assimilated position within London's Jewish community.^[1]^[5] Despite these advantages, Alvarez's childhood was marked by profound personal turmoil within the household, including both parents' half-hearted suicide attempts that underscored their deep unhappiness.^[6] This domestic instability contrasted sharply with the outward prosperity, shaping his early worldview amid a backdrop of emotional fragility.^[6] Alvarez's initial exposure to literature came through his family's cultured environment, sparking his poetic interests; at age 16, he was profoundly influenced by first reading John Donne's poem "Witchcraft by a Picture," an encounter he later described as his "first marriage" to the poet.^[1] This early literary passion preceded his transition to formal education at preparatory schools.^[1]

Education

Al Alvarez attended The Hall School in Hampstead, London, followed by Oundle School in Northamptonshire, where he developed a keen interest in literature alongside physical pursuits such as boxing.^[2] At Oundle, the school's rigorous environment fostered his early engagement with reading and writing, though he later described it as challenging.^[7] In 1949, Alvarez entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to read English under the tutelage of F. W. Bateson, a prominent critic known for his polemical approach to literary studies.^[8] Inspired by Bateson, he founded the Critical Society, a student group that aimed to challenge conventional literary criticism at the university through provocative discussions and manifestos advocating for a revolutionary study of English literature.^[8] Alvarez excelled academically, earning a first-class degree in 1952—the only one of Bateson's pupils at Corpus to achieve this distinction.^[4] His time at Oxford also marked the beginning of his poetic experiments, as he contributed early writings to university publications, honing a style influenced by modernist traditions.^[1] Upon graduation, Alvarez opted to pursue writing full-time rather than an academic career, briefly serving as a research scholar and tutor at Oxford before transitioning to freelance work.^[2] This decision reflected his growing commitment to poetry and criticism.

Literary Career

Poetry Editing and Criticism

In 1956, Al Alvarez was appointed poetry editor of The Observer at the age of 27, marking a significant early milestone in his career as a critic.^[3] In this role, he became a prominent voice in British literary circles, using the newspaper's platform to shape contemporary poetic discourse over the next decade.^[1] His tenure began with strong advocacy for the British "Movement" poets, such as Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis, whose work emphasized clarity, irony, and everyday realism as a reaction against earlier modernist excesses.^[3] However, Alvarez soon broadened his scope, championing the raw emotional intensity of American confessional poets like Robert Lowell and John Berryman, which introduced British readers to a more personal and psychologically probing style of verse.^[1] Alvarez's reviews and introductions played a crucial role in elevating emerging talents, particularly in his endorsements of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. He was an early and influential supporter of Plath, publishing three of her unpublished poems in his 1962 anthology The New Poetry and later writing a pivotal review of her collection Ariel upon its 1965 publication, praising its "extreme" honesty and vivid imagery that captured the turmoil of personal experience.^[3] Similarly, Alvarez championed Hughes' work, highlighting the primal energy and mythic depth in collections like The Hawk in the Rain (1957), which helped secure the poet's recognition in the UK and signaled a departure from the genteel traditions Alvarez initially critiqued.^[1] These efforts not only boosted the profiles of Plath and Hughes but also reflected Alvarez's evolving taste toward poetry that confronted existential and emotional extremes.^[9] By 1966, Alvarez resigned from The Observer to pursue his own writing more fully, citing frustrations with the paper's editorial constraints that limited his freedom to explore controversial or innovative voices.^[3] This decision came amid growing tensions over the direction of his criticism, as he sought greater autonomy beyond the weekly column format.^[1] His decade-long editorship thus left a lasting imprint on British poetry, bridging conservative and avant-garde sensibilities while fostering a new generation of confessional and intense lyricism.^[2]

Major Publications and Anthologies

Alvarez's critical works began with The Shaping Spirit (1958), a study of modern British and American poets, followed by The School of Donne (1961) and Under Pressure (1965), which explored the role of writers in Eastern Europe and the United States under societal constraints.^[1]^[9] His poetry collections spanned much of his career, beginning with Lost in 1968, which marked his entry into published verse amid his established role as a critic. Subsequent volumes included Apparition (1971), featuring illustrations by artist Charles Blackman and exploring themes of perception and transience, and Autumn to Autumn and Selected Poems 1953-1976 (1978), a comprehensive gathering of his output that preserved early compositions alongside mature reflections on survival and intimacy. His final major poetic effort, New & Selected Poems (2002), reaffirmed these motifs while incorporating later writings on loss and resilience. He also contributed to the Penguin Modern Poets series, appearing in volume 18 (1970) alongside Roy Fuller and Anthony Thwaite, showcasing his verse in a format that highlighted contemporary British talent.^[9]^[10] As an editor, Alvarez shaped British literary tastes through influential anthologies, most notably The New Poetry (1962, revised 1966), which spotlighted emerging voices like Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and Geoffrey Hill while importing the confessional intensity of American poets such as Robert Lowell and John Berryman. This selection critiqued the restrained, ironic style of the postwar "Movement" poets, advocating instead for work that risked emotional depth and confronted extremity, thereby bridging transatlantic influences and invigorating the British scene. His later The Faber Book of Modern European Poetry (1992) extended this scope, curating translations and originals to underscore continental innovations in form and content.^[9]^[2]^[11] Alvarez's essay collections distilled his critical insights, with Beyond All This Fiddle (1968) compiling Observer pieces from 1955 to 1967 that probed risk and authenticity in literature, railing against genteel conventions in favor of raw, pressure-tested expression—ideas first aired in his introduction to The New Poetry. Similarly, The Savage God (1971) fused personal memoir with literary analysis to dissect suicide as a cultural and artistic force, drawing directly from Alvarez's friendship with Sylvia Plath, whose 1963 death prompted reflections on creativity's destructive undercurrents and the "savage god" animating extreme art. These works, informed by his Observer editorship, solidified his voice as a proponent of unflinching honesty in writing.^[9]^[12]^[13]^[14] Turning to fiction, Alvarez authored novels that wove personal introspection with social observation, including Hers (1974), a stark portrayal of marital erosion complicated by class tensions and midlife disillusionment, and Hunt (1978), in which a suburban painter becomes ensnared in environmental activism and illicit affairs, mirroring the thematic risks of his nonfiction. These blended autobiographical echoes with narrative experimentation, extending his exploration of human vulnerability.

Influence on Modern Poetry

Al Alvarez played a pivotal role in bridging the restrained, formalist style of the Movement poets—such as Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis—with the more introspective and emotionally raw confessionalism emerging from American poetry, thereby facilitating the integration of figures like Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Lowell into British literary circles.^[15] His 1962 anthology The New Poetry served as a key vehicle for this shift, selecting works that emphasized personal intensity over genteel detachment and introducing British readers to confessional influences from Lowell and Plath alongside emerging British talents like Hughes.^[16] In his influential 1962 essay "Beyond the Gentility Principle," the introduction to The New Poetry, Alvarez directly challenged the dominant formalist tendencies of post-war British poetry, critiquing their avoidance of extreme emotion and advocating for a bolder, more authentic expression that drew from personal turmoil and violence.^[15] This critique, echoed in his broader 1960s writings as poetry editor of The Observer, promoted emotional rawness as essential to vital poetry, influencing the 1970s British poetic landscape by encouraging poets to explore psychological depth and individual experience over ironic detachment.^[16] Alvarez's contributions to literature were formally recognized in 2010 with the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, awarded for his lifetime achievements in advancing poetry and criticism.^[17] Additionally, in 1990, the British Library acquired his archive, which includes extensive correspondence with key poets such as Hughes and Plath, preserving primary materials that document his role in shaping modern British poetry.

Other Professional Pursuits

Poker Writing and High-Stakes Play

Al Alvarez became immersed in poker culture during the early 1980s through his participation in high-stakes games, initially as an amateur player drawn to the game's psychological intensity and social undercurrents.^[18] His entry point was a 1981 assignment from The New Yorker to cover the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, where he spent three weeks observing and interviewing professional players, transitioning from observer to active participant in the high-stakes scene.^[2] This experience marked a pivotal shift in his writing, blending his literary sensibility with the raw, obsessive world of professional gambling.^[19] Alvarez's seminal work on poker, The Biggest Game in Town (1983), was the first book published in the UK to chronicle the WSOP, offering a blend of journalistic reportage and personal memoir that captured the event's drama and the personalities involved, such as Doyle Brunson and Stu Ungar.^[18] Originally serialized in The New Yorker, the book detailed the 1981 tournament's high-stakes action and explored poker's allure as both a profession and an addiction, establishing Alvarez as a key chronicler of the game's subculture.^[20] It highlighted the underground nature of high-stakes play at the time, including no-limit hold'em marathons and the secretive lives of road gamblers.^[21] In subsequent writings, Alvarez delved deeper into the psychological dimensions of risk-taking, as seen in Poker: Bets, Bluffs, and Bad Beats (2001), which compiled essays on the game's history, legendary hands, and his own experiences, including a 1994 return to the WSOP where he competed in cash games and events.^[19] Earlier, his interest in gambling themes appeared in broader works like Risky Business: People, Pastimes, Poker and Books (2007), a collection that included poker alongside other high-risk pursuits.^[22] Alvarez also connected these thrills to his climbing background in Feeding the Rat (1988), a biography of climber Mo Anthoine that examined the "rat"—the inner compulsion for extreme risk—as a shared drive underlying both mountaineering and poker.^[23] Throughout his poker writings, Alvarez portrayed the game as a profound metaphor for life's uncertainties, akin to the precarious balance of rock climbing, where patience, bluffing, and resilience mirror existential gambles.^[24] He described poker as a form of self-knowledge and psychoanalysis, emphasizing its role in teaching discipline amid chaos, much like navigating cliffs or personal crises.^[25] This perspective infused his accounts with philosophical depth, elevating poker beyond mere recreation to a lens on human behavior and fortune's whims.^[26]

Journalism and Broadcasting Appearances

Al Alvarez served as the theater critic for the New Statesman from 1956 to 1958, a role he later described as one of the most challenging periods of his career, involving reviewing up to five shows per week.^[2]^[27] During this time, he covered a wide range of London productions, offering incisive commentary on contemporary drama that reflected his broader interests in risk and human extremity.^[4] Beyond theater, Alvarez contributed numerous essays and reviews to the New York Review of Books starting in the 1960s, often exploring themes of art, literature, and personal risk, with selections later compiled in his 2007 book Risky Business.^[28] He also wrote occasional columns for the New Statesman on diverse subjects, including cultural criticism and explorations of high-stakes activities, extending his journalistic voice into non-literary domains. In broadcasting, Alvarez appeared on the Channel 4 late-night discussion program After Dark in the episode "High Rollers" on 29 July 1989, where he joined panelists including Victor Lownes, Michael Buerk, and Cleo Laine to debate gambling, casinos, and related social issues in an open-ended format.^[29] Alvarez's friendship with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes was depicted in the 2003 biographical film Sylvia, directed by Christine Jeffs, in which he was portrayed by actor Jared Harris as a supportive literary figure during the poets' tumultuous relationship.^[2] His engagement with poker extended into journalism, where he covered major events such as the 1981 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas for The New Yorker, providing vivid accounts of the tournaments' intensity and participants that informed his seminal book The Biggest Game in Town.^[19] These pieces, blending personal observation with cultural analysis, helped popularize high-stakes poker in print media.^[30]

Personal Life

Marriages and Family

Alvarez's first marriage was to Ursula Barr, the granddaughter of Frieda Lawrence, in 1956 following a brief courtship. The union, marked by personal turmoil including Alvarez's own suicide attempt, ended in divorce in 1961. They had one son, Adam, who pursued a career as a painter and colorist but predeceased his father in 2016.^[1]^[7]^[2] In 1966, Alvarez married Anne Adams, a Canadian-born child psychotherapist who later adopted the professional name Anne Alvarez and emerged as a leading expert in psychoanalytic approaches to autism and developmental disorders. The couple had two children: a daughter, Kate Alvarez Cogan, who works as a creative director, and a son, Luke Alvarez, a businessman. Anne and the children survived Alvarez.^[2]^[4]^[7]^[31] Alvarez's demanding writing career, which often involved financial uncertainty, occasionally impacted family stability, though his second marriage proved enduring and supportive.^[32]^[1] The echoes of his parents' suicide attempts in his youth subtly informed his reflections on family resilience and emotional bonds.^[33]

Interests and Later Years

Al Alvarez maintained a lifelong passion for rock climbing and mountaineering, which began during his youth at school and persisted as a source of exhilaration well into his later decades.^[34] He embraced these pursuits for their inherent risks and the profound sense of achievement they provided, often exploring challenging routes in Britain and beyond as a counterbalance to his literary endeavors.^[1] This adventurous spirit was evident in his personal essays, where he reflected on the psychological intensity of scaling heights, viewing it as an essential outlet for his restless energy.^[35] In parallel, high-stakes poker served as a recreational escape for Alvarez, offering intellectual stimulation and adrenaline akin to his climbing exploits. He made regular trips to Las Vegas from the 1980s through the 2000s, immersing himself in the vibrant, high-pressure atmosphere of the casinos as a way to unwind from professional commitments.^[30] These outings, alongside participation in weekly poker games in London, underscored his affinity for games of chance and skill, which he pursued purely for personal enjoyment rather than obligation.^[36] Alvarez captured the joys and risks of these interests in his 1999 autobiography, Where Did It All Go Right?, a candid memoir chronicling his life up to the 1990s with humor and introspection. The book highlights how climbing and poker intertwined with his broader experiences, representing pivotal elements of fulfillment amid life's uncertainties.^[37] During his retirement, Alvarez settled into a contented routine in Hampstead, north London, where he had been born and spent much of his life, sharing a modest cottage with his wife, Anne. His daily life revolved around family time, leisurely swims in the Hampstead Heath ponds— a habit he maintained almost every day—and occasional forays into his enduring hobbies.^[2] Anne provided steadfast support for his adventurous inclinations, fostering an environment that allowed him to balance domestic stability with his thrill-seeking nature.^[16]

Death and Legacy

Final Years and Passing

In 2019, Al Alvarez contracted viral pneumonia, a condition that proved fatal, leading to his death on 23 September 2019 at the age of 90 in his home in Hampstead, London.^[2]^[1] His literary agency, Aitken Alexander Associates, confirmed the cause as viral pneumonia, noting that he passed peacefully.^[38] Alvarez's long-standing passion for rock-climbing had long exemplified his resilient spirit in confronting risks, a quality that characterized his approach to life's challenges.^[1] In the years leading up to his death, Alvarez had not published new major works following Pondlife: A Swimmer's Journal in 2013, a reflective memoir on his swims in the Hampstead Heath ponds that captured his enduring appreciation for simple, invigorating pursuits.^[9] Instead, his final reflections appeared in interviews and personal writings that revisited themes from earlier books, such as risk and creativity in Feeding the Rat (1988) and his poker memoirs, underscoring a lifetime of intellectual vitality.^[1] A memorial service for Alvarez took place on 5 October 2019 at Christ Church in Hampstead Row, drawing hundreds of attendees including family, friends, and literary admirers.^[39] The event featured poetry readings, musical performances, and eulogies, with his children Luke and Kate delivering heartfelt tributes alongside their mother, Anne, honoring his roles as a devoted husband and father.^[39] Contributions from close associates, such as author John le Carré (David Cornwell) and pianist Alfred Brendel, highlighted Alvarez's profound personal and professional impact.^[39] Immediate tributes from the literary community poured in, with broadcaster and author Melvyn Bragg describing Alvarez as "one of the most outstanding figures of his generation," praising his incisive criticism, innovative poetry editing, and commitment to literary excellence.^[39] Playwright Patrick Marber, a longtime friend, remembered him as a vibrant mentor whose influence extended from poetry to poker, calling him an irreplaceable "literary cowboy."^[40]

Enduring Impact

Following Al Alvarez's death in 2019, obituaries in major publications sparked a revival of interest in his multifaceted career, particularly his pivotal role in promoting Sylvia Plath's poetry to a broader audience through his editorial work at The Observer and his seminal anthology The New Poetry.^[1]^[2] These tributes emphasized how Alvarez championed Plath's raw, confessional style against the prevailing "gentility principle" in British poetry, crediting him with elevating her posthumous reputation and influencing subsequent generations of poets.^[1] This renewed attention extended to reappraisals of his broader literary criticism, underscoring his death as a catalyst for reassessing his contributions to 20th-century literature.^[2] Alvarez's influence on poker literature endures through his groundbreaking 1983 book The Biggest Game in Town, which introduced high-stakes poker to a literary readership and inspired subsequent works, including Michael Craig's 2005 account The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King, a narrative of the "Big One" tournament that echoed Alvarez's blend of psychological insight and dramatic storytelling.^[20] By portraying poker not merely as gambling but as a metaphor for risk and human behavior, Alvarez shaped UK gambling narratives, bridging elite literary culture with the underworld of professional play and encouraging a more sophisticated discourse on chance and strategy in British writing.^[7] His approach influenced authors exploring the cultural dimensions of gaming, positioning poker as a legitimate subject for intellectual inquiry rather than mere vice.^[20] The archival legacy of Alvarez resides in the British Library, where his papers—acquired in 1990—include correspondence, manuscripts, and materials related to his poetry and prose, serving as a key resource for scholarly studies on 1960s British poetry and the "Alvarez generation" of writers like Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin.^[41] These holdings have facilitated research into the era's shift toward more visceral, anti-establishment verse, affirming Alvarez's role in curating that transformation. Complementing this, honors such as the 2010 Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature recognized his lifetime achievement in bridging highbrow literature with popular pursuits like poker, encapsulating his enduring impact on cultural boundaries.^[42] In 2021, a plaque commemorating Alvarez was installed at the Hampstead Heath men's bathing pond, inscribed with a quote from Pondlife, reflecting his lasting connection to the site.^[43]

Selected Works

Poetry Collections

Al Alvarez's poetry collections are relatively few, reflecting his primary reputation as a critic and editor rather than a prolific poet. His work often draws on personal experience and observation, with a focus on concise, direct language. Apparition (University of Queensland Press, 1971) is his debut full-length collection, featuring 28 poems paired with original paintings by Australian artist Charles Blackman, creating a multimedia exploration of themes like loss and vision.^[9]^[44] Autumn to Autumn and Selected Poems 1953–1976 (Oxford University Press, 1978) compiles poems spanning over two decades of Alvarez's writing, including early pieces influenced by post-war British literary movements and later works addressing personal introspection; the title poem evokes cyclical change and transience.^[9]^[44] New & Selected Poems (Waywiser Press, 2002) marks his return to poetry after a long hiatus, gathering revised selections from prior volumes alongside new compositions; critics praised its "lean and unadorned language" and "jazzy improvisatory technique," emphasizing emotional restraint amid life's risks.^[9]^[45]

Non-Fiction Books

Al Alvarez was a prolific non-fiction writer whose works spanned cultural criticism, personal memoir, and explorations of risk and human behavior. His books often drew on his experiences as a literary critic, poker player, and adventurer, blending intellectual analysis with vivid reportage.^[9] One of his early non-fiction collections, Beyond All This Fiddle: Essays 1955-1967 (published in 1968), compiles Alvarez's critical pieces from the Observer and other outlets, offering insights into the literary and cultural shifts of the post-war era, including the rise of confessional poetry and the influence of American writers like Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath. The essays reflect the intellectual ferment of the 1960s, capturing Alvarez's advocacy for a more raw, personal style in poetry that challenged British literary establishment norms.^[2]^[35] In The Savage God (1971), Alvarez delivers a profound examination of suicide as a literary and psychological phenomenon, weaving historical analysis of figures like Yukio Mishima and Cesare Pavese with reflections on changing societal attitudes toward the act. The book gained particular resonance through Alvarez's personal account of his friendship with Sylvia Plath and his observations following her 1963 suicide, framing it as an "extinction" rather than mere despair, and emphasizing the artist's confrontation with the "savage god" of self-destruction. Critics praised its provocative blend of scholarship and memoir, noting its eloquent yet unflinching exploration of mortality.^[13]^[1] Alvarez's fascination with high-stakes games led to The Biggest Game in Town (1983), a seminal work of poker reportage based on his immersion in the 1981 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The book profiles legendary players like Stu Ungar and Chip Reese, dissecting the psychological intensity and addictive allure of no-limit Texas Hold'em, where fortunes shift on bluff and nerve. Widely regarded as the definitive introduction to professional poker, it humanizes the "cowboys" of the felt, portraying the game as a microcosm of risk and resilience, and inspired subsequent generations of gambling literature.^[2]^[46] Turning to autobiography, Where Did It All Go Right? (1999) chronicles Alvarez's life from his privileged yet stifling Jewish upbringing in London through his Oxford years, early marriage, and entry into literary circles up to 1966. The memoir candidly addresses his youthful rebellions, including a suicide attempt and his evolving identity as a writer, while touching on encounters with figures like Philip Larkin and his introduction to poker and climbing. Reviewers highlighted its wry humor and unflinching honesty, positioning it as a portrait of mid-20th-century British intellectual life marked by luck and reinvention.^[47]^[2] Alvarez's Feeding the Rat (first published in 1988, with a 2002 edition), subtitled A Climber's Life on the Edge, profiles his friend and climbing partner Mo Anthoine while delving into the psychology of extreme risk-taking. Drawing parallels to poker, the book explores "feeding the rat"—the thrill of pushing personal limits against gravity on routes like those in the Alps and Yosemite—as a metaphor for confronting fear and seeking authenticity. It combines biographical narrative with philosophical reflections on adventure as therapy, underscoring Alvarez's lifelong pursuit of adrenaline-fueled self-discovery.^[1]^[35]

References

[1]
Al Alvarez obituary | Books | The Guardian
Sep 24, 2019 · Writer, critic and poetry editor of the Observer best known for The Savage God, a meditation on literary suicide.
[2]
A. Alvarez Dies at 90; Poet Elevated Both Sylvia Plath and Poker
Sep 23, 2019 · A. Alvarez, a British poet, critic and essayist who played a pivotal role in bringing the poetry of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath to the public.Missing: biography | Show results with:biography
[3]
Remembering Al Alvarez, the poet and editor who championed Larkin, Hughes and Plath
### Summary of Al Alvarez's Biography, Key Works, Achievements, and Notable Aspects
[4]
Al Alvarez - The Jewish Chronicle
Jan 14, 2020 · A risk junkie since boyhood, the poet, critic and academic Al Alvarez, who has died aged 90, loved rock climbing, rugby and poker.Missing: heritage | Show results with:heritage
[5]
Alfred Alvarez, poetry critic and bestselling author, dead at 90 - CBC
Sep 25, 2019 · The Savage God: A Study of Suicide traced the history of how society looked upon suicide ... parents "half-heartedly" putting their heads inside ...
[6]
Al Alvarez, poet and critic who relished high-risk pursuits and wrote ...
Sep 24, 2019 · Two years earlier Alvarez had himself attempted suicide, after the failure of his first marriage. Obsessed by D H Lawrence – another notable ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[7]
Al Alvarez (1929-2019) | Corpus Christi College Oxford
Oct 3, 2019 · Poet, critic, non-fiction writer and rock-climber, Alfred (or Al, as he liked to be known) Alvarez came up to Oxford in 1949 to read English ...Missing: biography | Show results with:biography
[8]
Al Alvarez obituary - The Times
Sep 25, 2019 · He took a first in English at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he founded the Critical Society, explaining why criticism at Oxford was no ...
[9]
Al Alvarez: A Tribute (Hampstead Village Voice - RedSzéll.com
Feb 12, 2020 · Born in Hampstead in 1929 into a well-established Jewish family, he attended school at The Hall and then Oundle.Missing: heritage parents
[10]
Al Alvarez | The Poetry Foundation
Poet, critic, and nonfiction writer Alfred Alvarez was born in London and educated at Oxford University. At age 28, Alvarez was the youngest person ever chosen ...Missing: biography | Show results with:biography
[11]
A. Alvarez, Roy Fuller, Anthony Thwaite (Penguin modern poets, 18)
Publisher, Penguin Books. Publication date, January 1, 1970. Edition, First Edition. Language, ‎English. Print length, 144 pages. ISBN-10, 0140421297.Missing: Autumn
[12]
The New Poetry by A Alvarez: book of a lifetime - The Independent
Oct 29, 2015 · Published just over a decade earlier, in 1962, it was entitled The New Poetry: selected and introduced by A Alvarez. "You might find the ...<|separator|>
[13]
Critical Homage: A. Alvarez - Beyond Fiddling Away - The Arts Fuse
Jul 24, 2007 · Al Alvarez's new book of essays provides an opportunity to also strongly recommend his first collection of literary commentary and reviews, ...Missing: Hunt | Show results with:Hunt
[14]
A long, brooding, melodramatic meditation on suicide
Apr 16, 1972 · “The Savage God” is provocative and exceptionally well‐written. Those who might object to Alvarez's as sembling of criticism, near‐encyclope ...Missing: Fiddle | Show results with:Fiddle
[15]
The Savage God - Al Alvarez - Bloomsbury Publishing
Free delivery over $35Apr 12, 2013 · The Savage God explores the cultural attitudes, theories, truths and fallacies surrounding suicide and refracts them through the windows of philosophy, art and ...
[16]
Beyond All This Fiddle (Chapter 4) - The Cambridge Companion to ...
It picks up much of the most celebrated poetry of the 1950s even as its polemical introduction positions itself against it: the 'fiddle' that Alvarez means to ...Missing: summary | Show results with:summary
[17]
Al Alvarez: in praise of a literary cowboy | Poetry | The Guardian
Sep 28, 2019 · Al was born in Bloomsbury in 1929, but his parents moved to Hampstead when he was a few months old because, he said, “It was full of their kind ...Missing: heritage | Show results with:heritage
[18]
The Benson Medal - Royal Society of Literature
The medal honours a whole career rather than a single work, has been awarded several times to writers in other languages, and is now awarded those who are not ...
[19]
Al Alvarez - Wikipedia
Alfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez ...
[20]
The Biggest Game in Town - Macmillan Publishers
$$18.00About This Book. Al Alvarez touched down in Las Vegas one hot day in 1981, a dedicated amateur poker player but a stranger to the town and its crazy ways.
[21]
Al Alvarez: A celebration of poker's poet - PokerStars Learn
Sep 24, 2019 · Among other literary efforts, Alvarez continued to write about poker. His 2001 title Poker: Bets, Bluffs and Bad Beats presents eight more ...Missing: 1980s | Show results with:1980s
[22]
Al Alvarez, Author of 'The Biggest Game in Town,' Passes Away at ...
Sep 23, 2019 · For poker players, Alvarez's 1983 book is credited with helping grow the game. The text documented the 1981 World Series of Poker and as one ...Missing: York | Show results with:York
[23]
Look What I Found (Finding Al Alvarez's "The Biggest Game in Town"
Dec 22, 2024 · Alvarez became the first writer to cliff dive into the murky (and sometimes dangerous) world of high-stakes poker, an underground maze of ...
[24]
Risky Business: People, Pastimes, Poker and Books: Al Alvarez
Jul 5, 2012 · Al Alvarez's writing career has come in many guises. One of the most influential post-war critics, he has written profoundly and eloquently ...
[25]
Feeding the Rat: Profile of a Climber by Al Álvarez | Goodreads
Rating 4.0 (384) What really drives climbers to relish the exhausting, uncomfortable, often dangerous challenge posed by an uphill trek is what Anthoine calls feeding the rat-- ...
[26]
Book Review: The Biggest Game in Town - PokerTube
Threaded through the book is Alvarez's mixed feelings about the city of Vegas itself. He talks about one man he meets was sentenced to Vegas for five years by a ...
[27]
Poker and the art of living - The Telegraph
"It's like life," Alvarez says. "However bad the cards are running there's always that flicker of hope with the next hand.
[28]
"The Biggest Game in Town" By Al Álvarez - YouTube
Jan 23, 2025 · Álvarez's prose captures the allure and intensity of poker, a game that he portrays as a microcosm of life's broader struggles.
[29]
Spellbound | Al Alvarez | The New York Review of Books
For the two worst years of my life I was theater critic for the New Statesman. On the average, I saw three shows a week, often five, sometimes more, ...Missing: columns | Show results with:columns
[30]
Al Alvarez | The New York Review of Books
Al Alvarez is the author of Risky Business, a selection of essays, many of which first appeared in The New York Review of Books.Missing: writing | Show results with:writing
[31]
CATALOGUE INFO - Open Media
On 20 May 1989, shortly after the Hillsborough disaster, After Dark invited ... Al Alvarez. Topics: Gaming, casinos, Acid house, hacking, banks, fraud ...
[32]
Al Alvarez and The Biggest Game in Town - Card Player Poker ...
Jun 14, 2006 · First published as a two-part article in the New Yorker magazine in 1983, the story of the 1981 WSOP and the players who competed in it ...Missing: York | Show results with:York<|separator|>
[33]
[PDF] The Pelican Record - University of Oxford
Although Corpus is now 502 years old, the legacy of our Quincentenary year lives on, and it is fitting that this edition of The Pelican Record should pay ...
[34]
Al, where did it all go right? - The Irish Independent
Al, where did it all go right? Joe Jackson. Sat 29 Jan 2005 at 16:11. From a troubled childhood, through to a failed suicide attempt, right up to a marriage ...
[35]
ARTICLE: Al Alvarez - A Climbing Obituary - UKClimbing
Oct 1, 2019 · Al Alvarez, poet, writer, critic, poker play – rock-climber, died peacefully aged 90 on 23 September at his home in Hampstead.Missing: essays | Show results with:essays
[36]
The player | Poetry - The Guardian
Mar 7, 2001 · Al Alvarez has lived his life backwards. In his 20s, fresh out of Oxford, he took the literary world by storm, and at 28 was the youngest person ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[37]
Al Alvarez, the Men's Pond's Orwell | Camden New Journal
Sep 26, 2019 · He went to school at Oundle in Northamptonshire, where he boxed ... He set up the Critical Society at his college, Corpus Christi, and ...
[38]
Where Did It All Go Right?: : Al Alvarez: Bloomsbury Paperbacks ...
From public schools to Oxford to the hardscrabble world of freelance writing, Alvarez found time to climb mountains, play poker and write books about these ...
[39]
Al Alvarez, British critic and author who championed poetry and ...
Sep 24, 2019 · The cause was viral pneumonia, said his literary agency, Aitken Alexander Associates. Mr. Alvarez, who sometimes wrote under the name A. Alvarez ...
[40]
Tributes paid to Hampstead poet, critic and author Al Alvarez
Oct 8, 2019 · Hundreds of people packed into Christ Church in Hampstead Row, as poetry and verse was read in honour of Al, who died on September 23 aged 90.
[41]
'A gentleman at the poker table': Al Alvarez remembered by Patrick ...
Sep 28, 2019 · He was so rich and varied in his interests, writing books about suicide, divorce, poker, climbing and nightlife. He was a proper old-style ...
[42]
A. Alvarez | Penny's poetry pages Wiki - Fandom
Alvarez was born in London, to an Ashkenazic Jewish mother and a father from a Sephardic Jewish family. He was educated at The Hall School in Hampstead, London; ...Missing: background heritage parents
[43]
Risky Business: People, Pastimes, Poker and Books - Al Alvarez ...
His most recent books are New and Selected Poems and The Writer's Voice. In 2010 Al Alvarez was awarded the Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature ...
[44]
About Al Alvarez | Academy of American Poets
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 ...Missing: Jewish heritage parents
[45]
New & Selected Poems - The Waywiser Press
It is almost twenty-five years since Al Alvarez last published a book of poetry. That volume, Autumn to Autumn and Selected Poems 1953-1976, contained all ...Missing: excluding | Show results with:excluding
[46]
French invasion | Books - The Guardian
Mar 21, 2003 · The Biggest Game in Town, by Al Alvarez (Bloomsbury, £7.99). This 20th-anniversary reissue of Alvarez's classic book on poker can plug right ...
[47]
What the others wouldn't tell you | Biography books | The Guardian
Dec 17, 1999 · Where Did It All Go Right? is always absorbing, but it lacks an answer to the question put by the title - not literally, since Alvarez is quite ...<|control11|><|separator|>