Alfred Alvarez (1929–2019) was a British poet, novelist, essayist, and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez.
Born in London, Alvarez was educated at Corpus Christi College at Oxford, where he initiated the Critical Society and served as a poetry editor of The Observer 1956–66. He wrote many well-regarded works of poetry, including his collected Poems (1978) and Day of Atonement (1991,) which explore public and private forces that shape individual personality and behavior.
Alvarez’s novels include Hers (1974,) a bitter portrait of a loveless marriage; Hunt (1978,) in which the central character becomes entangled in the life of a woman he discovers unconscious on Hampstead Heath; and Day of Atonement (1991,) a psychological thriller.
Alvarez also wrote many works of criticism and non-fiction. His most celebrated work was The Savage God (1971,) a meditation on literary suicide. His autobiography is Where Did It All Go Right? (1999.)
Alvarez was an avid poker player, and he wrote about the card game in The Biggest Game in Town (1983,) Poker: Bets, Bluffs, and Bad Beats (2001,) and Risky Business (2007.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Al Alvarez
Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.
—Al Alvarez
Despair, in short, seeks its own environment as surely as water finds its own level.
—Al Alvarez
Topics: Despair
When there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph.
—Al Alvarez
Topics: Glory
When an artist holds up a mirror to nature he finds out who and what he is; but the knowledge may change him irredeemably so that he becomes that image.
—Al Alvarez
No man kills himself unless there is something wrong with his life.
—Al Alvarez
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Christopher Hitchens Anglo-American Social Critic
Ford Madox Ford English Novelist, Poet, Critic
Leigh Hunt British Author
Richard Crashaw British Poet
Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) English Romantic Poet
John Berger English Art Critic, Essayist, Novelist
Thomas Hood British Poet, Humorist
John Keats English Poet
Arthur Henry Hallam English Essayist, Poet
David Whyte Anglo-Irish Poet