Calvert, Robert
Entry updated 14 April 2025. Tagged: Author, Music, Poet.
(1945-1988) South African-born poet and musician who moved to London in the 1960s and became friendly with Michael Moorcock, amongst others. He fronted Hawkwind during their most spacy 1970s period, but also released material under his own name, although his solo album Captain Lockheed & The Starfighters (1974) is not sf (it is a concept-album that retells the story of the development of Lockheed's F-104 Starfighter jet plane). Calvert's sf poems appeared in various Fanzines and samizdat publications, and in New Worlds in its 1970s quarterly incarnation; some were included in the poetry anthology The Purple Hours (anth 1974) edited by Lisa Conesa for the 1974 Eastercon. Collections are Centigrade 232 (coll 1977) – whose title riffs on the alleged paper flashpoint of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (February 1951 Galaxy as "The Fireman"; with 2 short stories as coll 1953) – and The Earth Ritual (coll 1986). [AR/DRL]
Robert Newton Calvert
born Pretoria, South Africa: 9 March 1945
died Ramsgate, Kent: 14 August 1988
works
- Centigrade 232 (place not known: Quasar Books, 1978) [poetry: coll: binding unknown/]
- The Earth Ritual (Ramsgate, Kent: Harbour Publications, 1986) [poetry: coll: binding unknown/]
about the author
- Steve Sneyd. Gnawing Medusa's Flesh: The Science Fiction Poetry of Robert Calvert (Almondbury, West Yorkshire: Hilltop Press, 2000) [nonfiction: chap: with biography and discography by David Jones: pb/David Jones]
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