Abse, Dannie (1923– )
Welsh poet, novelist, and dramatist. His first volume of verse was After Every Green
Thing (1949), and subsequent volumes include White Coat, Purple Coat: Collected
Poems 1948–1988 (1989), Remembrance of Crimes Past (1990), and Selected Poems
(1994). Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve (1954) and There Was a Young Man from Cardiff
(1991) are semi-autobiographical novels about his Jewish upbringing. A Poet in the
Family (1974) is an autobiography.
Abse was born in Cardiff, educated at the University of South Wales and
Monmouthshire, and at King’s College, London, where he qualified as a physician in
1950. He was poet-in-residence at Princeton University 1953–54. His verse reflects
both his background and his subsequent day-to-day experiences. His most notable
play is the one-act Gone and In the Cage, published in Three Questor Plays (1967).
Intermittent Journals (1995) comprises literary, medical, and personal
reminiscences.