Francis Warner (author)


Francis Robert Le Plastrier Warner was an English poet, playwright, musician, and scholar. Warner received early notice for his lyrical poetry but focused most of his later literary career on Agora, a cycle of plays that explore the development of Western culture up to the late 20th century. An Emeritus Fellow of St. Peter's College, Oxford, and Honorary Fellow of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. He was also a noted advocate for experimental theatre, leading attempts during the 1960s and 1970s to establish a Samuel Beckett Theatre for avant-garde theatre production in Oxford.

Early life and education

Warner was born in Bishopthorpe, Yorkshire, England, to Reverend Hugh Compton Warner and Nancy Le Plastrier Owen. After serving as vicar of Bishopthorpe from 1932-1938, Reverend Warner became vicar of St. Martin of Tours in Epsom in 1938, an incumbency he held until his resignation in 1950 to become education secretary of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council. Reverend Warner and his family lived in The Old Vicarage, Epsom, throughout World War II, an experience recalled later by Francis in the collection Beauty for Ashes: Selected Prose and Related Documents and the text of David Goode's Blitz Requiem. Warner was educated at Christ's Hospital, London College of Music, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge, Warner was C.S. Lewis's last graduate student. The elder Warner, who had become an honorary canon of Guildford Cathedral in 1948, died in London, age 51, after a long illness, on 1 July 1956.

Career

Academe

Warner spent much of his academic career at St Peter's College, Oxford, where he was Lord White Fellow, and Tutor in English Literature from 1965–99. After retirement, he was elected Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and Emeritus Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford.

Writing

Warner produced several volumes of lyrical poetry early in his career and was honoured for his poetry as the recipient of the Messing Award in 1972 by the St. Louis University Library Associates. Warner began writing plays in the early 1970s, creating a body of theatrical work that would later be styled as the dramatic play cycle Agora. In addition to the plays in Agora, Warner continued writing poetry, publishing several volumes throughout his later literary years.

Early Poetry

''Agora''
The dramatic cycle Agora encompasses the entirety of Warner's literary output as a dramatist. Consisting of 16 individual plays, loosely following a chronological order of action, Agora tracks the development of Western culture from ancient Greece to the present.
TitlePublication yearGrouping
Healing Nature — The Athens of Pericles1988none
Virgil and Caesar1993Roman Trilogy
Moving Reflections1983Roman Trilogy
Light Shadows1980Roman Trilogy
Byzantium1990none
Living Creation — Medici Florence1985Europa Tetralogy
King Francis I1995Europa Tetralogy
Goethe's Weimar1997Europa Tetralogy
Rembrandt's Mirror2000Europa Tetralogy
A Conception of Love1978none
Emblems1972Maquettes for the Requiem
Troat1972Maquettes for the Requiem
Lumen1972Maquettes for the Requiem
Lying Figures1972Requiem Trilogy
Killing Time1976Requiem Trilogy
Meeting Ends1974Requiem Trilogy