LOGUE, CHRISTOPHER

born Nov. 23, 1926, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Eng. English poet and one of the leaders in the movement to bring poetry closer to the popular experience. His own pungent verse has been read to jazz accompaniment, sung, and printed on posters. It is engaged politically and owes much to the work of the earlier 20th-century German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht and to the English ballad tradition. Logue served in the British army from 1944 to 1948 and lived in France from 1951 to 1956. His first book of poetry, The Weakdream Sonnets (1955), was published there. One of the first English appreciators of Pablo Neruda, he adapted 20 of that Chilean writer's poems as The Man Who Told His Love (1958). These adaptations also appeared in the collection Songs (1959). Subsequent volumes include Songs from the Lily-White Boys (1960), Logue's A.B.C. (1966), New Numbers (1969), and Fluff (1984). Among his poster poems are I Shall Vote Labour (1966), Kiss Kiss (1968), and Black Dwarf (1968). He worked on a remarkably fresh adaptation of the Iliad, three sections of which have been published: Patrocleia (1962), Pax (1967), and War Music (1981). Logue's long and varied list of works includes plays, screenplays, documentaries, and numerous children's books in addition to poetry and translation. He also acted in several television, movie, and stage roles.