SQUIRE, SIR J(OHN) C(OLLINGS)

born April 2, 1882, Plymouth, Devon, Eng. died Dec. 20, 1958, Rushlake Green, Sussex English journalist, playwright, a leading poet of the Georgian school, and an influential critic and editor. Squire was educated at Blundell's School and at St. John's College, Cambridge University. He was appointed literary editor of the New Statesman in 1913, and acting editor in 1917. From 1919 to 1934 he was editor of the London Mercury, which was to become the unofficial organ of the Georgian poets. His poetry appeared in Collected Parodies (1921), Poems in One Volume (1926), Selected Poems (1948), and Collected Poems (1959), volumes that show technical competence as well as a delightful sense of parody. Squire also collaborated with J.L. Balderston on the hit play Berkeley Square (performed 1926), an adaptation of Henry James's The Sense of the Past. He was knighted in 1933.