Brian Coffey (1905-1995) was born in Dublin and died in Southampton. His first book publication he shared with Denis Devlin in 1930. Third Person was published by poet George Reavey's Europa Press in 1938. Coffey was closely linked to poets Thomas MacGreevy and Samuel Beckett since the 30s, when he lived and worked in Paris, studying under Jacques Maritain, and once meeting James Joyce. T.S. Eliot published his poetry in The Criterion. However, thereafter followed a long writing and publishing silence, the effect as well as the context placing him squarely in a tradition which included David Gascoyne, George Oppen, Basil Bunting, Sean Rafferty, Lynette Roberts, and Laura Riding. In the 1980s Coffey used to read in Southampton with David Gascoyne and F.T. Prince under the banner of The Solent Poets. He translated extensively from French poetry, notably Mallarme.
