Ridler, Anne

Anne Ridler, née Anne Barbara Bradby, (born July 30, 1912, Rugby, Warwickshire, England—died October 15, 2001, Oxford), English poet and dramatist noted for her devotional poetry and for verse drama that shows the influence of the later work of T.S. Eliot.

Ridler was born into a literary family; her father, Henry Bradby, was a poet and editor, and her mother, Violet Milford, was the author of children’s books. She studied journalism at King’s College, London, graduating in 1932. After a brief stint at Oxford University Press, she began working at the publishing firm Faber & Faber in 1935, eventually becoming the assistant to T.S. Eliot, Faber’s working editor. Eliot encouraged her writing, and in 1939 her first collection, Poems, was published. Although Ridler left Faber in 1940, she continued to read and edit manuscripts for the publisher.

Ridler has been called a modern metaphysical poet; her use of complex metaphors recalls the work of poets such as John Donne and George Herbert. In addition to exploring religious themes, her work celebrates human experience, notably marriage and motherhood. Her books include A Dream Observed (1941), A Matter of Life and Death (1959), and Collected Poems (1994). Among her verse plays are Cain (1943), The Trial of Thomas Cranmer (1956), The Jesse Tree: A Masque in Verse (1970), and The Lambton Worm (1978). In 2001 Ridler was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE).