Stephen Potter - Biography

The following table summarises Stephen Potter's life:

1 February 1900 Born
1913-1918 Attends Westminster School, London.
1918-1919 Coldstream Guards.
1919-1923 Merton College, Oxford. Reads English Language and Literature.
1923-1926 Secretary to Henry Arthur James, the playwright.
1926-1936 Lectures in English Literature at Birkbeck College, London University.
1927 Marries Mary Attenborough. Lives in Chiswick.
1928 Son, Andrew Potter born.
1929 The Young Man, a novel, is published by Jonathan Cape.
1930 D.H.Lawrence: a First Study, the first book about D.H.Lawrence, is published by Jonathan Cape.
1931 Son, Julian Potter born.
1934 Minnow among Tritons, the letters of Mrs Coleridge about her husband and the Lake District poets, is published by Nonesuch Press.
1934 Selects and edits The Nonesuch Coleridge.
1935 Coleridge and S.T.C., exploring the dual nature of Coleridge, is published by Jonathan Cape.
1936 Writes his first programme for the radio, transmitted on the BBC.
1937 The Muse in Chains, an attack on methods of teaching English in Universities, is published by Jonathan Cape.
1938 Joins the Savile Club, London.
1 January 1939 Joins the BBC full-time as writer and producer in Features.
1939 - 1945 Moves with BBC to Evesham, then Manchester and then back to London. Wrote and/or produced between 150 and 200 programmes during the war.
June 1943 Produces and co-writes How to Talk to Children, the first of 29 "How" satirical radio programmes, in collaboration with Joyce Grenfell.
1945 - 1947 Dramatic critic of New Statesman and Nation.
1945 - 1951 Lives in Harley Street, London.
1946 - 1949 Book reviewer for News Chronicle.
29 September 1946 BBC launches the Third Programme (the third radio station). A Potter/Grenfell collaboration, How to Listen, opens the new station.
1947 Gamesmanship - the art of winning games without actually cheating is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1949 Leaves BBC to be Editor of The Leader, a Hulton Press Weekly.
1950 Lifemanship is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1951 Moves to Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Lives at Red House.
1952 One-upmanship is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1954 An anthology, Sense of Humour, is published by Max Reinhardt.
1955 Divorced from Mary Potter. Marries Heather Janner, founder of the Marriage Bureau.
1956 Potter on America, observations based on lecture tours in the United States, is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1956 Son, Luke Potter, is born.
1958 Supermanship is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1959 The Magic Number, a corporate history of H.J.Heinz, is published by Max Reinhardt.
1959 Steps to Immaturity, an autobiography to the age of 20, is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1965 Squawky, a children's book, is published by Heinemann.
December 1969 Dies.
1973 An etymology of words from Nature, Pedigree, is finished by Laurens Sargent after Potter's death based on his notes, and is published by Collins in the New Naturalist series.

Autobiography


Stephen Potter wrote an autobiography covering his early years (up to age 20) entitled Steps to Immaturity, published in 1959 by Rupert Hart-Davis.

Biography


A biography, Stephen Potter, Inventor of Gamesmanship, by Alan Jenkins (ISBN 0 297 77817 X) was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1980.

Diaries


Stephen Potter was an active diarist. His extensive diaries are held by the University of Texas, in Austin, Texas.

A new book Stephen Potter at the BBC has just been published drawing on the unpublished diaries of Stephen Potter. In the book, his son, Julian Potter describes how the Features department of the BBC produced radio broadcasts in the 1940s.