View source for W. R. Rodgers

{{short description|Northern Irish poet (1909–1969)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''William Robert Rodgers''' (1909–1969), known as '''Bertie''', and born in [[Belfast]], [[Northern Ireland]], was probably best known as a poet, but was also a prose essayist, a book reviewer, a radio broadcaster and script writer, a lecturer and, latterly, a teacher, as well as a former [[Presbyterian]] [[minister of religion|minister]].<ref name="PR">{{cite web | title=Introduction - WR Rodgers Papers| work=Public Record Office of Northern Ireland | url=http://www.proni.gov.uk/introduction__rodgers_papers_d2833.pdf | accessdate=4 March 2009}}</ref>

==Early life==
He was born in Belfast and grew up in [[Mountpottinger]] in the east of the city. At school he showed a talent for writing and went on to read English at [[Queen's University Belfast]] where he won a number of prizes for literary essays, graduating in 1931.<ref>{{cite web | title=WR Rodgers| work=Ricorso | url=http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/ | accessdate=4 March 2009}}</ref> On completion of his degree, he entered Presbyterian Theological College and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1935. He was first appointed to Loughgall Presbyterian Church, [[Loughgall]], [[County Armagh]], where he was minister for 12 years. In 1936 he married Marie Harden Waddell, a medical doctor who set up practice in the village. ''Awake! and Other Poems'' (1941) was given glowing reviews in Britain and America, although the first edition was almost totally lost when the publisher's warehouse was destroyed in the [[The Blitz|London Blitz]].<ref>{{cite web| title=WR Rodgers| work=Culture Northern Ireland| url=http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article.aspx?art_id=579| accessdate=4 March 2009| url-status=dead| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224043050/http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article.aspx?art_id=579| archivedate=24 February 2012}}</ref> His wife became ill (later diagnosed as [[schizophrenia]]) and they left Loughgall temporarily in 1943, she to seek treatment, he to write in [[Oxford]]. He returned to Loughgall after a year but resigned from his ministry in 1946 to take up post at the [[BBC]] in [[London]] as a scriptwriter for the newly established [[BBC Third Programme]] after being approached by [[Louis MacNeice]] and offered a post. He involved himself in the Regionalist movement among [[Ulster]] writers in the 1940s and 1950s and contributed to a number journals which were used as a vehicle for the regionalist movement such as ''Lagan'', ''[[The Bell (magazine)|The Bell]]'' and ''[[Rann (magazine)|Rann]]''.<ref name="PR"/> He collaborated with Louis MacNeice in the unpublished ''The Character of Ireland''.<ref>{{cite web | title=Rodgers, William Robert 1909-1969| work=Dictionary of Ulster Biography | url=http://www.ulsterbiography.co.uk/biogsR.htm | accessdate=4 March 2009}}</ref>

==Later life==
Rodgers stayed at the BBC as a full-time producer and scriptwriter until 1953 when he went free-lance. He produced a highly innovative series of radio broadcasts on Irish literary figures: ''Irish literary portraits''. He was elected a life member of the Irish Academy of Letters in 1951 to fill the vacancy due to the death of [[George Bernard Shaw]] and was a member of the Literature and Poetry Panel of the [[Arts Council of Great Britain]] and a board member of the [[Arts Council of Northern Ireland]]. His wife died in 1953, following a period of illness. In the same year he married Marianne Gilliam (née Helweg), the ex-wife of his immediate boss in the BBC, Lawrence Gilliam. They lived in [[England]] until 1966 when Rodgers secured a post as writer in residence at [[Pitzer College]] in [[Claremont, California]] and later a lecturing post at California State Polytechnic University. In 1968 he was awarded a life annuity of £100 by the  Arts Council of Ireland as an acknowledgement of his distinction in letters and of the honour which his literary work had reflected on [[Ireland]]. He died in 1969 in [[Los Angeles]] and was buried at Loughgall, County Armagh.<ref name="PR"/>

==Works==
*''Awake! And Other Poems'' (1941)
*''The Ulstermen and Their Country'' (1947)
*''Europa and the Bull'' (1952) (poems)
*''Ireland in Colour'' (1957) (prose)
*''The Return Room'' (1955) (radio play)
*''Essex Roundabout'' (1963) (prose)
*''Collected Poems'' (1971)
*''Irish Literary Portraits'' (1972)

==References==
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[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century poets from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:20th-century Presbyterian ministers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Presbyterians from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Irish radio producers]]
[[Category:Radio writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Male poets from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Christian clergy from Belfast]]
[[Category:Alumni of Queen's University Belfast]]
[[Category:Male writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Radio producers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Writers from Belfast]]