Salamander: A Miscellany of Poetry was an anthology of poetry published by George Allen and Unwin in 1947 and featuring the work of many of the Cairo poets

Cairo poets

The British Army presence in Egypt in World War II had, as a side effect, the concentration of a group of Cairo poets. There had in fact been a noticeable literary group in Cairo before the war in North Africa broke out, including university academics. Possibly as a reflection of that, there were...

. It was edited by Keith Bullen

Keith Bullen (poet)

Keith Brebner Bullen was a British poet and teacher who was part of the Salamander group in Cairo during World War II.-Early life and schools:...

 and John Cromer. The title alluded to the rebirth of culture from the ashes of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. It put itself forward as "a microcosm of world literature," but the sympathies of the editors were Georgian and Kiplingesque, and the aim of the Salamander Group was "to memorialize the soldier as amateur poet and oral historian."

Work by G. S. Fraser

G. S. Fraser

George Sutherland Fraser was a Scottish poet, literary critic and academic. He was born in Glasgow, later moving with his family to Aberdeen. He went to the University of St. Andrews....

, Alan Rook

Alan Rook

Alan Rook was a Cairo poet and edited the 1936 issue of New Oxford Poetry. After World War II he became a wine trader.-External links:*...

, John Gawsworth

John Gawsworth

John Gawsworth , a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong , was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. He also used the pseudonym Orpheus Scrannel...

 and John Waller

Sir John Waller, 7th Baronet

Sir John Stanier Waller, 7th Baronet was an English author, poet and journalist. He was one of the group of Cairo poets during World War II...

, as well as Bullen and Cromer, was published in Salamander.

External links

• Salamander Oasis Trust — including brief historical note