John Gillespie Magee, Jr

[Whirlybird]

Just about everyone who ever thought about flying knows the poem "High Flight", written in 1941 by John Gillespie Magee Jr, a 19 year old Spitfire pilot who who was killed a couple of months later. But who was he? People don't write poems of that calibre out of the blue; what else had he written? Was he already well known, a brilliant kid at school and all that kind of stuff...or just an apparently average lad who wrote incredible poetry in secret? I tried a search, and came up with next to nothing...he seemed not to have existed before the age of 18. A friend emailed me another couple of his poems written around the same time as High Flight, and they were pretty good too, IMHO.

Does anyone know anything. I'm just curious, that's all.

[Trumpet_trousers]

JG Magee was, IIRC, a Canadian citizen who is buried in the cemetary at Scopwick, Lincs. near to RAF Digby, having been killed in the early 1940's, and may, or may not, have been involved in the BoB.

As an aside, I have lost count of the number of times that our American cousins try to claim him as one of theirs....

[Genghis the Engineer]

As an aside, I have lost count of the number of times that our American cousins try to claim him as one of theirs....

with some justification I'm afraid...

From http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/highflig.htm

High Flight was composed by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., an American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was born in Shanghai, China in 1922, the son of missionary parents, Reverend and Mrs. John Gillespie Magee; his father was an American and his mother was originally a British citizen.

G

[PPRuNe Pop]

He does not appear of the Battle of Britain Roll of Honour. See HERE (http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/roll.html)

This is because he did not take part in the Battle of Britain. Only those who fought between 10th July 1940 and 31st October 1940 'qualify.'

His inclusion as a BoB pilot on the website above is, therefore, sadly incorrect.

[treadigraph]

I recall some claim or other that Magee "plagiarised" High Flight from another poet's work. I'm sure that this was scurrilous, but does anyone else recall the claim and whether or not it was backed up in fact.

If so, perhaps he took words of poem he enjoyed and adapted it to express his delight in flight?

[noisy]

FlyPast did an article about him some years ago-as I recall he died in an collision with an Oxford trainer.

[fernytickles]

I read the article about plagiarisation too and the story seemed to have some legs - there was a poetry anthology in the personal belongings that were returned to the family after his death and a researcher went through it and found several lines in other poems that bore more than a passing resemblance to lines in "High Flight" including the famous "Touched the face of God" etc.

Believe the article was in Smithsonian Air & Space maybe 5 years ago.

[cringe]

Some of the influences are named here: http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem2736.html

Has anyone here read The Pilot Poet (Magee's complete works)?

[spitfire]

fernytickles you have a great memory :D

[1946]

Cringe:
Yes a good read indeed. If my memory serves me correctly he said of his famous poem 'High Flight' "I started it at 33,000 feet and finished it just after landing".
John Magee:Pilot Poet, published by This England Books,IBSN 906324 (paperback) 2nd Edition 1996. Written by Stephan Garnett. 23 Poems and 23 illistrations.
Well worth buying a copy.

[cringe]

Thanks, I might try to get it.

[Whirlybird]

Thanks for that; I just ordered it off Amazon. :ok:

[Saab Dastard]

Quite by chance I came across another book about him:

Hermann Hagedorn
Sunward I’ve Climbed, The Story of John Magee, Poet and Soldier 1922-1941

SD

[Vfrpilotpb]

Makes you think of the sacrifice those people at such young ages made, without any of the bleeding hearts that currently sound off when the going gets Tuff in todays World!

Peter R-B Vfr

[sycamore]

Try ..www.skygod.com/index.

[Cornish Jack]

'Aeroplane' magazine carried quite a comprehensive article on him during the '90s. It gave a pretty full account of his background and flying career, including the details of the composition of "High Flight" His death was the result of a mid-air collision with (from memory) an Anson on a training flight. I have a copy of the particular issue - if the need is great, I could scan and e-mail but it is somewhere among my stored bits and pieces so may take a while.:(

[Philip Whiteman]

I think the 'plagiarism' claim goes back to an article by my old colleague Tony French that appeared in Pilot magazine. Hard to accept that a brave young chap like Magee could have drawn so heavily on words from someone else, but I am afraid that Tony made a convincing case. He took no pleasure in debunking, at least in part, the legend - but felt the record should be given straight.

You might try taxing the magazine's new publishers with a request for details of the piece!