John Finlay
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Brief Biography
John Finlay was a native of Ozark, Alabama, who grew up on his family’s farm near Enterprise, Alabama. Finlay pursued higher education at the University of Alabama, earning his bachelor’s degree in English in 1964 and his master’s degree in English in 1966. He taught for four years at the University of Montevallo before successfully pursuing a doctoral degree at Louisiana State University from 1970-1980. Following his conversion to Roman Catholicism, he returned to his family farm in 1981 and dedicated himself to writing and scholarship. Despite being diagnosed with AIDS in 1982, Finlay continued his creative and intellectual pursuits until his death in 1991. Posthumously, several collections of his poetry and essays were published.
Publications
Mind and Blood: The Collected Poems of John Finlay. Santa Barbara; J. Daniel, 1992.
Hermetic Light: Essays on the Gnostic Spirit in Modern Literature and Thought. Santa Barbara; J. Daniel, 1994.
Hermetic Light: Essays on the Gnostic Spirit in Modern Literature and Thought. Santa Barbara; J. Daniel, 1994.
Themes
John Finlay was a poet and essayist who wrote about Christian theology, nature, and life in the South. His poems were written in measured verse.
Publisher
Alabama Authors of the 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, http://AlabamaAuthors.org
Collection
Citation
Finlay, John, “John Finlay,” Alabama Authors of the 19th & 20th Centuries, accessed September 19, 2024, https://alabamaauthors.org/items/show/576.