Although he was perhaps best-known as the best friend of famed Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkein, Christopher Wiseman was a very fine author and poet in his own right. Born in England just prior to the outbreak of WWII, Wiseman moved around a lot as a kid throughout the United Kingdom. Just after high school, though, Wiseman ended up serving in the RAF for a couple of years before finishing two English degrees at the prestigious Cambridge University. After having accepted a position at the University of Calgary in 1969, Wiseman's literary career began in earnest. Not only did Wiseman have his poems published in over 80 literary journals and a great number of anthologies all across the world (but primarily in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain), he also published an academic study and countless reviews and other literary articles. Among his most famous poems: Old Fingers, Shining Rings; In The Basement; Departure Gate, and Mrs. Rowley.
Wiseman's poems cover a number of subjects. However, his most famous poems (like Departure Gate and Mrs. Rowley) talk about his family and people close to him. One of his poems (Old Fingers, Shining Rings) talks about the process of his mother getting older. He talks about her "arthritic hands" and her "sixty year [old]" wedding ring.
Wiseman is not widely known outside literary circles. However, he is a very celebrated poet. He has been awarded the Government of Alberta Poetry Prize, the Writers' Guild of Alberta Poetry Prize, and an Alberta Achievement Award for Services to the Literary Arts. He was also a 1993 Hawthornden Fellow.
