The Writing of Manning Goodwin

Bio

Unveiling the Writer

Manning has led a rich and diverse life.  He currently resides in beautiful Sussex, England.  He has four children: a goldsmith, a potter, a cabinet-maker and the other a print-producer/ dealer.  The arts are very much a focus in their lives, and have always been in his too.  His father was an architect and painter, his mother a painter.

Born 1931 in New York City, he was educated at Yale University, attaining a BA in American Studies.  He then received an Lld  at the University of Virginia Law School, where one of his friends once famously said: “What is it with this man, he talks more like a poet than a lawyer.” Shortly afterwards he was drafted into the army for two years and was sent to Germany, where amongst other things he  worked as a newspaper reporter. 

He then worked in Washington DC as a lawyer first with the US Senate as advisor to senators and their committees. This was when Kennedy, Nixon and Johnson were in the Senate, it was a fascinating time.  He went on to work at the State Department in the Legal Advisors’ Office. 

His love of knowledge led him to teaching and later his love of nature lead him to farming. He worked in his local community as an entrepreneur helping to establish an adult training college, a bakery, a housing community and farms.

Manning subsequently spent four years at Alanus Art School in Germany and attended an Art Therapy training in St Albans, becoming a sculptor and sculpture therapist.  You can see samples of his sculptures            He taught and did administrative work at Tobia School of Art and Art Therapy.  He married the sculptress Gertraud Goodwin.

Manning has always written poetry, starting when his first child was born, and has attended numerous writing and poetry courses  (including Arvon and Anam Cara).

Aged 88, he’s still writing and has self-published four volumes of poetry.