Oneupmanship

Stephen Potter - Biography

Key events

1 February 1900	Born in Wandsworth, London.
1913-1918	Attends Westminster School, London.
1918-1919	Coldstream Guards.
1919-1923	Merton College, Oxford. Reads English Language and Literature.
1923-1926	Secretary to Henry Arthur James, the playwright.
1926-1936	Lectures in English Literature at Birkbeck College, London University.
1927	Marries Mary Attenborough. Lives in Chiswick.
1928	Son, Andrew Potter born.
1929	The Young Man, a novel, is published by Jonathan Cape.
1930	D.H.Lawrence: a First Study, the first book about D.H.Lawrence, is published by Jonathan Cape.
1931	Son, Julian Potter born.
1934	Minnow among Tritons, the letters of Mrs Coleridge about her husband and the Lake District poets, is published by Nonesuch Press.
1934	Selects and edits The Nonesuch Coleridge.
1935	Coleridge and S.T.C., exploring the dual nature of Coleridge, is published by Jonathan Cape.
1936	Writes his first programme for the radio, transmitted on the BBC.
1937	The Muse in Chains, an attack on methods of teaching English in Universities, is published by Jonathan Cape.
1938	Joins the Savile Club, London.
1 January 1939	Joins the BBC full-time as writer and producer in Features.
1939 - 1945	Moves with BBC to Evesham, then Manchester and then back to London. Wrote and/or produced between 150 and 200 programmes during the war.
June 1943	Produces and co-writes How to Talk to Children, the first of 29 "How" satirical radio programmes, in collaboration with Joyce Grenfell.
1945 - 1947	Dramatic critic of New Statesman and Nation.
1945 - 1951	Lives in Harley Street, London.
1946 - 1949	Book reviewer for News Chronicle.
29 September 1946	BBC launches the Third Programme (the third radio station). A Potter/Grenfell collaboration, How to Listen, opens the new station.
1947	Gamesmanship - the art of winning games without actually cheating is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1949	Leaves BBC to be Editor of The Leader, a Hulton Press Weekly.
1950	Lifemanship is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1951	Moves to Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Lives at Red House.
1952	One-upmanship is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1954	An anthology, Sense of Humour, is published by Max Reinhardt.
1955	Divorced from Mary Potter. Marries Heather Jenner, founder of the Marriage Bureau.
1956	Potter on America, observations based on lecture tours in the United States, is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1956	Son, Luke Potter, is born.
1958	Supermanship is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1959	The Magic Number, a corporate history of H.J.Heinz, is published by Max Reinhardt.
1959	Steps to Immaturity, an autobiography to the age of 20, is published by Rupert Hart-Davis.
1965	Squawky, a children's book, is published by Heinemann.
December 1969	Dies in Hampstead, London, from pneumonia (following lung cancer).
1973	An etymology of words from Nature, Pedigree, is finished by Laurens Sargent after Potter's death based on his notes, and is published by Collins in the New Naturalist series.

Published biographies

Stephen Potter wrote an autobiography covering his early years (up to age 20) entitled Steps to Immaturity, published in 1959 by Rupert Hart-Davis.

A biography, Stephen Potter, Inventor of Gamesmanship, by Alan Jenkins (ISBN 0 297 77817 X) was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1980.

Diaries

Stephen Potter was an active diarist. His extensive diaries are held by the University of Texas, in Austin, Texas.

In the book Stephen Potter at the BBC his son, Julian Potter, draws on the unpublished diaries of Stephen Potter to describe how the Features Department of the BBC produced radio broadcasts in the 1940s.

Stephen Potter at the BBC is now available on Kindle or in hardback from Orford Books.

Wikipedia

Further information on Stephen Potter can be found in his Wikipedia entry.