Campbell, David (1915–1979)

Australian poet. His first poems were in a ballad style, but he was later influenced by surrealism and by his own translations from Russian of the work of Osip Mandelstam. The traditional collection Modern Australian Poetry (1970) was followed by Selected Poems 1942–1970 (1973), in which Campbell incorporated a new post-surrealist element also seen in Starting from Central Station (1973) and Devil's Rock (1974).

Campbell was born into a rural family, and returned to farming after a university education at Cambridge and service as a pilot in World War II.