David Martin (poet)

David Martin (22 December 1915 – 1 July 1997), known as a Australian poet, was born Lajos or Ludwig Detsinyi, into a Jewish family in Hungary (then part of Austro-Hungary). He used as well the names Louis Adam and Louis Destiny. He also wrote novels and short stories, and plays.

He was brought up in Germany, where he first became a communist at age 17. He then worked in the Netherlands, and emigrated to Palestine. He fought in the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, writing about this in My Strange Friend (1991); and then worked for the BBC in London from 1938. After World War II he settled in Australia from 1950, making his mark with the satirical poem Rob the Robber (1954).

Works

• Poems of David Martin 1938–58 (1958)
• The gift: poems 1959–65 (1966)