Poet, opera critic, and academic Valentine (Val) Thomas Vallis was born on 1 August 1916 in Gladstone, Queensland. He attended school in Gladstone, then continued his secondary education in Rockhampton. He worked in the Gladstone Town Council offices before joining the army in 1940. In New Guinea, he served as a major in the Army Education Service under Tom Inglis Moore. After the war he attended the University of Queensland, graduating with first class honours in philosophy in 1950. While an undergraduate he published his first volume of poetry, Songs of the east coast (1947), and made the acquaintance of Judith Wright, with whom he would maintain a lifelong friendship. He worked at the University of Queensland as an assistant lecturer in philosophy while completing his bachelor degree and his Master of Arts (1953). After completing a PhD (1955) in philosophy at the University of London, he returned to UQ to lecture in philosophy from 1956. His second volume of poetry, Dark wind blowing, was published in 1961. That same year, he became a Senior Lecturer, then transferred to the English Department in 1965, where he retired as a Reader in 1981. Val was passionate about music, specifically opera. After his retirement from UQ, he lectured on the history of opera at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. Over the years he contributed criticism and articles to various publications, including The bulletin and The Australian. He also reported in Brisbane for London magazine Opera. He was a member of the Queensland working party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography for a decade. He died on 14 January 2009.