Kenneth Morris

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Kenneth Morris

Kenneth Vennor Morris ( Welsh : Cenydd Morus ) (born July 31, 1879 in Pontamman (near Ammanford ), Carmarthenshire , Wales , Great Britain , † April 21, 1937 in Cardiff , Wales) was a British author and theosophist .

Live and act

Morris was born on July 31, 1879 in the small Welsh village of Pontamman, near Ammanford, in Carmarthenshire . After the death of their father in 1884 and grandfather in 1885, their mother, Rosa Morris , moved to London with her two children . From 1887 to 1895 he attended the boarding school Christ's Hospital there . During a visit to Dublin in 1896 he came into contact with a circle of writers and mystics , including William Butler Yeats , George William Russell , Violet North (wife of Russell) and Ella Young , all members of the Dublin Lodge of the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA). Enthusiastic about this environment, he immediately joined the Theosophical Society and began to write smaller poems and stories himself. He published this in several theosophical journals.

When he had to return to Wales after a few months, he joined the Cardiff lodge of the TGinA, where he continued his writing. In the course of his preoccupation with theosophical topics, he became aware of the theosophical community Lomaland in California , founded by Katherine Tingley . After exchanging letters with Tingley, she offered him a management position at TGinA. Morris agreed and traveled to Point Loma , where he arrived in January 1908. In Lomaland he began to work as a teacher of history and literature at the local Raya Yoga School. Here he wrote a number of novels, poems, stories and fantasy over the next 22 years - his main work. He published some works under the Welsh translation of his name Cenydd More .

After Tingley's death in 1929, the global economic crisis brought the TGinA close to bankruptcy that same year. The TGinA was only able to survive through drastic austerity measures by Gottfried de Purucker , Tingley's successor. One of these measures was that Purucker asked all somehow expendable employees, more or less voluntarily, to leave Lomaland. So in 1930 Morris left California and moved back to Wales. Here he founded several theosophical lodges for the TGinA and launched the monthly magazine Welsh Theosophical Forum .

A lifetime of poor health, Morris had to attend a Cardiff hospital in April 1937 with thyroid problems . The doctors only gave him a year without treatment and so he decided on a risky operation, which was performed on April 20, 1937. After the procedure, he became conscious for a few minutes and then fell into a coma . He died the next morning, April 21, 1937, without having regained consciousness.

Ursula K. Le Guin named Morris, alongside Eric Rucker Eddison and JRR Tolkien , one of the three most important fantasy authors of the 20th century.

Works (selection)

  • Book of the three dragons . Cold Spring Press, Cold Spring Harbor 2004, ISBN 1593600275 .
  • The emerald dragon . Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1996, ISBN 3-596-13326-2 .
  • Dragon path . TOR, New York 1995, ISBN 0312853092 .
  • Golden threads in the tapestry of history . Point Loma Publications, San Diego 1975, ISBN 0913004278 .
  • The fates of the Princes of Dyfed. Newcastle Publishing Co., North Hollywood 1978, ISBN 087877114X .

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personal data
SURNAME Morris, Kenneth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Morris, Kenneth Vennor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British author and theosophist
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Pontamman (near Ammanford ), Carmarthenshire , Wales, UK
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1937
Place of death Cardiff , Wales, UK