Lascelles Abercrombie

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Lascelles Abercrombie (born January 9, 1881 in Ashton-upon-Mersey near Sale , † October 27, 1938 in London ) was an English poet, journalist and literary scholar.

Life

Lascelles Abercrombie was the eighth of nine children of the stockbroker William Abercrombie and his wife Sarah Ann Hero. He was already enthusiastic about music and literature during his childhood. He was a student at Malvern College , where he studied Latin and Greek, among other things. He studied science at Ofens College in Manchester for two years, but then turned to journalism as a bread-and-butter profession and began writing poetry on the side. His first poem "Blind" was published in 1907 and his first volume of poetry, Interludien and Poems , was published in 1908.

In 1909, Abercrombie married the doctor's daughter Catherine Gwatkin. The marriage resulted in three sons and a daughter. Even before World War I, Abercrombie had a reputation for being one of the leading poets of its generation. His admirers included Robert Bridges , who praised him for his ability to find clear language even for difficult topics.

Although he volunteered, he was not included during the First World War due to his health and worked in an ammunition factory in Liverpool. After the peace agreement, he was initially unemployed. However, Liverpool University was able to raise enough funds to employ him as a poetry editor from 1919 to 1922. This task influenced the rest of his life. Among other things, he held public lectures in which he spoke about the art of writing. One of the reasons his lectures were so valued was that he was able to perform poetry well. He taught smaller groups in the art of literary criticism and in the history of literary criticism. His work was increasingly dominated by literary essays.

Abercrombie turned out to be a very busy professor, and he was appointed to other universities accordingly. He was initially offered a professorship in English literature at the University of Leeds , where he taught from 1922 to 1929. He was then appointed to the Carlyle Chair of English Literature at the University of London , where he worked from 1929 to 1935 and then taught at Oxford and Cambridge. In 1937 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the British Academy .

Literary work

The early works of John Masefield served as a model for his dramas . As a lyricist, he was one of the Dymock Poets and was added to the collection of Georgian Poetry by Edward Marsh . Oxford University Press published almost all of his lyric work in 1930. The only thing missing was The Sale of St. Thomas , which Abercrombie concluded in 1931 and which is considered to be his most mature work. Among his essays on the English language, the one on Thomas Hardy stands out in particular .

Works

Poetry
  • Interludes and Poems (1908)
  • Emblems of Love (1912)
  • Twelve Idyls and Other Poems (1928)
  • Collected Poems (1930)
  • Lyrics and Unfinished Poems (1940)
  • The Sale of Saint Thomas (1931)
Dramas
  • The End of the World (1914)
  • Deborah (1917)
  • Four Short Plays (1922)
  • Phoenix (1923)
Essays
  • Thomas Hardy (1912)
  • The Epic (1912)
  • An Essay towards a Theory of Art (1922)
  • Principles of English Poetry (1924)
  • The Idea of ​​Great Poetry (1925)
  • Romanticism (1926)
  • A Plea for the Liberty of Interpreting (1930)
  • Poetry - Its Music and Meaning (1932)

literature

  • Oliver Elton: Abercrombie, Lascelle in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-19-860642-7 .

Web links

Wikisource: Lascelles Abercrombie  - Sources and full texts (English)

Single receipts

  1. a b c d Elton: Abercrombie, Lascelle in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . P. 1.
  2. a b c d e Elton: Abercrombie, Lascelle in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . P. 2.
  3. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed April 28, 2020 .