William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley (born August 23, 1849 in Gloucester , Gloucestershire , † July 11, 1903 in Woking , Surrey ) was an English writer .
Life
His parents were William and Emma Henley. He had two brothers, Anthony Warton and Edward John. The poet Thomas Edward Brown , principal of his school in Gloucester, inspired him for literature. As a child, Henley suffered from tuberculosis and had one foot amputated. During a 20-month sanatorium stay in Edinburgh from 1873 to 1875 he began to write poetry. In 1874 he made the acquaintance of Robert Louis Stevenson , with whom he later became a close friend. He served his literary figure Long John Silver as a model. Together with Stevenson he wrote four dramas, including Deacon Brodie (1880), thematically a predecessor of Stevenson's famous epic novel The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Henley was married to Anna Henley since 1878.
He worked as a literary critic and journalist , including for the magazine London (1877 to 1879), the Magazine of Art (1882 to 1886), the Scots Observer (1889 to 1894) and The New Review (1894 to 1897). He promoted young talent and published works by Thomas Hardy , George Bernard Shaw , Herbert George Wells , Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad . In 1893 he received his PhD from St Andrews University . From 1894 he edited together with John Stephen Farmer a seven-volume dictionary Slang and its analogues past and present . In 1896 he was co-editor of a work by the poet Robert Burns .
The last decade of his life was overshadowed by the grief over the death of his only daughter and the falling out between himself and Stevenson. A negative article about the late Stevenson in Pall Mall Magazine (1901) earned him criticism in literary circles. After his death from nervous shock , his remains were burned and buried in Cockayne Hatley . A bust of Henley by Auguste Rodin in 1886 is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London .
Works
Together with Stevenson he wrote four plays that are almost forgotten today: Deacon Brodie (1880), Beau Austin (1884), Admiral Guinea (1884) and Macaire (1885).
He has also published several collections of poetry: A Book of Verses (1888), The Song of the Sword (1892), London Voluntaries (1893), Collected Poems (1898), Hawthorn and Lavender (1901) and In Hospital (1903).
His most famous poems are Pro rege nostro , which was especially popular during the First World War because of its patriotic content ( What have I done for you, England, my England? What is there I would not do, England my own? ), And that Invictus , created in 1875 , which ends with the lines I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul .
When he wrote Invictus , Henley was in a hospital where the doctors wanted to amputate his second (tubercular) foot and he resisted it. His poem can be found in anthologies, but only became known to a wider public through the execution of Timothy McVeigh : Before their execution, convicts in the United States usually write down their "Last Testimony". McVeigh's Final Statement contains only the text of this poem. It also plays a very important role in the Clint Eastwood film of the same name .
literature
- L. Cope Cornford: William Ernest Henley . "Chronological list of publications": p. 108-109. Publisher: Constable and Company Ltd., London 1913
- John Connell: WE Henley . London 1949.
- The Works of WE Henley on the Internet Archive
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Reinbold: Robert Louis Stevenson . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-499-50488-x , p. 153.
- ^ Text at Wikisource
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Henley, William Ernest |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 23, 1849 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gloucester |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 11, 1903 |
| Place of death | Woking |