Arthur St John Adcock (17 January 1864 in London – 9 June 1930 in Richmond) was an English novelist and poet, known as A. St John Adcock or St John Adcock. He is remembered for his discovery of the then-unknown poet W. H. Davies. His daughters, Marion St John Webb and Almey St John Adcock, were also writers.
Biography
Arthur St John Adcock was born on 17 January 1864 in London. He was a Fleet Street journalist for half a century, as an assiduous freelance writer. He worked initially as a law office clerk, becoming a full-time writer in 1893. Adcock built up a literary career by unrelenting efforts in circulating his manuscripts, initially also working part-time as an assistant editor on a trade journal.
He was a founder member in 1901 of Paul Henry's literary and performing club, with Robert Lynd, Frank Rutter and others. The acting editor of The Bookman from 1908, Adcock, according to A. E. Waite who knew him, did all the work of the Bookman, nominally under its founder William Robertson Nicoll. In 1923, he became its official editor.
As an influential critic, Adcock has been classed with conservatives such as Hilaire Belloc, Edmund Gosse, Henry Newbolt, E. B. Osborn and Arthur Waugh.
Adcock was a friend of the weird fiction writer William Hope Hodgson and wrote an introduction to Hodgson's posthumously published book, The Calling of the Sea.
Adcock married Marion Taylor in 1887, and they settled in Hampstead. Their daughters Marion St John Webb (1888–1930) and Almey St John Adcock (1894–1986), became writers.
