Lascelles Abercrombie

Lascelles Abercrombie (9 January 1881 – 27 October 1938) was a British poet and literary critic, one of the "Dymock poets". After the First World War he worked as a professor of English literature in a number of English universities, writing principally on the theory of literature.

Biography

Abercrombie was born in Ashton upon Mersey, Sale, Cheshire. His mother, born Sarah Ann Heron, was a broad minded woman and had a sense of humour. His father, William Abercrombie, was a stock broker by profession and had the habit of reading books of eminent writers. Lascelles inherited his father's habit: "Nous" was the nickname used by his family members. He was the brother of the architect and town planner Patrick Abercrombie.

Abercrombie was educated at Malvern College, and at Owens College, Manchester.

Before the First World War, he lived for a time at Dymock in Gloucestershire, part of a community of poets, including Robert Frost, and often visited by Rupert Brooke, and Edward Thomas. The Dymock poets were included among the "Georgian poets", and Abercrombie's poetry was included in four of the five volumes of Georgian Poetry (edited by Edward Marsh, 1912–1922). During the pre-War years, he earned his living reviewing books, and started his poetry writing. His first book, Interludes and Poems (1908), was followed by Mary and the Bramble (1910) and the play Deborah, and later by Emblems of Love (1912) and Speculative Dialogues (1913). His critical works include An Essay Towards a Theory of Art (1922), and Poetry, Its Music and Meaning (1932). The Poems of Lascelles Abercrombie (1930) was followed by The Sale of St. Thomas (1930), a dramatic poem.