English writer Walter de la Mare was born in Charlton in southeast London. The son of a Bank of England clerk, he was one of seven siblings, and his father’s death when he was four left his mother in a precarious financial position. He attended St. Paul’s Cathedral School, then began working as a bookkeeper in Standard Oil’s London statistics department, where he remained for 18 years. He started writing short stories and poetry, with his first publication, the short story “Kismet,” appearing in Sketch in 1895. In 1899, he married Elfrida Ingpen, whom he had met at the Esperanza Amateur Dramatics Club. The couple went on to have four children.
De la Mare’s first book, Songs of Childhood, was published in 1902. The poetry collection brought him acclaim for his creativity in children’s verse. He published his first novel, Henry Brocken, in 1904, and his first collection of poetry for adults, Poems, two years later. In 1908, fellow writer and supporter Sir Henry Newbolt secured a Civil List pension for de la Mare, allowing him to leave his bookkeeping job to focus on writing. In 1915, he was left a portion of Rupert Brooke’s estate upon the war poet’s passing, which gave him and his family the opportunity to leave London for a country house in Buckinghamshire.
De la Mare made a long and prolific career of writing for both children and adults. During more than five decades of writing, he published five novels, sixteen short story collections, a further sixteen poetry collections, four nonfiction books of criticism, and one play. He was also the editor of several anthologies. De la Mare was notable for his introduction of elements of fantasy, romance, and the unusual into his writing across genres, using his powerful skill with tone and atmosphere to confront readers with the uncanny. His ghost stories and supernatural fiction went on to inspire authors such as H. P. Lovecraft. Writers such as W. H. Auden, Graham Greene, Ezra Pound, and Joan Aiken were also admirers of de la Mare’s work, and the festschrift assembled to honor his 75th birthday included contributions from T. S. Eliot, Vita Sackville-West, Lord Dunsany, and others.
De la Mare’s many honors include a Polignac Prize for his novel The Return, a James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for his novel Memoirs of a Midget, a Carnegie Medal for his Collected Stories for Children, and the Foyle Poetry Prize. After turning down knighthood twice, he was named a Companion of Honour in 1948 and recognized by the Order of Merit in 1953. Although he never attended university himself, he was awarded honorary degrees from Cambridge, Oxford, and St. Andrews. He died in 1956.
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More de la Mare
Audio: Listen to readings of de la Mare's poetry at Poetry Archive
Text: Read poems by de la Mare at the Academy of American Poets
Text: Read public domain works by de la Mare at Internet Archive
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Drawing of de la Mare by Sir William Rothenstein.