Allen Upward

Allen Upward (1863-1926). Courtesy the Modernist Journals Project.

Allen Upward (1863 - 12 November 1926) was an English poet, lawyer, politician and teacher. His work was included in the first anthology of Imagist poetry, Des Imagistes, edited by Ezra Pound and published in 1914.

Life

Upward was born in Worcester, England. He was brought up as a member of the Plymouth Brethren, and trained as a lawyer at the Royal University of Dublin (now University College Dublin). While living in Dublin, he wrote a pamphlet in favour of Irish Home Rule.

Upward later worked for the British Foreign Office in Kenya as a judge. Back in Britain, he defended Havelock Wilson and other labour leaders, and ran for election as a Liberal/Labour candidate in the 1890's.

He published 2 collections of poetry, Songs of Ziklag (1888) and Scented Leaves from a Chinese Jar. He also published a translation, Sayings of Confucious, and a volume of autobiography, Some Personalities (1921).

Upward also wrote a number of now-forgotten novels: The Prince of Balkistan (1895), A Crown of Straw (1896), A Bride's Madness (1897), The Accused Princess (1900), The International Spy: Being a secret history of the Russo-Japanese War" (1905), and Athelstane Ford.

His 1913 book The Divine Mystery is an anthropological study of Christian mythology.

In 1908, Upward self-published a book originally written in 1901, The New Word. This book is today known as the first citation of the word "Scientology", although it is used in the book in a disparaging way to describe "science elevated to unquestioning doctrine". (It is unknown whether L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, knew of this book.)

In 1917 the British Museum refused to take Upwards' manuscripts, "on the grounds that the writer was still alive," and Upward burned them .

He shot himself in November 1926. His suicide was rumored to have been inspired by George Bernard Shaw's Nobel Prize award (though the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls that story "probably a canard voiced by Pound.")

Publications

Poetry

• Songs in Ziklag. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1888.
• A Day's Tragedy: A novel in rhyme. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897.
• Scented Leaves from a Chinese Jar: A selection (edited by Michael Sheldon). Salterton, Devon, UK: Interim Press, 1987.

Play

• Paradise Found; or, The superman found out: In three acts. Letchworth, UK: Garden City Press, 1913; Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1915.

Novels

• The Queen Against Owen. London: Chatto & Windus, 1894.
• The Prince of Balkistan. London: Chatto & Windus, 1895; Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1895.
• A Crown of Straw. London: Chatto & Windus, 1896; New York: Dodd, Mead, 1896.
• One of God's Dilemmas. London: Heinemann, 1896.
• "God Save the Queen! A tale of '37. London: Chatto & Windus, 1897.
• A Bride's Madness. Bristol, UK: J.W. Arrowsmith, 1897.
• Athelstane Ford. London: Pearson, 1899.
• The Accused Princess. London: Pearson, 1900.
• The Wonderful Career of Ebenezer Lobb. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1900.
• The Wrong-Doer. Bristol, UK: J.W. Arrowsmith, 1900.
• The Slaves of Society: A comedy in covers. New York: Harper, 1900.
• The Ambassador's Adventure. London: Cassell, 1901.
• On His Majesty's Service: The story of tariff reform. London: Primrose Press, 1903.
• High Treason. London: Primrose Press, 1903.
• The log of the "Folly": Narrative of a voyage in company with the Poet and the Bookmaker; containing the discovery of the Isle of Wight, and some account of the manners and customs of the natives; with other strange and improbable adventures. London: Digby, Long, 1903.
• The Yellow Hand. London: Digby Long, 1904.
• The Ordeal by Fire. London: Digby Long, 1904.
• The Phantom Torpedo-Boats. New York: Transatlantic Press, 1904; London: Chatto & Windus, 1905.
• The International Spy: Being the secret history of the Russo- Japanese war. London: Pearson, 1904; Chicago: M.A. Donohue, 1905; New York: G.W. Dillingham, 1905.
• Lord Alistair's Rebellion: A chapter of contemporary history. London: A.C. Fifield, 1909;
  • published in U.S. as Lord Alistair's Rebellion. New York: Kennerley, 1910.
• The Discovery of the Dead. London: A.C. Fifield, 1910.
• The Domino Club. London: Faber & Gwyer, 1926;
  • published in U.S. as The Club of Masks. New York: A.L. Burt, 1926; Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1926.
• The House of Sin. London: Faber & Gwyer, 1926; New York: A.L. Burt, 1927; Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1927.
• The Venetian Key. London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927; New York: A.L. Burt, 1927; Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1927.

Short fiction

• Secrets of the Courts of Europe : the confidences of an ex-ambassador. Bristol, UK: J.W. Arrowsmith / London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1897.
• Secret History of To-day: Being revelations of a diplomatic spy. London: Chapman & Hall, 1904; New York: Putnam, 1904.

Non-fiction

• The Truth about Ireland: By an English liberal (anonymous pamphlet). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1884.
• Trial by Jury and the Labour Movement: A plea for reform. Manchester, UK: 1891.
• [https://archive.org/details/cu31924027130479 The New Word: An open letter addressed to the Swedish academy in Stockholm on the meaning of the word idealist. Geneva, Switzerland: Georg & Cie., 1907; London: A.C. Fifield, 1908; New York: Kennerley, 1910.
• The East end of Europe; The report of an unofficial mission to the European provinces of Turkey on the eve of the revolution. London: John Murray, 1908.
• Secrets of the Past. London: A. Owen, 1908; London: Alston Rivers, 1909; New York: Brentano's, 1910.
• The Divine Mystery: A reading of the history of Christianity down to the time of Christ. Letchworth, UK: Garden City Press, 1913; Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1915.
• Some Personalities. London: John Murray, 1921; Boston: Cornhill, 1922.

Juvenile

• Goldenhair and Curlyhead (illustrated by Harold Copping). London: Hurst & Blackett, 1900.

Edited

• Sayings of K'ung the Master (translated by James Legge). London: Orient Press, 1904; London: John Murray, 1905.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• Imagist poets
• List of British poets

References

• Michael Sheldon, Introduction to Scented Leaves from a Chinese Jar: A selection. (Interim Press, 1987).
• Robert Duncan, Introduction to The Divine Mystery. (Ross-Erikson, Santa Barbara, 1976).

External links

Poems

• From Scented Leaves from a Chinese Jar: Allen Upward in The New Poetry: An anthology: "The Acacia Leaves," "The Bitter Purple Willows," "The Coral Fisher," "The Diamond," "The Estuary," "The Intoxicated Poet," "The Jonquils," "The Marigold," "The Mermaid," "The Middle Kingdom," "The Milky Way," "The Onion," "The Sea-Shell," "The Stupid Kite," "The Wind-Mill," "The Word"
• Upward in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Scented Leaves from a Chinese Jar," "Baldur," "Holidays," "Finis"

Books

• Works by Allen Upward at Project Gutenberg
• Full text of The New Word, at sacred-texts.com

About

• Upward, Allen in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction