Douglas Sladen

Douglas Sladen (1856-1947). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen (5 February 1856 - 12 February 1947) was an English poet and Australian academic.

Life

Sladen was born in London, the son of Mary (Wheelton) and Douglas Brooke Sladen. He was educated at Temple Grove School, East Sheen, and at Cheltenham College.

He entered Trinity College, Oxford, where he earned a B.A. in 1879. That year he moved to Australia.

In Australia

Sladen settled in Melbourne, Victoria, where his uncle, Charles Sladen had been premier; and was accepted into upper-class Melbourne society. In 1880 he married Isibella Muirhead, who bore him a son. He studied law at the University of Melbourne, earning an LL.B. in 1882. He published a long poem, Frithjof and Ingebjorg in the Victorian Review; the poem became the title piece of his first collection, published in London in 1882. This was followed by Australian Lyrics, published in 1883 in Melbourne.

In 1883 he moved to Sydney, New South Wales, becoming the first lecturer on modern history at the University of Sydney. He was a founding member of the Australian Geographic Society in 1883. He published a third poetry collection, A Poetry of Exiles, and other poems (Sydney, 1883). He returned to England in 1884.

Return to England

Sladen returned to England in 1884, but continued his interest in things Australian. He edited the first anthology of Australian poetry, Australian Ballads and Rhymes, in 1888; followed by A Century of Australian Song, the same year, and Australian Poets, 1788-1888 in 1889. He published a biography of Adam Lindsay Gordon and an edition of Gordon's poetry in 1912; and a collection of Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes's speeches in 1916.

Sladen continued to write many novels, travel books, and anthologies. In 1897 he began editing Who's Who. He mixed easily in artistic and theatrical circles and travelled widely. In 1915 he wrote his first autobiography Twenty Years of my Life.

His first wife died in 1919; and on 31 July 1930 he married Dorothea Duthie. In 1934 he was instrumental in getting a bust of Gordon placed in Poets' Corner (Westminster Abbey), Westminster Abbey, and released another book on Gordon the same year.

He died in Hove, Sussex, in 1947.

Publications

• Frithjof and Ingeborg, and other poems. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1882.
• Australian Lyrics. Melbourne: George Robertson, 1882; London : Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, 1885.
• A Poetry of Exiles Sydney: C.E. Fuller, 1883; London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, 1885.
• A Summer Christmas (a story in rhyme); and A sonnet upon the S.S. "Ballaarat". (verse novel). London: Griffith, Farran, 1884.
• In Cornwall and Across the Sea; with Poems written in Devonshire. London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh / New York: Dutton, 1885.
• A Ballad for the Tercentenary of the Spanish Armada. Penxance, UK: Alverton Press, 1888.
• Sladen's Poems. London : Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, 1888.
• Lester the Loyalist: A romance of the founding of Canada. Tokyo: Hakubunsha, 1890.

Play

• Edward the Black Prince: An epic drama. Florence: 1886; London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, 1887; New York: Cassell, 1891.

Novels

• Seized by a Shadow. London: Griffith, Farran, Oakden & Welsh, 1886.
• A Japanese Marriage. London: A. & C. Black, 1895.
• The Admiral: A romance of Nelson in the year of the Nile. London: Hutchinson, 1898.
• Playing the Game: A story of Japan. London: F.V. White, 1904.
• A Sicilian Marriage. London: F.V. White, 1906.
• The Tragedy of the Pyramids: A romance of army life in Egypt. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1909.
• Weeds: A story of women shifting for themselves (with Olave Potter). London: Hurst & Blackett, 1913.
• The Unholy Estate: A romance of military life and a protest against the divorce laws for women. London: 1912; London: Stanley Paul, 1913
  • also published as The Unholy Estate: A love story and the romance of a divorce. London: Eveleigh Nash & Grayson, 1929.
• His German Wife: The romance of a British officer. London: Hutchinson, 1915.
• The Douglas Romance. London: Hutchinson, 1916; New York: Brentano's, 1916.
• Grace Lorraine: A romance. London: Hutchinson, 1917.
• Fair Inez: A romance of Australia. London: Hutchinson, 1918.
• Paul's Wife; or, The Ostriches: A romance of the awakening of Britain. London: Hutchinson, 1919.
• Meriel Brede, Secretary: A romance of literary life in London in the 'nineties. London: John Heritage, 1935.

Non-fiction

• The Japs at Home. London: Hutchinson, 1892.
• On the Cars and Off: Being the journal of a pilgrimage along the Queen's Highway from Halifax in Nova Scotia to Victoria in Vancouver's Island. London: Ward, Lock, 1895.
• In Sicily, 1896-1898-1900. London: Sands, 1901; New York: Dutton, 1901. Volume I, Volume II
• Queer Things about Japan. London: A. Traherne, 1903.
• More Queer Things about Japan. London: Anthony Traherne, 1904.
• Carthage and Tunis: The old and new gates of the Orient. London: Hutchinson, 1906; Philadelphia: G.W. Jacobs, 1906. Volume II
• Japan in Pictures. London, G. Newnes / New York, F. Warne, 1906.
• Sicily, the New Winter Resort. London: Methuen, 1907.
• Egypt and the English: Showing British public opinion in Egypt upon the Egyptian question. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1908.
• Queer Things About Egypt. London: Hurst & Blackett / Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1911.
• Oriental Cairo: The city of the 'Arabian Nights'. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1911.
• How to See Italy by Rail. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1912.
• Queer Things about Sicily. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1913.
• Germany's Great Lie: The official German justification of the war, exposed and criticized. London: Hutchinson, 1914.
• The Real "Truth about Germany". New York & London: Putnam, 1914.
• Twenty Years of my Life. London: Constable, 1915.
• From Boundary Rider to Prime Minister: Hughes of Australia, the man of the hour. London: Hutchinson, 1916.
• My Long Life: Anecdotes and adventures. London: Hutchinson, 1939.

Edited

• Australian Ballads and Rhymes. London: Walter Scott, 1888.
• A Century of Australian Song. London: Walter Scott, 1888.
• Australian Poets, 1788-1888: Being a selection of poems upon all subjects, written in Australia and New Zealand during the first century of the British colonization. London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, 1889; New York: Cassell, 1890.
• Younger American Poets, 1830-1890. London: Griffith & Farran, 1891.
• The Green Book of London Society: Being a directory of the Court, of Society and of the political and official world. London: 1910-

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

External links

Poems

• Sladen in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "A Christmas Letter from Australia," "Sunset on the Cunimbla Valley, Blue Mountains," "The Tropics," from the drama of Charles II, "Salophia Inhospitalis"

Audio / video

• File:Speaker Icon.svg Douglas Sladen public domain audiobooks from LibriVox

About

• Researching Biography: Who is Douglas Sladen?
• Douglas Brooke (1856–1947) in the Australian Dictionary of Biography
• Twenty Years of my Life (New York: EP Dutton & Company Publishers, 1913), archive.org