Richard Le Gallienne

Richard Le Gallienne (20 January 1866 - 15 September 1947) was an English poet and prose author.

Life

Le Gallienne was born Richard Thomas Gallienne in Liverpool. 

Asked how to pronounce his name, he told The Literary Digest the stress was "on the last syllable: le gal-i-Enn'. As a rule I hear it pronounced as if it were spelled 'gallion,' which, of course, is wrong."

He started work in an accountant's office, but abandoned this job to become a professional writer. His debut collection of poetry, My Ladies' Sonnets, appeared in 1887. In 1889 he became, for a brief time, literary secretary to Wilson Barrett.

He joined the staff of The Star newspaper in 1891, and wrote for various papers under the name "Logroller". He contributed to The Yellow Book, and associated with the Rhymers' Club.

His 1st wife, Mildred Lee, died in 1894. They had a daughter, Hesper. In 1897 he married Danish journalist Julie Norregard, who left him in 1903 and took their daughter Eva to live in Paris. They were divorced in June 1911.

Le Gallienne became a resident of the United States. On October 27, 1911, he married Irma Perry,whose previous marriage to her 1st cousin, painter and sculptor Roland Hinton Perry, had been dissolved in 1904. Le Gallienne and Irma had known each other for some time, and had jointly published an article as early as 1906. Irma's daughter Gwendolyn Perry subsequently called herself "Gwen Le Gallienne", but was almost certainly not his natural daughter, having been born in 1900.

Le Gallienne and Irma lived in Paris from the late 1920s, where Gwen was by then an established figure in the expatriate bohéme (see, e.g.) and where he wrote a regular newspaper column.

Le Gallienne lived in Menton on the French Riviera during the 1940s. During World War II Le Gallienne was prevented from returning to his Menton home and lived in Monaco for the rest of the war. His house in Menton was occupied by German troops and his library was nearly sent back to Germany as bounty. Le Gallienne appealed to a German officer in Monaco who allowed him to return to Menton to collect his books. During the war Le Gallienne refused to write propaganda for the local German and Italian authorities, and with no income, once collapsed in the street due to hunger.

In later times he knew Llewelyn Powys and John Cowper Powys.

Recognition

2 of his poems, "Song (She's somewhere in the sunlight strong)" and "The Second Crucifixion," were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.

Publications

Poetry

• My Ladies' Sonnets, and other "vain and amatorious" verses. Liverpool, UK: privately printed by W. & J. Arnold, 1887.
• Twilight and Candle-Shades (as "Exul"). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1888.
• Volumes in Folio. London: Elkin Mathews, 1889.
• English Poems. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane / New York: Cassell, 1892.
• Robert Louis Stevenson: An elegy, and other poems. London: John Lane / Boston: Copeland & Day, 1895.
• New Poems. London & New York: John Lane, 1910.
• The Lonely Dancer, and other poems (with Robert McKay). London & New York: John Lane, 1913; London & New York: John Lane / Toronto: Bell & Cockburn, 1914.
• The Silk-Hat Soldier, and other poems in war time. London & New York: John Lane, 1915.
• The Junk-Man, and other poems. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1920.
• A Jongleur Strayed: Verses on love and other matters sacred and profane. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1922.

Plays

• Orestes: A tragedy. New York: M. Kennerley, 1910.

Fiction

• The Book-Bills of Narcissus: An account rendered by Richard Le Gallienne. New York: Putnam, 1891.
• Prose Fancies. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane / New York: Putnam, 1894. Volume I, Volume II.
• The Quest of the Golden Girl: A romance. London & New York: John Lane, 1896.
• Prose Fancies: Second series. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane / Chicago: H.S. Stone, 1896.
• The Romance Of Zion Chapel. London & New York: John Lane, 1898.
• Young Lives. Bristol, UK: J.W. Arrowsmith / London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1898.
• Sleeping Beauty, and other prose fancies. New York & London: John Lane, 1900.
• The Worshipper Of The Image. London & New York: John Lane, 1899.
• The Love Letters of the King; or, The life romantic. Boston: Little, Brown, 1901.
• An Old Country House. New York & London: Harper, 1902.
• Old Love Stories Retold. New York: Baker & Taylor, 1904.
• Painted Shadows. Boston: Little, Brown, 1904; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969.
• Romances of Old France. New York: Baker & Taylor, 1905; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969.
• Little Dinners with the Sphinx, and other prose fancies. New York: John Lane, 1907; New York: Moffat, Yard, 1907.
• Omar Repentant. London: Grant Richards, 1908; New York: M. Kennerley, 1908.
• October Vagabonds. New York: M. Kennerley, 1910; London & New York: John Lane, 1911.
• The Maker of Rainbows, and other fairy-tales and fables. New York & London: Harper, 1912.
• The Highway to Happiness. New York: Morningside Press, 1913; London: T.W. Laune, 1914.
• Pieces of Eight: Being the authentic narrative of a treasure discovered in the Bahama Islands, in the year 1903: Now first given to the public by Richard Le Gallienne.London & Glasgow, UK: W. Collin, 1918; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1918.
• The Romance of Perfume. New York & Paris: Richard Hudnut (perfumer), 1928.
• There Was a Ship: A romance. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1930.

Non-fiction

• George Meredith: Some characteristics (with William Morton Fullerton). London: Elkin Mathews, 1890.
• The Religion of a Literary Man (Religio scriptoris). London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane / New York: Putnam, 1893.
• Retrospective Reviews: A literary log. London: John Lane / New York: Dodd, Mead, 1896. Volume I, Volume II.
• If I Were God. New York & Boston: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1897.
• Grant Allen. New York: Tucker Publishing, 1900.
• Rudyard Kipling: A criticism. London & New York: John Lane, 1900.
• Travels in England (illustrated by Herbert Railton). London: Grant Richards, 1900; London & New York: John Lane, 1900.
• How to Get the Best Out of Books. New York: Baker & Taylor, 1904.
• Attitudes and Avowals, with some retrospective reviews. New York: John Lane, 1910; Freeport, NY: Books for  Libraries Press, 1969.
• The Loves of the Poets. New York: Baker & Taylor, 1911.
• Thomas Bird Mosher: An appreciation. Portland, ME: privately printed, 1914.
• Michael Monahan: An appreciation. New York: Printery of the Phoenix, 1914.
• Vanishing Roads, and other essays. New York: Putman, 1915.
• Woodstock: An essay.Woodstock, NY: Woodstock Art Association, 1923.
• The Romantic '90s (memoir). London: Putnam, 1925; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1925.
• From a Paris Garret (memoir). New York: Ives Washburn, 1936.
• From a Paris Scrapbook. New York: Ives Washburn, 1938.

Juvenile

• Mr. Sun and Mrs. Moon. New York: R.H. Russell, 1902.

Translated

• Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. New York: John Lane, 1897
  • Fifty Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam. Wausau, WI: Philosopher Press, 1901
  • Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: New edition, with fifty added quatrains. New York: John Lane, 1901.
• Ovid, Perseus and Andromeda: The story retold. New York: R.H. Russell, 1902.
• Odes from the Divan of Hafiz. New York: privately printed, 1903; Boston: L.C. Page, 1903.
• Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. New York: F.A. Stokes, 1909.

Richard Le Gallienne, The LeGallienne Book of English Verse, 1922. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Edited

• Arthur Hallam, The poems of Arthur Henry Hallam, together with his essay on the lyrical poems of Alfred Tennyson. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane / London & New York: Macmillan, 1893.
• Samuel Pepys, Passages from 'The Diary of Samuel Pepys'. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1921.
• The Le Gallienne Book of English Verse. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1922; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1972.
  • published as The Modern Book of English Verse. New York: Sun Dial Press, 1939.
• The Le Gallienne Book of American Verse. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1972.
• The Le Gallienne Book of English and American Poetry. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing, 1935.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

I Meant to Do My Work To Day by Richard Le Gallienne

• Poets from Liverpool
• List of British poets

References

• Geoffrey Smerdon & Richard Whittington-Egan, The Quest of the Golden Boy (1960)
• Clarence Decker, Richard Le Gallienne: A centenary memoir-anthology (1966)

External links

Poems

• Richard Le Gallienne in the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900: "Song (She's somewhere in the sunlight strong)," "The Second Crucifixion".
• 3 poems by Le Gallienne: "An Easter Song," "New Year,"Autumn Treasures"
• Le Gallienne in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "Orbits," "Love's Poor," "Regret," "The Wonder Child," "An Old Man's Song," "The Passionate Reader to His Poet"
• Richard Le Gallienne at Poetry Cat
• Richard Le Gallienne at PoemHunter (269 poems)

Audio / video

• Richard Le Gallienne poems at YouTube

Books

• Works by Richard Le Gallienne at Project Gutenberg
• Richard Le Gallienne at Amazon.com

About

• Richard Le Gallienne at The Rhymers' Club
• Richard Le Gallienne biography at JRank.org
• Critical and Biographical Introduction in Library of the World's Best Literature
• Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947) at The Yellow Nineties Online (.PDF)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Original article is at Le Gallienne, Richard