Walter de la Mare facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Walter de la Mare
|
|
|---|---|
Walter de la Mare in 1924
(photo by Lady Ottoline Morrell) |
|
| Born | Walter John de la Mare 25 April 1873 Charlton, Kent, England |
| Died | 22 June 1956 (aged 83) Twickenham, Middlesex, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | Poetry, supernatural fiction, children's literature |
| Notable awards | James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1921 Carnegie Medal 1947 |
Walter John de la Mare (born April 25, 1873 – died June 22, 1956) was an English writer. He wrote poems, short stories, and novels. Many people remember him best for his books for children. He is also famous for his poem "The Listeners." He wrote many spooky psychological horror stories too, like "Seaton's Aunt" and "All Hallows."
In 1921, his novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. This was a big award for fiction. Later, his book Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal. This medal is given for the best British children's book.
Contents
Life of Walter de la Mare
Walter de la Mare was born in Charlton, Kent, England. His family had French Huguenot ancestors. He went to school at St Paul's Cathedral School. His father, James Edward de la Mare, worked at the Bank of England. His mother was Lucy Sophia Browning. Walter had two brothers and four sisters. He liked his family and friends to call him 'Jack'.
From 1890, Walter worked in London for a company called Standard Oil. He worked there for 18 years to support his family. Even with a full-time job, he still found time to write. In 1908, he received a special pension from the government. This allowed him to stop working and focus only on writing.
In 1892, Walter met Elfrida Ingpen at a drama club. She was the main actress and ten years older than him. They fell in love and got married on August 4, 1899. They had four children: Richard, Colin, Florence, and Lucy. The family lived in Beckenham and Anerley for many years.
While living in Beckenham, his first book of poems, Songs of Childhood, was published. He used the name Walter Ramal for this book. Their home in Anerley was a fun place. They often had parties and played imaginative games like charades.
In 1940, Walter's wife, Elfrida, became ill with Parkinson's disease. She was sick for the rest of her life and passed away in 1943. After 1940, Walter lived in Twickenham. He lived on the same street where the famous poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson had lived a century before.
In 1947, Walter de la Mare won the Carnegie Medal for his book Collected Stories for Children. This was the first time a collection of stories won this award.
Walter had a coronary thrombosis (a type of blood clot) in 1947. He died from another one in 1956. He spent his last year mostly in bed. His ashes are buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral. This is the same cathedral where he had once been a choirboy.
Walter de la Mare's Ideas on Imagination
Walter de la Mare talked about two kinds of imagination. He called them "childlike" and "boylike." He believed that great poets like William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri used both.
He said that all children start with a childlike imagination. This kind of imagination sees facts as changing and exciting. Children are like "visionaries" who can easily get lost in their thoughts. They can sink into a "waking vision." This means they can imagine things very clearly.
However, as children grow, the outside world can make this childlike imagination hide. It "retires like a shocked snail into its shell." Then, the "boyish" imagination grows stronger. This type is more about thinking logically and analyzing things.
By the time people become adults, the childlike imagination has either gone away or become brave enough to face the real world. This leads to two types of adult minds. One mind is shaped by the boylike imagination. It is "logical" and uses "deductive" thinking. The other mind is shaped by the childlike imagination. It is "intuitive" and uses "inductive" thinking. Walter de la Mare felt that the intuitive mind saw that "beauty is truth." The logical mind showed that "truth is beauty." He believed that a visionary writer gets ideas from inside themselves. An intellectual writer gets ideas from outside, from experiences and knowledge.
Come Hither Anthology
Come Hither was a special book put together by Walter de la Mare. It was mostly poetry, but it also had some prose. The book had a story that connected all the pieces. It was first published in 1923 and was very popular. It included poems for children and works by leading poets of his time.
Supernatural Stories
Walter de la Mare was also known for his ghost stories. His collections like Eight Tales and The Riddle and Other Stories have many spooky tales.
The famous horror writer H. P. Lovecraft liked de la Mare's supernatural stories. He said de la Mare could create a "keen potency" (strong feeling) of fear. Lovecraft especially liked "Seaton's Aunt," "The Tree," and "All Hallows." Other experts also say de la Mare's adult horror stories are some of the best from his time.
Many later writers of supernatural fiction have said that de la Mare's ghost stories inspired them. These writers include Robert Aickman and Ramsey Campbell. A scholar named S. T. Joshi said that de la Mare's scary stories will always have readers who will "shudder" (tremble with fear) and think deeply.
For children, de la Mare wrote the fairy tale The Three Mulla Mulgars (1910). This book is also known as The Three Royal Monkeys. It is a "classic animal fantasy" and was a favorite novel of writer Richard Adams.
Walter de la Mare also wrote two supernatural novels. These were Henry Brocken (1904) and The Return (1910).
Works by Walter de la Mare
Walter de la Mare wrote many different kinds of books. Here are some of his most well-known works.
Novels
- Henry Brocken (1904)
- The Three Mulla Mulgars (1910) (also called The Three Royal Monkeys, a children's novel)
- The Return (1910)
- Memoirs of a Midget (1921)
- Mr. Bumps and His Monkey (1942)
Short Story Collections
- The Riddle and Other Stories (1923)
- Broomsticks and Other Tales (1925) (children's stories)
- The Connoisseur and Other Stories (1926)
- On the Edge (1930)
- The Dutch Cheese (1931) (children's stories)
- The Lord Fish (1933) (children's stories)
- The Wind Blows Over (1936)
- Collected Stories for Children (1947)
- A Beginning and Other Stories (1955)
- Eight Tales (1971)
Poetry Collections
- Songs of Childhood (1902)
- The Listeners (1912)
- Peacock Pie (1913)
- The Sunken Garden and Other Poems (1917)
- The Veil and Other Poems (1921)
- Down-Adown-Derry: A Book of Fairy Poems (1922)
- A Child's Day: A Book of Rhymes (1924)
- Bells and Grass (1941)
- Inward Companion (1950)
- O Lovely England (1952)
Plays
- Crossings: A Fairy Play (1921)
Nonfiction Books
- Desert Islands and Robinson Crusoe (1930)
- Lewis Carroll (1930)
Anthologies Edited by de la Mare
- Come Hither (1923)
- Tom Tiddler's Ground (1931)
- Early One Morning, in the Spring (1935)
- Behold, This Dreamer! (1939)
Walter de la Mare's Legacy
Walter de la Mare's work has inspired many other artists.
A translator named C. K. Scott Moncrieff used a line from de la Mare's poem "The Ghost" for a book title. He used "The Sweet Cheat Gone" for one of the volumes in Marcel Proust's famous series, Remembrance of Things Past.
In 1944, friends and publishers secretly created a special book for Walter de la Mare's 75th birthday. It included writings from many famous authors who admired his work. These included T. S. Eliot and Siegfried Sassoon.
Richard Adams' first book, Watership Down (1972), uses several of de la Mare's poems. These poems appear at the beginning of chapters.
De la Mare's play Crossings is important in Robertson Davies' novel The Manticore. In the story, the main character falls in love with a girl acting in the play. This first love changes his life.
The composer Benjamin Britten set some of de la Mare's poems to music. He used de la Mare's version of the song Levy-Dew and five other poems in a collection called Tit for Tat.
Images for kids
-
Walter de la Mare in 1924 (photo by Lady Ottoline Morrell)
See also
In Spanish: Walter de la Mare para niños
