Edward Richard Buxton Shanks (11 June 1892 – 4 May 1953) was an English writer, known as a

war poet A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a p ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, then as an academic and journalist, and literary critic and biographer. He also wrote some science fiction. E. F. Bleiler and

Richard Bleiler Richard James Bleiler (born 1959) is an American bibliographer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and adventure fiction. He was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction in 2002 and for the Munsey Award in 2019. He is th ...

. ''Science-Fiction: The Early Years''. Kent State University Press, 1990. (p.668). . He was born in London, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. He passed his B.A. in History in 1913. He was editor of ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'' from 1912–13. He served in World War I with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in France, but was invalided out in 1915, and did administrative work until war's end. He was later a literary reviewer, working for the '' London Mercury'' (1919–22) and for a short while a lecturer at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

(1926). He was the chief leader-writer for the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' from 1928 to 1935. ''The People of the Ruins'' (1920) was a science-fiction novel in which a man wakes after being put into

suspended animation Suspended animation is the temporary (short- or long-term) slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. It may be either hypometabolic or ametabolic in nature. It may be induced by either endogen ...

in 1924, to discover a devastated Britain 150 years in the future. ''The People of the Ruins'' has an anti-communist subtext (the future 1924 is devastated by Marxist revolutionaries). John Lucas, ''The Radical Twenties''. Rutgers University Press 1999. (p. 154-55).

Awards and honors

He was the first recipient of the

Hawthornden Prize The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender, who was born at Hawthornden Castle. Authors under the age of 41 are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature", which can be written ...

in 1919.

Works

*''Songs'' (1915) poems *''Hilaire Belloc, the man and his work'' (1916) with C. Creighton Mandell *''Poems'' (1916) *''The Queen of China and Other Poems'' (1919) poems *''The Old Indispensables'' (1919) novel *''The People of the Ruins'' (1920) nove
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*''The Island of Youth and Other Poems'' (1921) poems *''The Richest Man'' (1923) novel *''First Essays on Literature'' (1923) criticism *''

Fête Galante ''Fête galante'' () (courtship party) is a category of painting specially created by the French Academy in 1717 to describe Antoine Watteau's (1684–1721) variations on the theme of the fête champêtre, which featured figures in ball dress o ...

'' (1923) opera libretto *''Bernard Shaw'' (1924) criticism *''The Shadowgraph and Other Poems'' (1925) *''Collected Poems (1900–1925)'' (1926) *''The Beggar's Ride'' (1926) drama *''Second Essays on Literature'' (1927) criticism (W.Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., London) *''Queer Street'' (1933) *''The Enchanted Village'' (1933)(A sequel "Queer Street", however, this one more uncommon) *''Poems 1912–1932'' (1933) *''Tom Tiddler's Ground'' (1934) *''Old King Cole'' (1936) novel *''Edgar Allan Poe'' (1937) *''My England'' (1939) *''Rudyard Kipling – A Study in Literature and Political Ideas'' (1940) *''Poems 1939–1952'' (1953)

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shanks, Edward 1892 births 1953 deaths English science fiction writers English male journalists People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Artists' Rifles soldiers British male poets English male novelists 20th-century English poets 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English male writers

Awards and honors

Works

Notes

Further reading

External links