George Allen Upward (

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

20 September 1863 –

Wimborne Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Poole ...

12 November 1926) was a British poet, lawyer, politician and teacher. His work was included in the first anthology of

Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism is sometim ...

poetry, '' Des Imagistes'', which was edited by

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works includ ...

and published in 1914. He was a first cousin once removed of

Edward Upward Edward Falaise Upward, FRSL (9 September 1903 – 13 February 2009) was a British novelist and short story writer who, prior to his death, was believed to be the UK's oldest living author. Initially gaining recognition amongst the Auden Group as ...

. His parents were George and Mary Upward, and he was survived by an elder sister (Mary) Edith Upward. Upward was brought up as a member of the

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasize ...

and trained as a lawyer at the Royal University of Dublin (now

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

). While living in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, he wrote a pamphlet in favour of

Irish Home Rule The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for Devolution, self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1 ...

. Upward later worked for the

British Foreign Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreig ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

as a judge. Back in Britain, he defended

Havelock Wilson Joseph Havelock Wilson (16 August 1859 – 16 April 1929), commonly known as Havelock Wilson or J. Havelock Wilson, was a British trade union leader, Liberal Party politician, and campaigner for the rights of merchant seamen. Early life He w ...

and other labour leaders and ran for election as a

Lib-Lab The Liberal–Labour movement refers to the practice of local Liberal associations accepting and supporting candidates who were financially maintained by trade unions. These candidates stood for the British Parliament with the aim of representin ...

candidate, taking 659 votes in

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at the 1895 general election.F. W. S. Craig, ''British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918'' He wrote two books 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 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) (source: Duncan, p. xii), "'The International Spy: Being a Secret History of the Russo-Japanese War''" (1905), and ''Athelstane Ford''. His 1910 novel "The Discovery of the Dead" is a collected fantasy (listed in Bleiler) dealing with the emerging science of Necrology. His 1913 book ''The Divine Mystery'' is an anthropological study of Christian mythology. In 1908, Upward self-published a book (originally written in 1901) which he apparently thought would be Nobel Prize material: ''The New Word''. This book is today known as the first citation of the word ''"Scientology"'', however there was no delineation in this book of its definition by Upward. It is unknown whether

L. Ron Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author, primarily of science fiction and fantasy stories, who is best known for having founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored ''Dianetics ...

, the founder of the

Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The most recent published census data i ...

-organization, knew of this book. In 1917 the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

refused to take Upward's manuscripts, "on the grounds that the writer was still alive," and Upward burned them (source: Duncan, p. xi). He shot himself in November 1926. Ezra Pound would a decade later satirically remark that this was due to his disappointment after hearing of

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

award which Shaw won in 1925.

Books

*’’Secrets of the Courts of Europe’’. Pearson’s Magazine, (serialized, 1896) *’’The Princess of Balkistan’’, 1895 *’’A Crown of Straw’’, 1896 *’’A Bride’s Madness’’, 1897 *’’The Accused Princess’’, 1900 *’’Secret History of To-Day, Being Revelations of a Diplomatic Spy’’, 1904 *’’The Queen against Owen’’. Date of first publication unknown but before 1923 *’’Athelstane Ford’’. Date of first publication unknown but before 1923 *’’The Ordeal of Fire’’. Date of first publication unknown but before 1923 *’’The Discovery of the Dead’’, 1910 *’’The Yellow Hand’’. Serialised: Dublin Evening Telegraph, 1921 *’’The House of Sin’’. Serialised: Dublin Evening Telegraph, 1923 *"The Club of Masks", 1926

Stage Plays

*’’A Flan in the Pan’’, 1896

References

* Sheldon, Michael. 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). * Pound, Ezra. ''Selected Letters 1907-1941.'' (New Directions, 1950)

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Upward, Allen 1863 births 1926 deaths 1926 suicides 20th-century British male writers British male poets British poets Imagists Liberal-Labour (UK) politicians