Kenneth Vennor Morris (31 July 1879 – 21 April 1937), sometimes using the Welsh form of his name Cenydd Morus, was a Welsh author and
theosophist
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...
. Born in South Wales, he relocated to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
with his family as a child, and was educated at
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...
. In 1896 he lived 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 c ...
for a while, where he became friends with
George William Russell
George William Russell (10 April 1867 – 17 July 1935), who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (often written AE or A.E.), was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a centra ...
. From 1908 to 1930 Morris lived in California as a staffperson of the Theosophical Society headquarters at Point Loma. The last seven years of his life were spent back in his native Wales, during which time he founded seven Welsh theosophical lodges. Morris was a friend of Talbot Mundy, and the two writers often commentated on each other's work in magazine The Theosophical Path.
According to Ursula K. Le Guin, Morris is one of the three master prose stylists of fantasy of the 20th century, together with E. R. Eddison and J. R. R. Tolkien.
[Le Guin, Ursula.
''The Language of the Night:Essays on Science Fiction and Fantasy''. Ultramarine Publishing, 1980 (p.88).]
Works
*''The Fates of the Princes of Dyfed'' (1914) As Cenydd Morus.
*''The Secret Mountain and Other Tales'' (1926)
*''Book of the Three Dragons'' (1930)
*''The Chalchiuhite Dragon: A Tale of Toltec Times'' (1992)
*''The Dragon Path: Collected Tales of Kenneth Morris'' (1995)
Notes
References
*Douglas A. Anderson, Anderson, Douglas A. (1992).
Afterword. In Kenneth Morris,
'. Theosophical University Press. . Retrieved 28 October 2007.
*Anderson, Douglas A. (February/March 1992).
, ''Sunrise''.
*Anderson, Douglas A. (February/March 2005).
, ''Sunrise''.
*McCaffery, R.J. (Spring 2000). "Kenneth Morris (1879–1937)", ''Eye Dialect'' (Issue Two).
External links
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*
Works online
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', online edition
*
', online edition
*Short stories, a play, and book excerpts.
1879 births
1937 deaths
20th-century Welsh writers
People educated at Christ's Hospital
Welsh fantasy writers
Welsh Theosophists
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