Arthur St John Adcock (17 January 1864 in London – 9 June 1930 in Richmond) was an English novelist and poet, known as A. St John Adcock or St John Adcock. He is remembered for his discovery of the then-unknown poet

W. H. Davies William Henry Davies (3 July 1871 – 26 September 1940) was a Welsh poet and writer, who spent much of his life as a tramp or hobo in the United Kingdom and the United States, yet became one of the most popular poets of his time. His themes in ...

. His daughters, Marion St John Webb and Almey St John Adcock, were also writers.

Biography

Arthur St John Adcock was born on 17 January 1864 in London. He was a

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

journalist for half a century, as an assiduous freelance writer. He worked initially as a law office clerk, becoming a full-time writer in 1893. Adcock built up a literary career by unrelenting efforts in circulating his manuscripts, initially also working part-time as an assistant editor on a trade journal. He was a founder member in 1901 of Paul Henry's literary and performing club, with Robert Lynd,

Frank Rutter Francis Vane Phipson Rutter (17 February 1876 – 18 April 1937)"Rutter, Frank V. P.", ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007. Retrieved froukwhoswho8 August 2008. was a British art art critic, c ...

and others. The acting editor of '' The Bookman'' from 1908, Adcock, according to A. E. Waite who knew him, did all the work of the ''Bookman'', nominally under its founder

William Robertson Nicoll Sir William Robertson Nicoll (10 October 18514 May 1923) was a Scottish Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900), Free Church minister (religion), minister, journalist, editor in chief, editor, and man of letters. Biography Nicoll was born in Lums ...

. In 1923, he became its official editor. As an influential critic, Adcock has been classed with conservatives such as

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

Edmund Gosse Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhood ...

Henry Newbolt Sir Henry John Newbolt, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps ...

, E. B. Osborn and

Arthur Waugh Arthur Waugh (27 August 1866 – 26 June 1943) was an English author, literary critic and publisher. He was the father of the authors Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh. Early life Waugh was born in Midsomer Norton, Somerset, in 1866, elder son of ...

. Adcock was a friend of the

weird fiction Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Weird fiction either eschews or radically reinterprets traditional antagonists of supernatural horror fiction, such as ghosts, vampires, ...

writer

William Hope Hodgson William Hope Hodgson (15 November 1877 – 19 April 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror fiction, horror, fantasy, fan ...

and wrote an introduction to Hodgson's posthumously published book, ''The Calling of the Sea''. Adcock married Marion Taylor in 1887, and they settled in Hampstead. Their daughters Marion St John Webb (1888–1930) and Almey St John Adcock (1894–1986), became writers. He died on 9 June 1930 in Richmond. Adcock's papers are held by the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

Works

Adcock is considered one of the "Cockney school novelists" (not the earlier

Cockney School {{short description, Group of 19th-century English poets and essayists The "Cockney School" refers to a group of poets and essayists writing in England in the second and third decades of the 19th century. The term came in the form of hostile revie ...

poets), a group influenced by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

and including also

Henry Nevinson Henry Woodd Nevinson (11 October 1856 – 9 November 1941) was an English war correspondent during the Second Boer War and World War I, a campaigning journalist exposing slavery in western Africa, political commentator and suffragist."Nevinson ...

, Edwin Pugh, and

William Pett Ridge William Pett Ridge (22 April 18592 October 1930) was an English fiction writer, born at Chartham, near Canterbury, Kent, and educated at Marden, Kent, and at the Birkbeck, University of London, Birkbeck Institute, London. He was for some time a ...

. ''East End Idylls'' (1897), about the London

slums A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily in ...

, began an early trilogy, and had an introduction by the Christian Socialist

James Granville Adderley James Granville Adderley (1861–1942) was an English cleric of Anglo-Catholic views, Christian socialist and founder of the Christian Social Union. He was also a ritualist with a strong interest in the dramatic from his student days, seeing it as ...

, a friend. It drew on

Arthur Morrison Arthur George Morrison (1 November 1863 – 4 December 1945) was an English writer and journalist known for realistic novels, for stories about working-class life in the East End of London, and for detective stories featuring a specific detec ...

. Adcock published:
''An unfinished martyrdom and other stories''
(1894) *''Beyond Atonement'' (1896) *''East End Idylls'' (1897) *''The Consecration of Hetty Fleet'' (1898) *''In The Image of God'' (1898) *''In The Wake of the War'' (1900) *''Songs of the War'' (1900) *''The Luck of Private Foster: A Romance of Love and War'' (1900)
''From a London Garden''
(1903) *''More Than Money'' (1903) *''In Fear of Man'' (1904)
''London Etchings''
(1904) *''Admissions And Asides'' (1905) *''Love in London'' (1906) *''London From The Top of A 'Bus'' (1906)
''The Shadow Show''
(1907) *''The World that Never Was. A London Fantasy'' (1908) *''Billicks'' (1909) *''Two to Nowhere'' (1911) *''A Man with a Past'' (1911)
''Famous Houses and Literary Shrines of London''
(1912) *''The Booklover's London'' (1913) *''Modern Grub Street and other essays'' (1913)
''In the Firing Line''
(1914) as editor, a war reportage anthology, part of the ''Daily Telegraph'' War Books series
''Seeing it through. How Britain answered the call''
(1915)
''Australasia Triumphant! With the Australians and New Zealanders in the Great War on Land And Sea''
(1916) *''Songs of The World War'' (1916)
''For Remembrance. Soldier Poets who have Fallen in the War. With nineteen portraits''
(1918) *''The ANZAC Pilgrim's Progress: Ballads of Australia's Army'' (1918) Lance-Corporal Cobber, editor *''Tod MacMammon Sees His Soul'' (1920) *''Exit Homo'' (1921) *''The Divine Tragedy'' (1922)
''Gods of Modern Grub Street: Impressions of Contemporary Authors''
(1923) on

Jeffery Farnol Jeffery Farnol (10 February 1878 – 9 August 1952) was a British writer from 1907 until his death in 1952, known for writing more than 40 romance novels, often set in the Georgian Era or English Regency period, and swashbucklers. He, with Georg ...

, W. B. Maxwell,

W. W. Jacobs William Wymark Jacobs (8 September 1863 – 1 September 1943) was an English author of short fiction and drama. He is best known for his story "The Monkey's Paw". Early life He was born in 1863 at 5, Crombie's Row, Mile End Old Town (not Wappin ...

et al.
''With the gilt off''
(1923) *''Robert Louis Stevenson: His Work and His Personality'' (1924) editor *''The Bookman Treasury of Living Poets'' [1925) editor, and later editions *''A Book of Bohemians'' (1925)
''The Prince of Wales' African Book''
(1926)
''City Songs''
(1926) editor, poetry anthology *''Wonderful London'' (1926/7) editor, three volumes; a shorter version (1935) was reissued in one volume, with preface by Almey St John Adcock, his daughter. *''The Glory that was Grub Street – Impressions of Contemporary Authors'' (1928) *''Collected Poems of St. John Adcock'' (Hodder and Stoughton, 1929)
''London Memories''
(1931) *''Hyde Park'' Adcock was the last editor of ''The Odd Volume'' (1917), an annual that folded during World War I.

References

External links

* * *

in the Special Collections at

, University of Oxford
Portraits of St. John Adcock
in the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adcock, A. St.J 1864 births 1930 deaths 19th-century English poets 19th-century English novelists 20th-century English novelists English male poets English male novelists 19th-century English male writers 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English poets