Allen Upward
George Allen Upward (
Early life
Upward was brought up as a member of the
Upward later worked for the
Literary career
He wrote two books of poetry, Songs in 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, the founder of the Scientology-organization, knew of this book.
In 1917 the British Museum refused to take Upward's manuscripts, "on the grounds that the writer was still alive," and Upward burned them (source: Duncan, p. xi).
Death
Upward shot himself in the heart in
Books
- Songs in Ziklag* (poems) 1888
- ’’Secrets of the Courts of Europe’’. Pearson’s Magazine, (serialized, 1896)
- ’’The Prince 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
- ^ National School Admission Registers & Log-books 1870-1914
- ^ http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/up.htm New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors]
- ^ The Times (London, England), Friday, Nov 19, 1926; pg. 17
- ^ F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918
- ^ "Author's Suicide". Advertiser. 19 November 1926. p. 16. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
- 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
- Works by Allen Upward at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Allen Upward at Internet Archive
- Works by Allen Upward at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Full text of The New Word at the Internet Archive