John Davidson (poet) 985309 216229310 2008-05-31T18:20:41Z Antiquary 5831124 /* External links */ WQ link [[Image:JohnDavidson.jpg|right|thumbnail|John Davidson]] {{Verify credibility|date=July 2007}} {{Otherpersons|John Davidson}} '''John Davidson''' ([[April 11]], [[1857]] – [[March 23]], [[1909]]), [[Scotland | Scottish]] [[poet]] and [[playwright]], best known for his [[ballad]]s. He was born at [[Barrhead]], [[East Renfrewshire]] as the son of a Dissenting minister and entered the chemical department of a sugar refinery in Greenock in his 13th year, returning after one year to school as a pupil teacher. He studied at the [[University of Edinburgh]]. He was afterwards engaged in teaching at various places, and having taken to literature went in [[1889]] to London. He achieved a reputation as a writer of poems and plays of marked individuality and vivid realism. His poems include ''[[In a Music Hall]]'' (1891), ''[[Fleet Street Eclogues]]'' (1893), ''[[Baptist Lake]]'' (1894), ''[[New Ballads]]'' (1896), ''[[The Last Ballad]]'' (1898), ''[[The Triumph of Mammon]]'' (1907), and among his plays are ''[[Bruce]]'' (1886), ''[[Smith: a Tragic Farce]]'' (1888), ''[[Godfrida]]'' (1898). He also wrote novels. From 1901 he wrote pessimistic [[blank verse]] ''Testaments''. He was given a [[Civil List]] pension in 1906. Davidson disappeared on [[March 27]], [[1909]], under circumstances which left little doubt that under the influence of mental depression he had drowned himself at Penzance. Among his papers was found the manuscript of a new work, ''[[Fleet Street Poems]]'', with a letter containing the words, "This will be my last book." His body was discovered a few months later. == Works == {{Wikisource|Author:John Davidson|John Davidson}} * ''Diabolus Amans'' (1885), verse drama * ''Fleet Street Eclogues'' (1893) * Contributor to ''[[The Yellow Book]]'' * ''Ballads and Songs'' (1894), * ''A Full and True Account of the Wonderful Mission of Earl Lavender'' (1895) * ''Fleet Street Eclogues (Second Series)'' (1896) * ''New Ballads'' (1897) * ''The Last Ballad'' (1899). == References == * ''John Davidson, First of the Moderns; A Literary Biography'' (1995) by John Sloan * ''Karl E. Beckson, London in the 1890s: A Cultural History'' (1992) {{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}} ==External links== {{wikiquote}} * [http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Davidson,John-poet.html John Davidson] profile at Internet Accuracy Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, John}} [[Category:1837 births]] [[Category:1909 deaths]] [[Category:Deaths by drowning]] [[Category:People from East Renfrewshire]] [[Category:Scottish dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Scottish poets]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]] [[Category:Writers who committed suicide]]