- Allen Upward
Allen Upward (1863 - 1926) was a
poet ,lawyer ,politician andteacher . His work was included in the first anthology of Imagist poetry, "Des Imagistes", which was edited byEzra Pound and published in 1914.Upward was brought up as a member of the
Plymouth Brethren and trained as a lawyer at the Royal University of Dublin (nowUniversity College Dublin ). While living inDublin , he wrote a pamphlet in favour ofIrish Home Rule .Upward later worked for the
British Foreign Office inKenya as ajudge . Back in Britain, he defendedHavelock Wilson and other labour leaders and ran for election as aLib/Lab candidate in the 1890s.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), and "The Accused Princess" (1900) (source: Duncan, p. xii).
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", although it is used in the book in a disparaging way to describe "science elevated to unquestioning doctrine". It is unknown whether
L. Ron Hubbard , the founder of theScientology -organization, knew of this book.In 1917 the
British Museum refused to take Upwards' manuscripts, "on the grounds that the writer was still alive," and Upward burned them (source: Duncan, p. xi).He shot himself in November 1926, reportedly after hearing of
George Bernard Shaw 's Nobel Prize award.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).External links
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/tnw/index.htm Full text of The New Word, at sacred-texts.com]
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