Leonard Cline

Leonard Lanson Cline (11 May 1893-15/16 January 1929) was an American novelist, poet, short story writer and journalist.

Born in Bay City, Michigan, he attended the University of Michigan,was married in 1913, published his first book of poetry,"Poems", in 1914 and worked for "The Detroit News" 1916-1922. In 1922 he took a position at the "Baltimore Sun".

His writings appeared in a variety of magazines, "The New Republic","The American Mercury", "The Smart set","The Nation" and "Scribner's magazine". His journalist work appeared in the "Baltimore Sun", "The New York World", "The Chicago Daily News","The New York Herald Tribune", and "St. Louis Post-Dispatch".

The Viking Press published his first novel,"God Head" in 1925. The novel deals with the Kalevala legends in a modern society. It is a piece of work, about which the critic Laurence Stallings wrote: "It is the most tempestuous novel of many seasons. It would be eminently fair to believe that Leonard Cline could write rings around a half dozen of our ten best novelists." (The New York World, 21 October 1925)

In 1926,he published the light-hearted "Listen,Moon!", dealing of a professor assuming the the role of a pirate along the Chesapeake.

In 1927 he published "The Dark Chamber",arguably his most famous work.It was described by H.P. Lovecraft in his "Supernatural Horror in Literature" as "extremely high in artistic stature".

He also published stories in the pulp magazines under the pseudonym "Alan Forsyth".(Six of these stories are collected in "The Lady of the Frozen Death and Other Weird Tales", published in 1992).

He was also a translator, translating Thomas Raucat's "The Honourable Picnic from the French. His translation of Ramon del Valle-Inclan's "La Lampara Maravillosa", a book of spiritual exercises, remains unpublished.

In 1927, during a drunken quarrel, Cline shot his friend Wilfred Irwin, who died of his wounds several hours later. Cline was taken to trial and was sentenced to a year in prison for manslaughter. He was released after eight months for good behavior. Henry Luce gave him a job on Time magazine. On the evening of 15 January 1929, Cline hosted a party at his New York City apartment to celebrate the sale of a scenario for a play. To friends he complained of chest pains, and he was not seen after that night. Cline was found dead of heart failure in his apartment five days later.

References