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John Davidson was born to Alexander Davidson and
Helen Crockett on April 11th, 1857, in Barrhead,
near Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Scotland. A couple of
years after John's birth the family moved to
Glasgow where his father was the pastor of the
Montrose Street Evangelical Union Church. In 1861,
the Davidson's moved to Greenock, Scotland, where
most of John's childhood would be spent.
The interest he'd shown in literature from a young
age grew to become a true passion by his teens.
His devoutly religious parents were not thrilled
by either his enthusiasm for literature or his
drinking. John's scorn for their religious beliefs
continued to grow throughout his adolescence and
would provide fodder for a number of his later
literary works.
He graduated from Highlanders' Academy in 1870, and
went to work in the chemical laboratory of Walker's
Sugar Company in Greenock. He returned to Highlanders'
Academy in 1872, to both teach and advance his own
education.
Davidson spent a single session at Edinburgh
University (1876-77) before becoming an English
teacher at Alexander's Charity School in Glasgow,
Scotland (1877-78), Perth Academy (1878-81),
Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow (1881-82), and
Hutchinson Charity School in Paisley (1883-84).
After working as a clerk for a thread company
in Glasgow (1884-85), he resumed teaching
at Morrison's Academy in Crieff, before
concluding his unremarkable career as an
instructor at a private school in Greenock
(1888-89). By the time he had settled in
London in 1890 to pursue a full-time literary
career, he was married and had two young
sons. Alexander Davidson (born 1887) was
the first child born to John and his wife,
Margaret Cameron MacArthur, with son Menzies
Davidson following in 1889.
In the early 1890s, he became a member of the
legendary Rhymers' Club. "We read our poems to
one another and talked criticism and drank a
little wine," was how W. B. Yeats later described
the club. The London-based group was co-founded
by William Butler Yeats and included among its
members several individuals associated with the
"tragic generation." "The Tragic Generation" was
an apt term used to describe a group of literary
figures of that era for which failure and early
death seemed the tragic norm. Though he socialized
with Yeats, John's relationship with other Rhymers'
Club members was sometimes strained as a result
of his often-conflicting literary views. Yeats
once explained that a cornerstone of the Rhymers'
was the belief that a poet should work "at rhythm
and cadence, at form and style." Other writers
associated with the Rhymers' Club include, Lionel
Johnson, Ernest Dowson, Ernest Rhys, Arthur Symons,
Ernest Radford, John Todhunter, T. W. Rolleston,
Victor Plarr, Richard Le Gallienne, George Arthur
Greene, Edwin Ellis and even Oscar Wilde.
He initially worked as a reader/reviewer/critic
for publisher John Lane, and later worked in that
same capacity with publisher Grant Richards. Those
publishers were also responsible for publishing
much of his work the last fifteen years of his
life.
His first major success was Fleet Street Eclogues,
which was published in April 1893, followed by
arguably his finest work, Ballads and Songs,
the next year. It was those two works that brought
him his greatest degree of popular and critical
acclaim. His adaptation of Francois Coppee's
Pour la Couronne was produced in London
from February 27, 1896 - May 30, 1896, under
the title, For the Crown: A Romantic Play in
Four Acts, and was a minor hit. The 1890s
proved an extremely productive period for him,
with the publication of several volumes of
poetry, original plays, short stories, novels
and the appearance of well over 100 pieces in
a variety of periodicals. This chapter of his
life was the most rewarding for him financially
and critically.
John Davidson was one of Hugh MacDiarmid's
favorite poets. The noted Scottish poet once said
Davidson was "the only Scottish poet to whom I owe
anything at all." MacDiarmid was not the only luminary
John Davidson counted among his fans. Celebrated
writer Virginia Woolf was a great admirer of his
work and later committed suicide in the same manner
as Davidson. T. S. Eliot was yet another distinguished
fan of his work who later wrote the preface for
John Davidson: A Selection of His Poems (1961).
He continued to turn out a wide variety of
writings, but was never again able to recapture
the success he experienced with Fleet Street Eclogues
and Ballads and Songs.
Davidson's contempt for Christianity became
increasingly visible in his latter works
and often produced harsh criticism for both
the author and his creations. While he also
rejected Darwinism, a wide variety of
accepted principles, moral values and nearly
all standards of judgment, Christianity
remained his primary target. In 1904, he
explained: "My purpose in these Testaments
is to aid in the overthrow of the rotten
financial investment called Christendom:
I perceive that this can be done only by
purging the world of everything that is
meant by spirit, soul, 'other' world,
though all the literature and art and
religion of the past should go with it."
Publication of his play The Theatrocrat:
A Tragedy of Church and Stage in 1905,
resulted in brutal and nearly universal
criticism. He did not take the disapproval
of his work lightly and fired off a round
of letters attacking the views of his critics.
While he publicly defended his writings,
privately he was genuinely hurt that both
critics and the public had rejected so much
of his later work.
The financial rewards he experienced as a
result of his long sought after literary
success were minimal and short-lived. John
constantly struggled with his finances in
the final years of his life and had to
depend on friends for support. Even after
he was approved for an annual Civil List
pension in the amount of 100 pounds in 1906,
his income remained inadequate for the needs
of his family.
He became increasingly withdrawn as his
health -- both physical and mental --
deteriorated. Davidson battled bronchitis,
asthma and depression in his final years. By
1908, he was convinced he had only months to
live: "I should like to leave my affairs in
some shape behind me: I have had very distinct
notice that I have barely a year or two to
live in now," he wrote in a letter to his
friend and publisher, Grant Richards. When
death failed to materialize as he anticipated,
he took matters into his own hands.
He not only bids a final farewell in the preface
of the posthumously published Fleet Street
and Other Poems, but also seems to be
publishing his suicide note for the world to
see: "The time has come to make an end. There
are several motives. I find my pension is not
enough; I have therefore still to turn aside
and attempt things for which people will pay.
My health also counts. Asthma and other
annoyances I have tolerated for years; but I
cannot put up with cancer."
Shortly after 6:30 p.m. on March 23rd, 1909, John
Davidson ended his life by jumping into the English
Channel from a cliff near his home at 6 Coulson's
Terrace, in Penzance, Cornwall, England. His body
would not be found for nearly six months. It was
his second son, Menzies, who had the unenviable
task of identifying his father's dead body when
it was discovered September 18th, by a pair of
Mousehole fishermen. The recovery of his body
allowed for a proper, if belated, burial at sea,
September 21st, 1909.
The many references John Davidson made to suicide
in his various works were frequently presented as
an escape or even a triumph over a cruel world.
In light of his own suicide, these passages can
resonate with far greater poignancy then perhaps
they did with readers before his death.
Following his death, John Davidson's work enjoyed
a brief resurgence in popularity. But that success
was fleeting, just as it was during his life.
He has since been hailed a master of the narrative
lyrical ballad and an influential literary reformer
who made important contributions to the evolution
of modern verse. His melancholy body of work is
often rich in scientific imagery, frequently
controversial, and while it does vary widely in
quality, his work can still stir passionate debate
among readers.
Selected writing credits
The North Wall (1885)
Diabolus Amans: A Dramatic Poem (1885)
Bruce: A Drama in Five Acts (1886)
Smith: A Tragedy (1888)
A Romantic Farce (1889)
Scaramouch in Naxos (1889)
The above play was reissued in 1890 as
Scaramouch in Naxos: A Pantomime; and Other Plays
Perfervid: The Career of Ninian Jamieson (1890)
The Great Men (1891)
In a Music-Hall and Other Poems (1891)
Laura Ruthven's Widowhood (1892) (written with Charles James Wills)
Fleet Street Eclogues (1893)
Sentences and Paragraphs (1893)
Ballads and Songs (1894)
Baptist Lake (1894)
A Random Itinerary (1894)
A Full and True Account of the Wonderful Mission
of Earl Lavender, which lasted One Night and One
Day: with a History of the Pursuit of Earl Lavender
and Lord Brumm by Mrs Scamler and Maud Emblem (1895)
St. George's Day: A Fleet Street Eclogue (1895)
Miss Armstrong's and Other Circumstances (1896)
The Pilgrimage of Strongsoul and Other Stories (1896)
A Second Series of Fleet Street Eclogues (1896)
New Ballads (1897)
Godfrida: A Play in Four Acts (1898)
The Last Ballad and Other Poems (1899)
Self's the Man: A Tragi-Comedy (1901)
The Testament of a Vivisector (1901)
The Testament of a Man Forbid (1901)
The Testament of an Empire-Builder (1902)
The Knight of the Maypole: A Comedy in Four Acts (1903)
A Rosary (1903)
A Queen's Romance: A Version of Victor Hugo's "Ruy Blas" (1904)
The Testament of a Prime Minister (1904)
Selected Poems (1904)
The Ballad of a Nun (1905)
The Theatrocrat: A Tragedy of Church and Stage (1905)
Holiday and Other Poems, with a Note on Poetry (1906)
The Triumph of Mammon (1907)
Mammon and His Message (1908)
The Testament of John Davidson (1908)
Fleet Street and Other Poems (1909)
John Davidson: A Selection of His Poems (1961)
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