Logan Pearsall Smith

Logan Pearsall Smith (October 18, 1865–March 2, 1946) was an American essayist and critic, and a notable writer on historical semantics.

Smith was born in Millville, New Jersey [ [http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/literature/prose/lsmith.html Logan Pearsall Smith Manuscripts, 1881-1943] , Kent State University. Accessed February 11, 2008.] and settled in London. He was known for his aphorisms and epigrams, but is now probably most remembered for his autobiography "Unforgotten Years" (1938).

The son of the prominent Quakers Robert Pearsall Smith and Hannah Whitall Smith, Logan attended Haverford College and Balliol College, Oxford. His sister Alys was the first wife of Bertrand Russell, and his sister Mary married Bernard Berenson.

Smith was much influenced by Walter Pater. His followers included Robert Gathorne-Hardy, Desmond MacCarthy, John Russell, R. C. Trevelyan, and Hugh Trevor-Roper. He was, in part, the basis for the character of Nick Greene / Sir Nicholas Greene in Virginia Woolf's "Orlando".

Works

*1895. "The Youth of Parnassus, and other stories"
*1902. "Trivia"
*1907. "The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton". Biography
*1909. "Songs and Sonnets"
*1912. "The English Language"
*1919. "A Treasury of English Prose"
*1920. "Little Essays Drawn From The Writings Of George Santayana"
*1920 (ed.). "Donne's Sermons: Selected Passages with an Essay"
*1920. "Stories from the Old Testament retold". Hogarth Press
*1921. "More Trivia"
*1923. "English Idioms"
*1925. "Words and Idioms"
*1927. "The Prospects of Literature". Hogarth Press
*1930 (ed.) "The Golden Grove: Selected Passages From The Sermons and Writings of Jeremy Taylor"
*1931. "Afterthoughts"
*1933. "All Trivia". Collection
*1933. "Last Words"
*1933. "On Reading Shakespeare"
*1936. "Fine Writing"
*1937. "Reperusals & Recollections"
*1938. "Unforgotten Years"
*1940. "Milton and His Modern Critics"
*1943. "A Treasury Of English Aphorisms"
*1949 (ed.). "A Religious Rebel: The Letters of "H.W.S." (Mrs. Pearsall Smith)". Published in the USA as "Philadelphia Quaker, The Letters of Hannah Whitall Smith"
*1949 (ed.). "The Golden Shakespeare"
*1972. "Four Words. Romantic, Originality, Creative, Genius"
*1982. "Saved from the Salvage. With a Memoir of the Author by Cyril Connolly"
*1989 (Edward Burman, ed.) "Logan Pearsall Smith". Anthology.

References

ources

*Robert Gathorne-Hardy (1949) "Recollections of Logan Pearsall Smith"
*John Russell, ed. (1950) "A Portrait of Logan Pearsall Smith drawn from His letters and Diaries"
*Barbara Strachey (1980) "Remarkable Relation: The Story of the Pearsall Smith Family"
*Edwin Tribble, ed. (1984) "A Chime of Words: The Letters of Logan Pearsall Smith"

External links

*
* [http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/literature/prose/lsmith.html Biographical source]
* [http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Logan_Pearsall_Smith/ Quote source]
* " [http://www.solcon.nl/arendsmilde/cslewis/reflections/e-frw-text.htm 'Four romantic words] "