Binyon, Laurence, 1869-1943

Laurence Binyon was an English writer. The University of Victoria Libraries Special Collections has a mandate to acquire literary papers.

Binyon was born Aug. 10, 1869 in Lancaster, England; British Museum official for 40 years, as well as art historian, critic, translator, playwright, and poet; author of numerous works on art, including Painting in the Far East (1908); professor of poetry at Harvard; published many collections of poetry, including The winnowing fan: poems on the Great War (1914), The sirens (1924), The idols (1928), and Collected poems of Lawrence Binyon (1931); wrote a play, Arthur (1923), whose original title was Launcelot; died in March 1943 in Reading, England.

British art historian, critic, translator, poet, and playwright.

English poet, dramatist, orientalist, and official of the British Museum. Born Robert Laurence Binyon.

Laurence Binyon, British poet and art historian. A popular poet in his lifetime, Binyon also enjoyed a long career at the British Museum and wrote seminal works of criticism on William Blake.

Author.

Binyon was an English poet and art historian.

Poet.

Laurence Binyon was a British poet and art historian who had a long and influential career with the British Museum. Born in Lancaster, Binyon started publishing poetry at the age of sixteen, and won scholarships allowing him to graduate from Oxford. In 1893 he began his long association with the British Museum, mainly in the department of prints and drawings. Binyon published poetry and verse drama throughout his life, as well as writing important works in art history. He helped popularize eastern art in England through his writing and work with the Museum, and is probably best remembered for the prescient World War I ode, For the Fallen.

1893-1895 British Museum, department of printed books; 1895-1909 British Museum, department of prints and drawings; 1906-1911 art critic, the Saturday Review; 1909-1913 assistant keeper; 1913-1932 deputy keeper, sub-department of Oriental prints and drawings; 1915 and 1916 orderly, military hospital, Western Front, France; 1917-1918 produced a report for the Red Cross regarding victims of the First World War; 1932-1933 keeper, department of prints and drawings; 1933 honorary DLitt, Oxford University and honorary fellow of Trinity College, Oxford; 1933-1934 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, Harvard University and president, the English Association; 1934-1935 president, English Verse-Speaking Association; 1940 Byron Professor, University of Athens.

Epithet: poet and art historian

Biography

Binyon was born August 10, 1869 in Lancaster, England; British Museum official for 40 years, as well as art historian, critic, translator, playwright, and poet; author of numerous works on art, including Painting in the Far East (1908); professor of poetry at Harvard; published many collections of poetry, including The winnowing fan: poems on the Great War (1914), The sirens (1924), The idols (1928), and Collected poems of Lawrence Binyon (1931); wrote a play, Arthur (1923), whose original title was “Launcelot”; died in March 1943 in Reading, England.