Walter de la Mare was born on April 25, 1873, in the town of Charlton, in Kent, England. His parents were James Edward Delamare and Lucy Sophia Browning Delamare, of French and Scottish descent, respectively. He attended St. Paul's Cathedral Choir School in London. Upon graduation, he entered the workforce as an employee of Anglo-American (Standard) Oil. It was during his tenure there as a bookkeeper that he began to focus seriously on writing poetry and stories. He had, however, been writing since his high school days when he founded and edited the school magazine, "The Choristers' Journal". At the age of 22 he became a published author when the journal "Sketch" accepted his story "Kismet". His early poems and stories were seen also in "The Cornhill", "The Pall Magazine", "The Pall Mall Gazette", and "Black and White". He married Constance Elfrida Igpen at the age of 26. He enjoyed a long and happy life with her and their four children and eleven grandchildren. His first book of poetry, "Songs of Childhood" was published in 1902 under de la Mare's pseudonym, Walter Ramal. He soon began publishing under his given name with his next book and first novel, "Henry Brocken". By his mid 30's an annual pension awarded by the Asquith government allowed him to retire from his job at Standard Oil to devote himself entirely to writing. His life was fairly ordinary and to many, it would appear, lacking in adventure. However, so active was de la Mare's imagination that he undoubtedly had a great many adventures in that realm, which was to him just as real as anything else. He died at his home in Twickenham, Middlesex, England, on June 22, 1956.
Reputedly a very kind and gentle man, de la Mare was especially fond of children and animals. His vivid and active imagination allowed him to identify with children, and they reciprocated de la Mare's affection in their love of his work. Many of his admirers wrote letters to him telling him how much they enjoyed his poetry. He rather enjoyed replying to letters he received, whether they came from a child who liked "Peacock Pie" or one who objected to the rhyming scheme of one of his poems. De la Mare wrote on the subject of a child's imagination in his introduction to Poems for Children, "whatever precisely a child may be, it is very unusual indeed for those who have become men to be able to remember precisely what it was to be one; to become, that is, in imagination, the children they actually once were."
Although highly respected by fellow authors, Walter de la Mare's works have been generally misunderstood and underappreciated by both critics and the average reader. While his earlier children's poetry is fairly simple, it hints of more complex, highly imaginative offerings to come later in his career. De la Mare was praised by critics for his variety of meters and his youthful imagination. It was for this avid creativity that others labeled him an escapist and a dreamer. He was known for his tendency towards morbidity and his peculiar characters. This is reflected in his later works, which were dominated by fairly dark themes, including grief, aging, mortality, despair, and the transience of beauty. It has been noted that for de la Mare, the difference between reality and dreams is so nearly indiscernible that it might as well not exist. People who only know of his children's poetry have missed the real de la Mare, who was a highly intelligent man with a melancholy soul.
Best known as a lyric poet and children's author, childhood remained one of his major themes throughout his life. However, de la Mare was highly prolific, and comfortable in many genres. An accomplished author, de la Mare wrote poetry, novels, short stories, critiques, essays, anthologies, and plays. He received many awards for his writing, including the Polignac prize, Royal Society of Literature, 1911; the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, 1922, for Memoirs of a Midget; the Carnegie Medal, American Library Association, 1947, for Collected Stories for Children; the Companion of Honour, 1948; the Order of Merit, 1953; the Foyle Poetry prize, 1954; and honorary degrees from several universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Bristol, and London.
From the guide to the Walter de la Mare Correspondence, 1940-1956, (Repository Unknown)
