Educated at St. Paul's Cathedral Choir School in London, de la Mare worked for the Anglo-American Oil Company in London for 18 years in the accounts department. During this period, he began to write, publishing his first story, Kismet, in 1895. By 1908, he devoted himself entirely to writing. He retired that year on a pension of £100 a year and settled in Buckinghamshire. In 1910, he published The Return, a novel of the supernatural which was moderately successful, but it wasn't until publication of The Listener in 1912, that his fame was established. In 1913, he produced Peacock Pie, a book of children's verse which was very popular. In 1948, he was awarded the CH and in 1953, the OM. He is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. Among de la Mare's more well-known works are The Sunken Garden (1917), The Veil (1921), Broomsticks and Other Tales (1925), Alone (1927), At First Sight (1928), On the Edge (1930), The Lord Fish (1933), Behold the Dreamer (1939), Mr. Bumps and His Money (1942), The Burning Glass (1945), Winged Chariot (1951) and Private View (1953). |
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