William Empson

Matthew Bevis (University of Oxford)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 27 Sep 1906
Died 15 Apr 1984
Activity 1926-1984

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Literary Critic/ Historian
Poet

Resources

Empson's Works

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William Empson, poet and critic, was born on 27 September 1906 at Yokefleet Hall in Howden, Yorkshire. He was the youngest of five children of Arthur Reginald Empson (landowner and squire) and his wife Laura. Empson later looked back on the “romantic charm” of the estate where he was brought up and his comments on it demonstrate three qualities that were characteristic of him: candour, wit, and an awareness of his own diverse sympathies: “I was terribly shy about this [estate] as a young man. Like any other poet around 1930, I could tell the family I was a socialist and disapproved of land-owning, but I felt it would be horrible bad taste to tell anybody else about Yokefleet, though I was secretly proud of it and thought it was very fine””.

In 1920 Empson won a scholarship to

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3933 words

Citation: Bevis, Matthew. "William Empson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1427, accessed 22 November 2024.]