Allen Upward played many roles in his sixty-three years. He was poet, playwright, novelist, lawyer, teacher, journalist, adventurer, anthropologist, philologist, philosopher. The role he most desired, however--that of acknowledged genius and sage--always eluded him. Ezra Pound was one of the few who saw Upward as Upward saw himself--a neglected genius and victim of society.

Allen Upward was born in Worcester in 1863, into a family which belonged to the Plymouth Brethren congregation. His education was sporadic, eclectic, informal. His early life was one of constant movement and change--to the Five Towns, to Plymouth, to Camberwell, where he attended Great Yarmouth Grammar School in 1873, to London, and in 1882 to Dublin, where he attended the Royal University of Ireland. While working at the General Registry Office in Dublin, he wrote and published (anonymously) "The Truth About Ireland," a pamphlet advocating Home Rule. He also contributed some verses (again anonymously) to the...