Alfred Austin

Alfred Austin 1835-1913, English author, b. Leeds. Originally trained for a legal career, he eventually turned to writing and politics. From 1883-95 he edited the National Review. Although in 1896 he succeeded Tennyson as poet laureate, his poetry is negligible, and he was the butt of many critics who attacked his snobbishness, tastelessness, and lack of poetic talent. His best work is A Garden That I Love (1894, 1907), a miscellany in diary form.

Bibliography: See his autobiography (1911, repr. 1973); study by N. B. Crowell (1953).

Austin, Alfred (1835–1913), became in 1883 joint editor with W. J. Courthope of the newly founded National Review, and sole editor for eight years from 1887. Between 1871 and 1908 he published twenty volumes of verse, of little merit. In 1896, to widespread mockery, Austin was made poet laureate, shortly afterwards publishing in The Times an unfortunate ode celebrating the Jameson Raid. Himself a waspish critic of his contemporaries, he was much derided and parodied as a poet. His Autobiography appeared in 1911.

poet laureate James I awarded Ben Jonson a pension in 1616 and he and Sir William Davenant (1637) were widely recognized as laureates. But the first court appointment of a laureate was in 1668 when Charles II chose Dryden. Among the more distinguished laureates were Wordsworth (1843) and Tennyson(1850): less distinguished were Whitehead (1757), Pye (1790), and Alfred Austin (1896).