E. V. Lucas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward Verrall Lucas (June 11/12 1868 – June 26, 1938) was a versatile and popular English writer of nearly 100 books. His style has great facility, and is generally found insipid by contemporary readers; some of his cricket writing has lasted. He is now remembered for his essays and books about London and travel, appearing in many editions, and his biography of Charles Lamb. He was a close friend of Edwin Lutyens.

He was born Eltham, Kent into a Quaker family, and educated at Friends Public School in Saffron Walden. He worked first in a Brighton bookshop and then on a Sussex newspaper followed by The Globe; rising without university education to the Punch magazine 'table' in 1904. He became a prolific writer, providing extensive content for Punch and a column "A wanderer's notebook" for the Sunday Times.

He was also responsible for A. A. Milne teaming up with E. H. Shepard for the Winnie-the-Pooh books. He wrote under pen names EVL, VVV, E. D. Ward, and FF for film criticism. Some of his early work was in collaboration with Charles Larcom Graves (1856 – 1944), another Punch writer.

From 1924 he was also chairman of the London publishers Methuen and Co.. According to R. G. G. Price's A History of Punch, his polished and gentlemanly essayist's persona concealed:

a cynical clubman … very bitter about men and politics … [with] the finest pornographic library in London.

[edit] Works

Bernard Barton and his friends: a record of quiet lives (1893) Quaker biography
A Book of Verse for Children (1897)
The War of the Wenuses (1898) with C. L. Graves, parody of H. G. Wells
Charles Lamb and the Lloyds (1898)
The Open Road (1899) anthology
The Book of Shops (1899)
Four And Twenty Toilers (1900) poems
What Shall We Do Now? (1900) with Elizabeth Lucas, games book
Wisdom While You Wait (1903) with C. L. Graves, parody encyclopedia
Works and Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb (1903-5) editor
Highways and Byways in Sussex (1904)
The Life of Charles Lamb (1905) biography
The Friendly Town (1905)
A Wanderer in Holland (1905)
A Wanderer in London (1906)
Listener's Lure (1906)
Character and Comedy (1907)
A Swan and her Friends (1907 about Anna Seward
The Hambledon Men (1907) cricket
The Gentlest Art (1907) anthology of letters
Another Book of Verses for Children (1907)
Anne's Terrible Good Nature (1908)
Over Bemerton's (1908) novel
Hustled History, Or, As It Might Have Been (1908) with C. L. Graves
The Slowcoach (1908) fiction
Mr. Coggs and other songs for children (1908) with Liza Lehmann
A Wanderer in Paris (1909)
One Day and Another (1909)
Good Company - A Rally of Men (1909)
Sir Pulteney (1910) as E. D. Ward, fantasy
Mr Ingleside (1910) novel
The Second Post (1910) anthology of letters
Old Lamps for New (1911)
William Cowper's Letters (1911) editor
A Wanderer in Florence (1912)
London Lavender (1912)
A Little of Everything (1912)
Loiterer's Harvest (1913) essays
Swollen Headed William (1914) parody
A Wanderer in Venice (1914)
Landmarks (1914)
A Picked Company: being a selection of writings (1915) editor
Her Infinite Variety: A Feminine Portrait Gallery (1915) anthology
The Hausfrau Rampant (1916) novel
Cloud and Silver (1916)
The Vermilion Box (1916) novel
London Revisited (1916)
A Boswell of Baghdad (1917) essays
Twixt Eagle & Dove (1918)
The Phantom Journal (1919)
Quoth the Raven (1919)
Verena in the Midst (1920)
Roving East and Roving West (1921)
Edwin Austin Abbey, Royal Academician, The Record of His Life and Work (1921) biography
Rose and Rose (1922)
Vermeer of Delft (1922)
Giving and Receiving (1922)
Ginevra's Money (1922)
Advisory Ben (1923)
Luck of the Year (1923)
Michael Angelo (1924)
Rembrandt (1924)
A Wanderer among Pictures (1924)
Encounters and Diversions (1924)
The Same Star (1924) play
Zigzags in France (1925)
John Constable the Painter (1925)
Introducing London (1925)
Playtime & Company (1925)
A Wanderer in Rome (1926)
Events and Embroideries (1926)
Frans Hals (1926)
Twelve Songs From "Playtime & Company" (1926)
The Joy of Life (1927) poetry anthology
A Fronded Isle (1927)
The More I See of Men (1927)
The Flamp and Other Stories (1927)
A Rover I Would Be (1928)
Out of a Clear Sky (1928)
Mr Punch's Country Songs (1928)
The Colvins and their Friends (1928) biography
Windfall's Eye (1929)
Turning Things Over (1929) essays
If Dogs Could Write (1929) anthology
Down the Sky (1930)
Traveller’s Luck (1930) essays
And Such Small Deer (1931)
French Leaves (1931)
Visibility Good (1931)
Lemon Verbena (1932) essays
Reading, Writing, and Remembering (1932) (autobiography)
English Leaves (1933)
Saunterer's Rewards (1933)
Postbag Diversions (1933)
At the Shrine of St. Charles (1934) for Charles Lamb anniversary
Pleasure Trove (1935)
Only the Other Day (1936)
London Afresh (1937)
All of a Piece (1937)
As the Bee Sucks (1937)
Adventures and Misgivings (1938)
A Hundred Years of Trent Bridge (1938) editor
Cricket All His Life (1950) edited by Rupert Hart-Davis, cricket writing