The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse (New York Review Books)
DOMINIC BEVAN WYNDHAM LEWIS (1894–1969) was born in Wales and educated at Oxford. Prior to serving in World War I, he intended to pursue the legal profession; but after, having suffered two bouts of shell shock and one of malaria, he set his sights on journalism. In 1919, he became a columnist forThe London Daily Expressunder the pseudonym "Beach Comber." These pieces and those that he later wrote forThe London Daily MailandThe London News Chroniclecapture Lewis’s legendary wit and savage, though eloquent, impatience with modern trends and are collected in the volumesAt the Green Goose(1923),At the Sign of the Blue Moon(1924),At the Blue Moon Again(1925), andOn Straw and Other Conceits(1929). He wrote several literary biographies, acclaimed for both their spirited subjectivity and their attention to historical detail, taking on subjects ranging from Rabelais and Molière to Boswell and Habsburg Emperor Charles V. Mid-career, he also coauthored the story on which Alfred Hitchcock’sThe Man Who Knew Too Muchwas based.CHARLES LEE (1870–1956) was born in London to an artistic family who, throughout Lee’s life, heartily supported him in his evolution as an intellectual, fiction writer, poet, playwright, composer, and pianist. He received his BA from London University in 1889 and published his first novel,Widow Woman, in 1896. In poor health, he traveled to Cornwall in 1900 for a brief recuperative visit, staying on seven years, and discovering what would prove to be his most enduring subject: Cornish life, its manners, its landscapes, and its dogged resistance to modern times. In this vein, he wrote four other novels—Our Little Town, Paul Carah Cornishman, Dorinda’s Birthday, andCynthia in the West—as well as a number of short stories (recently collected inChasing Tales: The Lost Stories of Charles Lee); several plays, journals, and musical scores; and a guide book,The Vale of Lanherne. Later, after relocating to the London environs, he worked as the senior editor for J. M. Dent, where, owing to his talent for pruning and polishing prose, he came to be known as "the man with the green pen."