# Percival Pollard > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Percival_Pollard > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Percival_Pollard.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Pollard > Source revision: 1280480886 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American novelist}} {{for|the Australian politician|Percy Pollard}} right|thumbnail|Percival Pollard '''Joseph Percival Pollard''' (January 29, 1869 – December 17, 1911) was an American literary critic, novelist and short story writer. ==Biography== Born in [Greifswald](/source/Greifswald), [Pomerania](/source/Pomerania) to English and German parents, he was educated at [Eastbourne College](/source/Eastbourne_College) in [Sussex, England](/source/Sussex%2C_England). His family emigrated to the United States in 1885. After a youthful period in [Iowa](/source/Iowa), he spent much of his life moving back and forth between [London](/source/London), [Paris](/source/Paris) and [New York](/source/New_York_City). His best-known work was ''Their Day in Court'', a 1909 book of literary and cultural commentary. His works reflect his dislike for [naturalism](/source/Naturalism_(literature)), and disdain for the commercial tastes of the masses, promoting instead [aestheticism](/source/aestheticism) and literary [impressionism](/source/Impressionism_(literature)). A good friend of both [Ambrose Bierce](/source/Ambrose_Bierce) and [H. L. Mencken](/source/H._L._Mencken), Mencken wrote of him warmly in the first series of his work ''Prejudices'', comparing Pollard favorably to contemporary and fellow American aesthete [James Huneker](/source/James_Huneker). Pollard was also noted as an early advocate of [James Branch Cabell](/source/James_Branch_Cabell) and the initial works of [Robert W. Chambers](/source/Robert_W._Chambers). Other works include ''Dreams of To-day'' (1907), a book of decadent 'weird tales' in the vein of [Chambers](/source/Robert_W._Chambers)' ''[The King in Yellow](/source/The_King_in_Yellow)'', the critical study ''Masks and Minstrels of New Germany'' (1911), the novels ''The Imitator'' (1901) and ''Lingo Dan'' (1903), as well as a play written in collaboration with Leo Ditrichstein, ''The Ambitious Mrs. Alcott'', which opened and closed after 24 performances on [Broadway](/source/Broadway_theatre) in 1907. Pollard, aged 42, died unexpectedly from "brain neuritis" in 1911 in [Baltimore](/source/Baltimore), cutting short a promising career. [Mencken](/source/H._L._Mencken) and [Bierce](/source/Ambrose_Bierce) attended his funeral. His cremated remains were sent back to [Iowa](/source/Iowa). A 1947 Ph.D. dissertation, ''Percival Pollard: Precursor of the Twenties'', by George Nicholas Kummer of [New York University](/source/New_York_University), has remained in unpublished typescript form. ==Bibliography== *''The Cape of Storms'' (1892) [https://archive.org/details/capeofstorms00pollrich] *''Miniature Dreams'' (1893) *''Posters in Miniature'' (1896) *''The Kiss That Killed'' (1898) *''The Imitator'' (1901) [https://archive.org/details/imitatoranovel00pollgoog] *''Lingo Dan'' (1903) *''In Memoriam: Oscar Wilde'' (1905, as translator) [https://archive.org/details/inmemoriamoscar00jeungoog] *''Dreams of To-day'' (1907) *''The Ambitious Mrs. Alcott'' (1907, with Leo Ditrichstein) *''Their Day in Court'' (1909) [https://archive.org/details/theirdayincourt01pollgoog] *''Masks and Minstrels of New Germany'' (1911)[https://books.google.com/books?id=clMTAAAAYAAJ&q=masks+and+minstrels+of+new+germany] *''Vagabond Journeys: the Human Comedy at Home and Abroad'' (1911) [https://books.google.com/books?id=fmtHAAAAIAAJ] ==References== {{Reflist}} *[May, Henry F.](/source/Henry_F._May) ''The End of American Innocence: A Study of the First Years of Our Own Time, 1912-1917''. Columbia University Press, 1992. {{ISBN|0-231-09653-4}} *[Mencken, H. L.](/source/H._L._Mencken) ''Prejudices: First Series''. Kessinger Publishing, 2005. {{ISBN|1-4179-0347-3}} ==External links == {{Commons category}} * [http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/bai/dunsmore.htm Cora T. Dunsmore on Percival Pollard] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061016191519/http://www.violetbooks.com/REVIEWS/jas-pollard.html The Weird Review: Percival Pollard's "Romantic Nineties" Dream Fantasies] * [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=301465&word= Photographs of Pollard at NYPL Digital Gallery] * {{Gutenberg author | id=40179| name=Percival Pollard}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Percival Pollard}} * {{Librivox author |id=12340}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Percival}} Category:19th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American novelists Category:American literary critics Category:American male novelists Category:1869 births Category:1911 deaths Category:People from Greifswald Category:People educated at Eastbourne College Category:Neurological disease deaths in Maryland Category:American male short story writers Category:19th-century American short story writers Category:19th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American short story writers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Percival Pollard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Pollard) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Pollard?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.