William James Dawson

William James Dawson (21 November 1854 – 22 August 1928) was an English clergyman, lecturer, poet, hymnwriter, and author. After beginning his ministry as a Wesleyan Methodist, he became a Congregationalist in 1892. He was the pastor of Highbury Quadrant Congregational Church in the 1890s. During that time, his writing and preaching became widely popular in the United States, and he moved there in 1906, eventually settling in Newark, New Jersey.

He was the father of the novelist and poet Coningsby Dawson.

Biography

Early life and education William James Dawson was born on 21 November 1854 at Towcester, Northamptonshire to Reverend William James and Susan (née Waller) Dawson. He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset and Didsbury College, Manchester.

Great Britain He entered the Wesleyan ministry upon graduation from Didsbury in 1875. In 1884, he published his first work, a book of poetry titled, A Vision of Souls. This was followed by a collection of literary and critical essays, Quest and Vision, in 1886. Dawson later described the family home as "one of these grey stone houses, one of the twenty or thirty in a somber crescent, built round a mangy grass plot defended with rusty railing and adorned with a broken foundation, long ago derelict." He welcomed the change of scenery, contrasting the city to London in his later writing, "In Glasgow, a different spirit reigned. Men were judged by their inherent worth. Society appeared to have a more democratic basis. I felt, for the first time, that I could breathe freely, move freely; that I was no longer badged, cataloged, and labeled. There was a more diffused intellectual life. Ideas counted for more. The common level of education was much higher than London. There was an ennobling tradition of the dignity of scholarship. The great university crowded with young from the farm and glen, who in due course would recruit to be all the learned professions, had done much to create this tradition."His daughter Hilda also had fond memories of her father's time in Glasgow, which she referred to as his happiest and most successful years. "Every Sunday morning he found a queue waiting outside his church, which was always crowded, both the morning and evening service. Glasgow University recognized the intellectual in him and he became a lecturer at the University and made such friends as Henry Drummond, John Caird and Lord Kelvin." The property became a favorite summer destination for the Dawson family.

Dawson died on 22 August 1928 at the Kootenay Lake property. In a prologue to his unfinished memoirs Twenty Years in America, his daughter Muriel wrote, "The last outdoor scene on which he looked on that afternoon on August 22 was his beloved mountains and lake with the evening shadows falling, as he sat on the terrace with little Derry (his grandchild) on his knee and pointed out to him the lake steamer come down the lake. They watched together till it vanished, then a sudden chill seized him, and he went indoors, never to come out again".

Works Arvelon: a First Poem (1878) A Vision of Souls, with other Ballads and Poems (1884) Quest and Vision: Essays on Life and Literature (1886; enlarged, 1892) The Threshold of Manhood: a Young Man's Words to Young Men (1889) The Makers of Modern Poetry (1890) The Redemption of Edward Strahan: a Social Story (1891) The Church of To-morrow: a Series of Addresses Delivered in America, Canada, and Great Britain (1892) Poems and Lyrics (1893) The Makers of Modern English: a Popular Handbook to the Greater Poets of the Century (1893) The Making of Manhood (1894) London Idylls: Tales (1895) The Story of Hannah: a Novel (1896) Thro' Lattice-Windows: [tales] (1897) Judith Boldero: a Tragic Romance (1898) In Memoriam William Ewart Gladstone: A Sermon Preached in Highbury Quadrant Church, on Sunday Evening, May 22nd, 1898 (1898) Makers of Modern Prose: A Popular Handbook to the Greater Prose Writers of the Century (1899) Savonarola: a Drama (1900) The Man Christ Jesus: a Life of Christ (1901) The House of Dreams (1901) Literary Leaders of Modern England (1902) The Reproach of Christ, and Other Sermons (1903) Makers of English Fiction (1905) The Evangelistic Note (1905) The Forgotten Secret (1906) The Makers of English Poetry (1906) The Makers of English Prose (1906) The Empire of Love (1907) A Prophet in Babylon: A Story of Social Service (1907) The Quest of the Simple Life (1907) A Soldier of the Future (1908) The Great English Letter Writers - Volume 1 (1908) The Great English Essayists, with Introductory Essays and Notes (1909) Masterman and Son: [a Novel] (1909) The Divine Challenge (1910) The Great English Short Story Writers (1910) One Night in Bethlehem: a Christmas Story (1910) The Book of Courage (1911) A Child's Memorial by Her Father and Brother (1911) The Great English Novelists - Volume 2 (1911) The American Hymnal (1913) America, and Other Poems (1914) Robert Shenstone: a Novel (1917) The Father of a Soldier (1918) The War Eagle: a Contemporary Novel (1918) Chalmers Comes Back (1919) The Borrowdale Tragedy (1920)

Twenty Years in America (unpublished manuscript)