ABERCROMBIE, LASCELLES English poet, was born at Ashton-upon-Mersey, Cheshire, Jan. 9, 1881, and educated at Malvern and Victoria university, Manchester, where he studied science. His first work, Interludes and Poems, appeared in 1908. Other works are : Mary and the Bramble (1910) The Sale of St. Thomas (Ica* Emblems of Love (19'2); Deborah (1912); Speculative Dialogues (1913). He was appointed lecturer in poetry at the University of Liverpool (1919) and in English literature at Leeds (1922).
Professor Abercrombie was more concerned with bringing his students to the study of the essential greatness of the writers with whom he dealt than with the details which are apt to en cumber overmuch the study of literature. His critical study of Thomas Hardy (1912), the Theory of Poetry (1924), and his volume of collected lectures, The Idea of Great Poetry (1925), are important contributions to modern critical literature. His works include some plays in blank verse, among them Phoenix (1923).