Phillips, Stephen

(1864-1915)

   The son of a clergyman, he was born at Summertown, near Oxford, was educated at Trinity College School, Stratford-upon-Avon, and at King's School, Peterborough; then around 1885 he joined the F.R. Benson theatrical company. His attempts at writing plays met with brief success, so after seven years he took the job as tutor in history until the success of his Poems (1898) convinced him to concentrate on writing poetic drama. When Paolo and Francesca was performed (1902), Phillips was greeted as the successor of Sophocles and Shakespeare, and his royalties jumped dramatically. Affluence did not sit easily with his lack of business acumen and his overgenerous nature. He died in poverty at Deal, Kent. Some of his poems/verse dramas: Orestes, 1884. Eremus, 1894. Herod, 1901. Ulysses, 1902. The Sin of David, 1904. Nero, 1906. New Poems, 1908. The New Inferno, 1911. Lyrics and Dramas, 1913. Panama and Other Poems, 1915. Some of his poems: "Beautiful Death," "By the Sea," "Faces at a Fire," "Lazarus," "Penelope to Ulysses," "The Apparition," "The Lily," "The Woman with the Dead Soul."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Poems of Stephen Phillips. John Lane, 1901. Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.