A. E. Coppard

Alfred Edgar Coppard (1878-1957) was an English writer primarily known for his short stories, many of which were set in the countryside. Despite a challenging childhood marked by poverty and limited formal education, Coppard pursued writing with significant determination. He was recognized and supported by prominent literary figures of his time, including Ford Madox Ford and Arnold Bennett, and later by critics like Frank O’Connor and Doris Lessing. His work found a readership in the United States, and some of his stories were adapted for British television in the 1960s and 1970s.

Coppard's early life involved various menial jobs, but he used earnings from professional sprinting to purchase books. He was an autodidact who engaged with intellectual circles in Oxford, where he also became involved with the Independent Labour Party and literary groups. His first published story appeared in 1916, and by the end of 1918, he had a growing number of publications. After separating from his first wife, he dedicated himself to writing full-time, producing over a dozen short-story collections and several poetry volumes. His fiction was influenced by authors such as Thomas Hardy and Guy de Maupassant, and he expressed a preference for stories that felt like they were being spoken rather than read. He also held specific literary preferences, admiring Sterne, Dickens, and Joyce, while disliking D. H. Lawrence and Rudyard Kipling.

A. E. Coppard's literary style was shaped by authors such as Thomas Hardy and Guy de Maupassant. He believed that the most effective short stories maintained an ancient tradition of oral storytelling, feeling as though they were being spoken directly to the listener rather than merely read. This approach likely contributed to the vivid, often rural settings that characterized much of his work. Critics have noted that his supernatural fiction shared a style with Walter de la Mare, often described as unsettling and plaintive. While his rural tales were considered convincing, his attempts at depicting urban middle-class settings were less successful unless infused with rural dialect and a close attention to the natural world.

Coppard received significant praise from contemporaries like Ford Madox Ford and Frank O’Connor. His collections, such as 'Nixey's Harlequin,' garnered positive reviews, with 'The Times Literary Supplement' commending his "brilliant virtuosity as a pure spinner of tales." Algernon Blackwood admired his supernatural narratives, and later critics like Doris Lessing and Russell Banks championed his work. Banks, in particular, highlighted Coppard's compassionate portrayal of women, especially those who were poor, abandoned, or marginalized, drawing parallels to Maupassant's observational skills. The selection of his 'Collected Tales' by the Book of the Month Club in the United States brought his work wider recognition. His stories have continued to be reissued and studied, cementing his place as a notable short story writer.

“it is my feeling that the closer the modern short story conforms to that ancient tradition of being spoken to you, rather than being read at you, the more acceptable it becomes”

“brilliant virtuosity as a pure spinner of tales”