A. E. (Alfred Edgar) Coppard

Born in Folkestone, England, in 1878, Alfred Edgar Coppard left school very young and spent part of his youth working in harsh conditions, including in factories. Those early experiences stayed with him and helped shape the sympathy, wit, and close observation that later marked his writing.

Coppard became known mainly as a short-story writer, though he also wrote poetry. His stories helped build his reputation as a distinctive literary craftsman, and readers have long noted the way he blended realism with fantasy, lyric beauty, and a strong sense of spoken voice.

He died in 1957. Even now, he is remembered as an important English master of the short story, especially for work that finds strangeness, tenderness, and surprise in everyday people and places.