author
James Allan Mackereth
b. 1871
A little-known English poet and novelist from the Lake District, he published imaginative, often dramatic work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His books move between poetry and fiction, with titles that hint at myth, mystery, and a strong feeling for place.
1 Audiobook
Ioläus The man that was a ghost
by James Allan Mackereth
About the author
Born in Ambleside, Westmorland, in 1871, James Allan Mackereth was an English writer whose surviving bibliography shows a steady run of poetry and fiction across the early 1900s. Library and catalog records connect him with works including Lays of Love and Liberty (1897), A Son of Cain (1910), In the Wake of the Phoenix (1912), Ioläus: The Man That Was a Ghost (1913), The Red, Red Dawn (1917), The Death of Cleopatra (1920), and Earth, Dear Earth (1928).
The titles alone give a good sense of his range: classical subjects, dramatic poems, and more visionary or supernatural fiction all appear in his work. Contemporary blurbs preserved with later digitized editions praised the force and originality of his verse, suggesting he was regarded in his day as a serious literary voice, even if he is not widely read now.
Genealogical records indicate that he died in 1948, in Cottingley, Yorkshire. No suitable confirmed portrait image was found during this search, so none is included here.