Mare , Walter John de la , 1873-1956 , poet and writer x de la Mare , Walter

Walter de la Mare was born in Woolwich, Kent in 1873. He was educated at St Paul's Cathedral choir school. Between the ages of 17 and 35 he worked in the statistics division of the Anglo-American Oil Company, spending much of his free time reading and writing. A royal bounty grant in 1908 and a civil list pension in 1915 enabled him to give up his job and write full-time. His first book of poems was published in 1902 and his first novel in 1904. His best-known poem is probably The Listeners (1912).