Alfred Edgar Coppard was an English writer, noted for his influence on the short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 form, and poet.

Life

He was born, the son of a tailor and a housemaid, in Folkestone

Folkestone

Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...

, and had little formal education. He left school at the age of nine to work as an errand boy for a Jewish trouser maker in Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...

 during the period of the Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...

 murders.

In the early 1920s, and still unpublished, he was in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 and a leading light of a literary group, the New Elizabethans, who met in a pub to read Elizabethan drama. W. B. Yeats sometimes attended the meetings. At this period he met Richard Hughes

Richard Hughes (writer)

Richard Arthur Warren Hughes OBE was a British writer of poems, short stories, novels and plays.He was born in Weybridge, Surrey. His father was a civil servant Arthur Hughes, and his mother Louisa Grace Warren who had been brought up in Jamaica...

 and Edgell Rickword

Edgell Rickword

John Edgell Rickword, MC was an English poet, critic, journalist and literary editor. He became one of the leading communist intellectuals active in the 1930s.-Early life:He was born in Colchester, Essex...

, amongst others.

Some of Coppard's collections, such as Adam and Eve and Pinch Me and Fearful Pleasures, contain stories with fantastic
elements, either of supernatural horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 or allegorical fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

.

A.E. Coppard was the uncle of George Coppard

George Coppard

Corporal George Coppard was a British soldier who served with the Machine Gun Corps during World War I. Following his retirement he published his memoirs entitled With A Machine Gun to Cambrai in 1969.-Early years:...

, a British soldier who served with the Machine Gun Corps

Machine Gun Corps

The Machine Gun Corps was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in World War I. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks in combat, and the branch was subsequently turned into the Tank...

 during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, known for his memoirs With A Machine Gun to Cambrai.

Story Collections

• Adam & Eve & Pinch Me (1921)
• Clorinda Walks in Heaven (1922)
• The Black Dog and Other Stories (1923)
• Fishmonger's Fiddle: Tales (1925)
• The Field of Mustard (1926)
• Silver Circus (1928)
• Nixey's Harlequin (1931)
• Fare Please! (1931)
• Crotty Shinkwin and The Beauty Spot (1932)
• Dunky Fitlow (1933)
• Ring the Bells of Heaven (1933)
• Pink Furniture (1935)
• Polly Oliver (1935)
• Ninepenny Flute (1937)
• You Never Know, Do You? (1939)
• Ugly Anna (1944)
• Fearful Pleasures
  Fearful Pleasures
  Fearful Pleasures is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by author A. E. Coppard. It was released in 1946 and was the first collection of the author's stories to be published by Arkham House...
  
  (1946)
• Selected Tales (1946)
• The Dark Eyed Lady – Fourteen Tales (1947)
• Collected Tales (1948)
• Lucy in Her Pink Coat (1954)
• Selected Stories (1972)
• The Collected Tales of A. E. Coppard (1976)
• The Higgler and Other Stories (1991)
• The Man from the Caravan and Other Stories (1999)
• Father Raven and Other Tales (2006)

Poetry Collections

• Hips and Haws (1922)
• Yokohoma Garland & Other Poems (1926)
• Pelaga and Other Poems (1926)
• The Collected Poems of A. E. Coppard (1928)
• Cherry Ripe: Poems (1935)
• Simple Day: Selected Poems (1978)

Further reading

• Fabes, Gilbert H., The First Editions of A. E. Coppard, A. P. Herbert and Charles Morgan, 1933 London: Myers.
• Saul, George Brandon, A.E. Coppard: His Life and Poetry,1932, University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D. dissertation.
• Schwartz, Jacob with foreword and notes by A. E. Coppard, A Bibliography of A. E. Coppard - The Writings of Alfred Edgar Coppard, 1931.

External links

• AE Coppard at the Supernatural Fiction Database