Marlow, Louis, 1881-1966

Louis Umfreville Wilkinson (17 December 1881 – 12 September 1966) was a British author, lecturer and biographer who usually wrote under the pseudonym Louis Marlow. In a long career he associated with a number of the prominent literary figures of his day, in particular the Powys brothers John Cowper, Theodore ("T.F.") and Llewelyn. He also formed close friendships with Frank Harris, Somerset Maugham, and the notorious occultist and magician Aleister Crowley. As a schoolboy at Radley College, Wilkinson instigated a lively correspondence with Oscar Wilde, then living in exile in France. After a short spell at Pembroke College, Oxford, from which he was dismissed for blasphemy, Wilkinson attended St John's College, Cambridge, where he established a formidable literary and personal reputation – he was known as "the Archangel". In 1905, while still at Cambridge, he wrote and published his first novel. After graduating, he embarked on a career as a lecturer in English literature, mainly in the United States, where he spent most of the following fifteen years and became part of a lively American literary scene. Wilkinson began to write seriously in 1915, and during the next forty years produced a substantial quantity of fiction and biography. In the 1920s he began using the Marlow name, which he retained in his published work for the remainder of his creative life. His books were usually well received by the critics, although their overall impact was modest and stirred little scholarly interest. After the Second World War, Wilkinson caused a minor sensation when, at Crowley's cremation in December 1947, in accordance with the deceased's expressed wishes, he recited the latter's pagan poem "Hymn of Pan" and other sacrilegious texts – although he was not himself a follower. In addition to his novels he wrote several biographical works, and helped to edit the correspondence of the Powys brothers. After his memoir, Seven Friends, published in 1953, he faded into relative obscurity, producing little further published work before his death in 1966. He married four times, being twice widowed and twice divorced.