Percy Lubbock
Percy Lubbock (1879-1965) was an English writer and literary critic born in London into a distinguished Quaker family with a lineage of scientists and bankers. He was educated at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge, where he became affiliated with Magdalene College and served as curator of the Pepys Library early in his career. Lubbock’s friendships with prominent writers such as Henry James and Edith Wharton significantly influenced his work, particularly in literary criticism, where he played a pivotal role in elevating James's status in the literary world. Although Lubbock's novels did not achieve critical success, he gained recognition as a biographer, notably through his work "Earlham," which blends memoir with character insight, and "Portrait of Edith Wharton," which offers a focused exploration of Wharton’s personality rather than her literary output. His most significant contribution to literature is arguably "The Craft of Fiction," where he articulated the importance of a novel's structure and the writer's vision in shaping its form. Lubbock received several accolades for his work, including the James Tait Black prize and the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature. He passed away in 1965, leaving behind a legacy that influenced modern literary criticism.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Percy Lubbock
- Born: June 4, 1879
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: August 1, 1965
- Place of death: Lerici, Italy
Biography
Percy Lubbock was born on June 4, 1879, in London, England, the son of Frederic and Catherine Gurney Lubbock. Lubbock’s ancestors included several scientists, mathematicians, and bankers. His Quaker family resided at Earlham Hall, the subject of one of his finest books, which explores his sense of place and lineage. In 1926, he married Sybil Cuffe, who died in 1943.
Lubbock attended Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge University, apparently without taking a degree. Nevertheless, as a writer he was affiliated with Magdalene College, Cambridge University, and was the curator of the Pepys Library from 1906 to 1908. He served with the British Red Cross during World War I.
Lubbock’s friendships with writers Henry James and Edith Wharton were to shape much of his career as a literary critic and editor. Indeed, Lubbock was one of the first critics to place James in his prominent place in the literary pantheon.
Lubbock’s novels were not well received, and it was as a biographer that he made his literary mark. Earlham combined the memoir form with Lubbock’s exquisite sense of human character. In Portrait of Edith Wharton, he eschewed the comprehensive sweep of the conventional biography in favor of a more focused reading of Wharton’s personality; Lubbock probed Wharton’s sensibility, excluding detailed discussions of her individual works.
For students of modern literature, Lubbock’s The Craft of Fiction is undoubtedly his most influential book. Heavily influenced by James’s practice as a novelist, as well as by James’s prefaces to his New York edition in which he presented his theory of the novel, Lubbock emphasized the novelist’s sense of form. The novelist, in Lubbock’s view, had to find the right form to suit his subject matter. The subject matter itself was sacrosanct; a novel should not be judged in terms of its theme or focus but strictly in terms of its structure; what made the novel art was the writer’s shaping vision. This aesthetic, enunciated in the works of Oscar Wilde and filtered through Lubbock’s lucid prose, became part of a modernist credo adopted by subsequent critics, such as Susan Sontag.
Lubbock won the James Tait Black prize for biography in 1922 and the Royal Society of Literature Benson Medal in 1926. In 1952, he was made commander, Order of the British Empire. He was a frequent contributor to literary periodicals, especially the Quarterly Review. Lubbock died in 1965.