Born in
Greifswald,
Pomerania to English and German parents, he was educated at
Eastbourne College in
Sussex, England. His family emigrated to the United States in 1885. After a youthful period in
Iowa, he spent much of his life moving back and forth between
London,
Paris and
New York. His best-known work was
Their Day in Court, a 1909 book of literary and cultural commentary. His works reflect his dislike for
naturalism, and disdain for the commercial tastes of the masses, promoting instead
aestheticism and literary
impressionism. A good friend of both
Ambrose Bierce and
H. L. Mencken, Mencken wrote of him warmly in the first series of his work
Prejudices, comparing Pollard favorably to contemporary and fellow American aesthete
James Huneker. Pollard was also noted as an early advocate of
James Branch Cabell and the initial works of
Robert W. Chambers. Other works include
Dreams of To-day (1907), a book of decadent 'weird tales' in the vein of
Chambers'
The King in Yellow, the critical study
Masks and Minstrels of New Germany (1911), the novels
The Imitator (1901) and
Lingo Dan (1903), as well as a play written in collaboration with Leo Ditrichstein,
The Ambitious Mrs. Alcott, which opened and closed after 24 performances on
Broadway in 1907. Pollard, aged 42, died unexpectedly from "brain neuritis" in 1911 in
Baltimore, cutting short a promising career.
Mencken and
Bierce attended his funeral. His cremated remains were sent back to
Iowa. A 1947 Ph.D. dissertation,
Percival Pollard: Precursor of the Twenties, by George Nicholas Kummer of
New York University, has remained in unpublished typescript form. ==Bibliography==