Working-class poet (writing in dialect as well as standard English), farm labourer,
and journalist. Alternative signature: “James Dawson, Jun.” Farmer’s son, originally
from Hartshead, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. Moved to Manchester to begin a career
in journalism, returning later to Hartshead by August 1873, according to the *Chambers’s
Journal* ledger (NLS Dep 341/368). Member of Manchester Literary Club. Author of *Fact
and Fancies From the Farm: Lyrical Poems* (John Camden Hotten, 1868); in the preface
he describes himself as a farm labourer and asks his readers not to expect “the grace
and finish of the classical scholar” (p. v). Dawson sent a copy of his book to Dickens,
who praises it to Dawson as “a remarkable production” (*The Letters of Charles Dickens*,
ed. Graham Storey, vol. 12, Clarendon Press, 2002, p. 223). Biographical information:
Reilly, *Mid Victorian Poetry*, pp. 127-8; Goodridge. (AC)