b. 11 April 1857. d. 23 March 1909. Nationality: Scottish. VIAF.
Poet, journalist, playwright, novelist, and school teacher. Pseudonyms: “Menzies MacDonald,”
“Robert Allen.” Important influence on Hugh MacDiarmid and T. S. Eliot. Born in Barrhead,
Renfrewshire. Father was an Evangelical Union minister. Moved to Greenock at age nine.
From 1870 to 1871 Worked for Walker’s, a Greenock sugar firm, in the chemical laboratory
and then in the office, and after that taught in various schools, interrupted in 1876-1877
when he briefly studied at the University of Edinburgh. Married Margaret Cameron McArthur
on 23 October 1885. Worked as a journalist and publisher’s reader in London from 1890
to 1907, and joined the Rhymers’ Club. Moved to Penzance, Cornwall, with his family
in 1907, after suffering from illness and financial distress. Drowned (probably by
suicide) while on a coastal path walk. Biographical information: *ODNB*; John Sloan,
“New Poems by John Davidson,” *The Review of English Studies*, vol. 44, no. 176, 1993,
pp. 548-51. (AC, CC)