Henry Dawson Lowry

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Henry Dawson Lowry (22 February 1869 – 21 October 1906) was an English journalist, short-story writer, novelist and poet who wrote under the pen name The Impenitent. He was born in Truro, Cornwall, the eldest son of a bank clerk who later became a bank manager, and Winifred Dawson. His cousin was Catherine Amy Dawson Scott.

Lowry studied at Queen’s College, Taunton, and then at the University of Oxford, where he earned a B.A. in chemistry in 1891. In 1891 his Cornish stories were published in the National Observer, and many of his novels focused on life in Cornwall. He moved to London in 1893 and worked for several newspapers and magazines. He joined the Pall Mall Gazette as a staff writer in 1895, then worked for Black and White (1895–97). In 1897 he became editor of the Ludgate Magazine and later joined the Morning Post. He frequently wrote as The Impenitent for the Daily Express and contributed to other publications.

Lowry was often sick throughout his life and died of pneumonia in 1906 at his home in Herne Hill, south London, aged 37. He is buried in Norwood, London. In 1912 a memoir of him, A Dream of Daffodils; Last Poems by H. D. Lowry, appeared. His cousin Catherine edited some of his poetry and later used his words in the libretto for the opera Gale by Ethel Leginska (1935) in Chicago.