Sam Hanna Bell Samuel Beckett John Hewitt Bernard (Barney) Hughes James Joseph Magennis VC Frances Elizabeth Clarke Stewart Parker William Carleton Rosamond Praegar

James Henry Sproule Cousins (1873 - 1956):
Writer and Academic


James Cousins was born in Belfast, where he was educated. He was private secretary to the Lord Mayor of Belfast until he moved to Dublin. The first play produced by the Irish Dramatic Company in 1902 was his play The Sleep of the King, and in the same year The Racing Lug was first performed. He taught English in the High School, Harcourt Street, Dublin and in 1908 joined the Theosophical Society. After a short period in Liverpool he went to Madras as literary sub-editor of New India, published by the leading Theosophist, Annie Besant. For the next twenty-two years he was involved with the Theosophical College at Madanapalle, where he served as principal. From 1938 he worked for the Indian government in various capacities, advising on the arts. He published several volumes of poetry in Ireland: Ben Madigan and other poems; The Voice of One; The Quest and Etain the Beloved and Other Poems, but the bulk of his work, over a hundred books, was published in India. These included Sea-Change; Collected Poems 1894-1940; Heathen Essays and an autobiography, We Two Together, written with Margaret Cousins. In Mysore and Travancore he established the first public Art Galleries in India.

Born: 22 July 1873
Died: 20 February 1956
Kate Newmann