Born in 1870, there is little available biographical information concerning Mr. Acklom. He ran a prestigious boy's school in Nova Scotia in 1900, later relocating to New York City in 1907 and settled in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York in 1922. He was a a literary advisor for the E.P. Dutton Publishing Co. A sonnet of his was published in a collection entitled "A Century of Canadian Sonnets". (Copyright 1910 by the Musson Book Company in Toronto, Canada.) Whether this was out of any critical or popular acclaim, or rather a general scarcity of Canadian sonnets at the time is difficult to ascertain. Through logical inference, taking into account that he was 40 at the time of that publication, he must have at least managed some status as a Canadian writer (or at least known the publisher). It is interesting to note that publication did not occur until so late in life. In any event, with only a single example of his poetry surviving, it may well be the latter that is true.
He published a French to English translation of a book entitled The Red Gods, which appears to be an early science fiction novel about some sort of lost race of human beings. In 1936, he published an encylopedia for young adults. Finally, his last published piece, was an introduction for a psychology text entitled, "COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, A study in the evolution of the human mind" which was originally written in 1901. Why Mr. Acklom was asked to write this introduction is up to conjecture, but he may well have known the author earlier in life, and simply been the last living person to have such recollections. He would have been 81 years of age at the time. There does not seem to be much information on when or how he died, but it's probably safe to guess that he passed away in the mid to late fifties.
His son, David Manners, was a highly successful, but asthmatic Hollywood actor known for giving a break to such theatrical luminaries as Lucille Ball and Marlon Brando.
It is easy to picture George Moreby Acklom as a reasonably distinguished professor at some small college, who never really rose to any measurable literary heights and yet managed to publish the occasional piece through literary here and there to maintain his tenure. This of course, is entirely conjecture, but barring some new source of information may well be all we have.
Researched by: Son of the Moon
Sources: Gutenberg Project. Library of Congress,
emails with Brandon Chase (descendant of the poet),
www.davidmanners.com
