British writer Edward Upward dies at 105

February 17, 2009

British writer Edward Upward has died at the age of 105. Upward died on Friday, February 13 in Pontefract, England. He was believed to be the UK's oldest living author.

Upward was born Edward Falaise Upward on September 9, 1903 in Romford, England. He attended Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, where, in 1924, he was awarded the Chancellor's Medal for English Verse. He was attending the college on a history scholarship he received in 1922.

Upward joined the communist party in 1932 after the fall of Britain's Labour Party in the summer of 1931. He recalls joining the party because he felt "psychological need" so satisfy his imagination of it. He was convinced his fear of becoming mentally unstable would be cured, because his cousin Allen, who was also an author, killed himself after going crazy. Upward stated he was impressed with his cousin's suicide, because he thought he would die the same way.

Upward's first novel Journey to the Border, was published by the Hogarth Press in 1938. It described in poetic prose, the rebellion of a private tutor against his employer and the menacing world of the 1930s.