'W.N.P. Barbellion' was the pseudonym of Bruce Frederick Cummings (1889 – 1919), an English diarist and naturalist who was diagnosed with 'disseminated sclerosis', otherwise known as multiple sclerosis (MS).

He wrote eloquently, controversially, and movingly about his life, health, nature, culture and society,and his impending death in The Journal of a Disappointed Man (1919) and A Last Diary (1920). We regard his work as amongst the most moving diaries ever written, comparable to those of Franz Kafka and to the philosophical self-inquiry of Marcus Aurelius and Soren Kierkegaard.

The Barbellion Prize is named in his honour, as he is an exemplar of the writer working under terrible circumstances and his work is testament to the power of writing - as a way to embolden oneself and contend with the realities of illness.

W. N. P. Barbellion's complete works are available in the public domain. Barbellion's work is discussed in episode 110 of the Backlisted podcast.

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