Robert Smythe Hichens

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Robert Hichens (Robert Smythe Hichens, 14 November 1864 – 20 July 1950) was an English journalist, novelist, music lyricist, short story writer, music critic and collaborated on successful plays. He is best remembered as a satirist of the "Naughty Nineties".[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Hichens was born in Speldhurst in Kent, the eldest son of a clergyman.[1] He was educated at Clifton College, the Royal College of Music and early on had a desire to be a musician.[1] Later in life he would be a music critic on the World, taking the place of George Bernard Shaw.[1] He also studied at the London School of Journalism. Hichens was a great traveler. Egypt was one of his favorite destinations -- he first went there in the early 1890s for his health.[1] For most of his later life he lived outside England, in Switzerland and the Riviera.[1] He never married.[1]

Hichens first novel, The Coastguard's Secret (1886), was written when he was only seventeen. He first became well known among the reading public with The Green Carnation (1894), a satire of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas; since the work made clear Wilde was homosexual it was withdrawn from publication in 1895,[1] but not before helping set the stage for Wilde's public disgrace and downfall.[1]

Hichens first big success was An Imaginative Man (1895); set in the city of Cairo, Egypt a place which fascinated Hichens, it is a study of insanity, in which the hero has a number of sexual adventures and then smashes his head against the Great Sphinx.[1] Other early fiction includes The Folly of Eustace (1896), a collection of stories including some supernatural;[1] Flames (1897), a story resembling Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde;[1] The Londoners (1898), a satire about decadent London;[1] The Slave (1899), a fantasy about an amazing emerald;[1] Tongues of Conscience (1900), a collection of five horror stories including "How Love Came to Professor Guildea" (this story is about a supernatural visitation and is thought by some to be Hichens' best fiction -- it is frequently anthologized); [1] Felix (1902), is an early fictional treatment of hypodermic morphine addiction; The Garden of Allah (1904) sold well internationally,[1] and was made into films three times.

Hichens published his memoirs in 1947, Yesterday.

[edit] Bibliography

Novels

  • The Coast Guard's Secret (1886)
  • The Green Carnation (published anonymously, 1894; republished, 2009)
  • An Imaginative Man (1895)
  • Flames (1897)
  • The Londoners (1898)
  • The Slave (1899)
  • The Prophet of Berkeley Square (1901)
  • Felix (1902)
  • Black Spaniel, and Other Stories (1905)
  • The Garden of Allah (1904), elaborately presented as a play in New York City and filmed thrice, in 1916, 1927 (with Alice Terry) and 1936 (one of the earliest 3-strip Technicolor features, with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer)
  • Call of the Blood (1905)
  • Bella Donna (1909), in which Alla Nazimova starred on Broadway in 1912, filmed in 1915 and in 1923
  • The Spell of Egypt (1911)
  • The Dweller on the Threshold (1911)
  • The Way of Ambition (1913)
  • In the Wilderness (1917)
  • Snake-Bite (1919)
  • Mrs. Marden (1919)
  • Spirit of the Time (1921)
  • December Love (1922)
  • The Last Time (1924)
  • After The Verdict (1924)
  • The First Lady Brendon (1927)
  • Mortimer Brice (1932)
  • The Paradine Case (1933)
  • The Power To Kill (1934)
  • The Pyramid (1936)
  • The Sixth Of October (1936)
  • Daniel Airlie (1937)
  • Secret Information (1938)
  • The Journey Up (1938)
  • That Which Is Hidden (1939)
  • The Million (1940)
  • A New Way Of Life (1941)
  • Veils (1943)
  • Harps in the Wind (1945)

Collections

  • The Folly of Eustace: And Other Stories (1896)
  • Bye-Ways (1897)
  • Tongues of Conscience (1898, 1900)
  • The Black Spaniel: And Other Stories (1905)
  • Snake-Bite: And Other Stories (1919)
  • The Return of the Soul and Other Stories (2001; ed. S. T. Joshi)

Nonfiction

  • Yesterday (1947)

Anthologies containing stories by Hichens

  • Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror 1st Series (1928)
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1957)
  • The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1966)
  • Medley Macabre (1966)
  • Black Water (1984)
  • I Shudder at Your Touch (1992)
  • 4 Classic Ghostly Tales (1993)

Short stories

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p John Sutherland. "HICHENS, Robert" in The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. 1989

Additional sources

  • "Robert S. Hichens". Dictionary of Literary Biography. Volume 153: Late-Victorian and Edwardian British Novelists. First Series. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.
  • Author and Book Info.com

[edit] External links

Authority control
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