Robert W. Chambers

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Do not confuse with Raymond Wilson Chambers.

Robert William Chambers
Born	May 26, 1865(1865-05-26) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Died	December 16, 1933 (aged 68) Broadalbin, New York
Occupation	short story writer
Genres	Horror, Fantasy , Science fiction , Romance , Historical fiction
Influences Ambrose Bierce
Influenced H.P.Lovecraft , August Derleth , James Blish , Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson , Marion Zimmer Bradley, Paul Edwin Zimmer

Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933) was an American artist and writer.

[edit] Biography

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to William P. Chambers (1827 - 1911), a famous lawyer, and Caroline Chambers (née Boughton), a direct descendant of Roger Williams, the founder of Providence, Rhode Island. Robert's brother was Walter Boughton Chambers, the world famous architect.

Robert was first educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute,and then entered the Art Students' League at around the age of twenty, where the artist Charles Dana Gibson was his fellow student. Chambers studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, and at Académie Julian, in Paris from 1886 to 1893, and his work was displayed at the Salon as early as 1889. On his return to New York, he succeeded in selling his illustrations to Life, Truth, and Vogue magazines. Then, for reasons unclear, he devoted his time to writing, producing his first novel, In the Quarter (written in 1887 in Munich). His most famous, and perhaps most meritorious, effort is The King in Yellow, a collection of weird short stories, connected by the theme of the fictitious drama The King in Yellow, which drives those who read it insane.

Chambers returned to the weird genre in his later short story collections The Maker of Moons and The Tree of Heaven, but neither earned him such success as "The King in Yellow".

Chambers later turned to writing romantic fiction to earn a living. According to some estimates, Chambers was one of the most successful literary careers of his period, his later novels selling well and a handful achieving best-seller status. Many of his works were also serialized in magazines.

After 1924 he devoted himself solely to writing historical fiction.

Chambers for several years made Broadalbin his summer home. Some of his novels touch upon colonial life in Broadalbin and Johnstown.

On July 12, 1898, he married Elsa Vaughn Moller (1882-1939). They had a son, Robert Edward Stuart Chambers (later calling himself Robert Husted Chambers) who also gained some fame as an author.

Chambers died at his home in the village of Broadalbin, New York, on December 16th 1933.

[edit] Criticism and legacy

H. P. Lovecraft said of Chambers in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith,

"Chambers is like Rupert Hughes and a few other fallen Titans - equipped with the right brains and education but wholly out of the habit of using them."^[1]

Frederic Taber Cooper commented,

"So much of Mr Chambers's work exasperates, because we feel that he might so easily have made it better."^[2]

A critical essay on Chambers' horror and fantasy work appears in S. T. Joshi's book The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004).

Cover of the first edition of In Search of the Unknown

[edit] Works

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Robert W. Chambers

• In the Quarter (1894)
• The King in Yellow (1895)
• The Maker of Moons (1896)
• The Mystery of Choice (1896)
• Lorraine (1897)
• Ashes of Empire (1898)
• Cardigan (1901)
• In Search of the Unknown (1904)
• The Reckoning (1905)
• The Tracer of Lost Persons (1906)
• The Tree of Heaven (1907)
• The Younger Set (1907) - illustrted by G.C. Wilmshurst
• The Green Mouse (1907)
• The Danger Mark (1909) - Illustrated by A.B. Wenzell
• Ailsa Paige (1910)
• The Common Law (1911)
• Blue-Bird Weather (1912) - Illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson
• The Gay Rebellion (1913)
• Quick Action (1914)
• Athalie (1915)
• Who goes There! (1915)
• Police!!! (1915)
• The Girl Philippa(1916)
• The Slayer of Souls (1920)
• The Flaming Jewel (1922)
• The Talkers (1923)
• The Yellow Sign and Other Stories: The Complete Weird Tales of Robert W. Chambers (2001, ed. S. T. Joshi)- collection of his horror and fantasy tales
• Beating Wings (1928)

[edit] For children

• Garden-Land
• Forest-Land
• River-Land
• Mountain-Land
• Orchard-Land
• Outdoorland

(all before 1907)

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. pp. 74–75. 

See the following web site for a much more complete listing of Chambers' fiction: Robert W Chambers at www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

• The Little Red Foot 1920

[edit] External links

• Robert W. Chambers at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Works by Robert W. Chambers at Project Gutenberg