Writers through the centuries - 19th Century authors part 3
episode 11
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
Mark Twain
"The main objective of religion is not to get a man into heaven, but to get heaven into him."
Thomas Hardy
"No one but a woman can help a man when he is in trouble of the heart."
Bram Stoker
"Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare."
Guy de Maupassant
"Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson
"Art is the expression of those beauties and emotions that stir the human soul."
Howard Pyle
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 1835 in Florida, Missouri, U.S., He was of British descendent (Cornish, England and Scotland).
His father died when Mark Twain was a child, aged only 11 at the time. And soon after he finished the school’s fifth grade,e he started to work in 1851 as a typesetter for the newspaper “Hannibal Journal”, then left this magazine to work in New York City, Philadelphia.
Although not anymore in the education system, he still self-taught himself in the evenings, in public libraries.
He desired to become a steamboat pilot, and his dream seemed that it might come true, once he was taken between New Orleans and St. Louis for a 500 $ (what would be equivalent to 15,000 $ in today’s money) fee that would have been payable from his first wage. This job got him the future pen-name: “mark twain”, which meant measuring the river's depth.
In 1858 tragedy struck. His brother, Henry, died after an explosion of one of the steamboat’s boiler. Samuel/Mark said he had dreamt about this death as a premonition, which made him feel a sense of guilt over this death.
Twain moved to Nevada, and in 1861 he became a miner in the vicinity of Virginia. He did not manage to perform as a miner, so he moved to write for a newspaper: “Territorial Enterprise” due to some connections.
In 1864 he moved once more, this time to San Francisco, where he met other writers and might have had a fling with the poet Ina Coolbrith.
His success in the literary path came with “The Celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County”, published in 1865 in New York.
Two years, financed by a newspaper, he travelled to the Mediterranean sea, Europe in general, and the Middle East, from where he wrote some travel letters, compiled in the book: “The Innocents Abroad” published in 1869.
In February 1870, he married Olivia Langdon, and through her, he met the abolitionist: Harriet Beecher Stowe. He had a son who died in infancy and three daughters that would reach adulthood, but only one: Clara, outlive the author.
He published: “Roughing It” in 1872 as relating personal experience from the American West. Next year, the family moved to Hartford, Connecticut, exactly next door to Harriet Beecher Stowe.
In 1876, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, “The Prince and the Pauper” in 1881, followed by “Life on the Mississippi” (1883), “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1884) were published. In 1889 “A Connecticut in King Arthur’s court.”
Two of his daughters passed away, which affected him greatly. He died in April 1910.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
In June 1840 near Dorchester, Dorset, Thomas Hardy, a stonemason son, was born. Jemima, his mother, was a wise person, and she took care of Thomas’s education until he went to school at Bockhampton, aged eight. Afterwhich he learned in the Academy of Mr Last, for Young Gentleman in Dorchester, where he could prove his intelligence.
But his family were not all that well financially established and, as such, could not attend the university. But he managed to obtain an apprenticeship to an architect by the name of James Hicks. He trained as an architect, after which he moved to London in 1862, where he enrolled at King’s College.
In London, he managed to achieve multiple awards and accomplishments as an architect. Still conscious about his social status and interested more in the social and political environment, he never felt London’s warmth, which he decided to leave for Weymouth, Dorset, to succumb more into writing.
In 1867 he finished “The poor man and the lady.” But no publisher saw potential in it. Under the advice of his friend George Meredith, he destroyed the manuscript. Soon after, in 1871 and 1872, he published anonymously: “Desperate Remedies”, “Under Greenwood Tree.”
While on an architectural job in Cornwall in, 1870 he met Emma Gifford and married her in 1874. During this time, convinced by Emma to have more confidence in his talent, he published his first novel under his name: “A pair of blue eyes” in 1873.
The novel “A pair of blue eyes” increased the importance of a new writer technique, brought by Charles Dickens, the “cliffhanger”. “Far from the Madding crowd.” Was published soon after, in 1874. In 1880 he published his only historical novel: “The Trumpet-Major.”
In 1885 along with his wife, Thomas moved into a house designed by him and constructed by his brother, called Max Gate Dorchester, Dorset.
Maybe the greatest of his works: “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” was published in 1891 was initially declined publication for depicting a “fallen” woman.
In 1910 he was appointed a Member of the order of merit, an award recognising Commonwealth member extraordinary achievement in art and literature (among others). Subsequently, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Emma died in 1912, which caused severe distress to Hardy. After her death, he went on several journeys through Cornwall to revisit the courtship places or the sites that shared a memory with them as a couple. But in 1914, he married the young Florence Dugdale, that was 35 years of age, while Thomas Hardy was 74. Florence was his secretary.
In December 1927, he got ill of pulmonary disease (pleurisy) and a month after, in January 1928, Thomas Hardy forever closed his eyes.
D.H.Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, admired greatly Thomas Hardy talent, which they’ve seen as a literary mentor. One of the significant Victorian realist writer.
Bram Stoker (1847-1912)
Born in Dublin in November 1847, then part of the British territory, Bram Stoker was the third out of seven children, his eldest brother a renowned medical doctor, medical writer and surgeon: Sir Thornley Stoker.
He started his education in a private school run by a reverend, Rev Woods. He then attended Trinity College, from 1864 till 1870, Dublin and made himself remarked as an athlete. Building on his academic career through multiple research papers, he also became a theatre critic for the “Dublin Evening Mail”, owned by an author, Mr Sheridan Le Fanu.
Stoker story “Crystal Cup” was published in the magazine: “London Society” in 1872 while working on non-fiction stories that were the most of his writing career in the late 1870s. At the end of this decade, in 1878, he married Florence Balcombe. She was known for her beauty and was previously courted by Oscar Wilde.
The couple moved to London Lyceum Theatre, where he became manager of this theatre, a position in which he will stay for the next 27 years. In December 1879, Bram Stoker’s son was born: Irving Noel Stoker.
Through the actor Henry Irving, Bram Stoker met Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Bram Stoker was Irving personal assistant, and due to this, he went on journeys all across different countries and went several times to the United States.
Between 1893 and 1910, he enjoyed the Scotland Cruden Bay trips, giving him time to reflect and write his literary work. “The Watter’s Mou” and “The Mystery of the Sea”, published in 1895 and 1902, are set in Cruden Bay.
With his first novel publishing, he started to write Dracula in 1895, although he never visited Eastern Europe, the region where this novel was set. In this period, he also met a Hungarian-Jewish writer and traveller from the city of Svaty Jur (today Slovakia), and he encountered a description of the Carpathian mountains.
He started to study more about Romanian folklore and European easter stories of vampires. His studies were mainly done at the London Library, to which he was a member most of his life. Through history is how he discovered the ruler of a region called “Romanian country” (Tara Romaneasca.” A neighbouring region of Transylvania) both regions part of what is now known as Romania, a strict, harsh ruler by the name of “Vlad the Impaler” with the knighting name of “Dragoon” (for the Romanian folklore Dragoon was pronounced: “Dracul”). Folklore tales of this region inspired his story of vampires.
“Dracula”, a gothic horror novel, was published in 1897 and will introduce the world to vampire stories and increase the importance of horror stories in literature. Tales of vampires and the chief vampire: Vlad Dracul was re-written and re-appeared in multiple movies even today. One of the success vampire stories today is: “Twilight.” Published in four books between 2005-2008 by American author Stephenie Meyer.
After multiple strokes, in April 1912, Bram Stoker passed away in London, and his ashes were placed in the Golders Green Crematorium, where the ashes of his son, Irving Noel, were added in 1961.
Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)
In Normandy, the city of Tourville-sur-Arques saw in August 1850 the birth of Henry Rene Albert Guy de Maupassant. Hence, from a wealthy bourgeois family, hence the name “de Maupassant”, the title “de” was significant to show nobility descend.
Although still seen with a frowning eye, his mother asked for a legal separation from his violent father when Rene was just 11. The two sons of the family lived after that under their mother's close eye, which proved to be a beneficial influence, as his mother was passionate about literature, Shakespeare.
Because of more firm education in his childhood, he manifested an aversion towards the rigours of religion.
Upon entering junior high school, he met Gustave Flaubert, where he started to attend in 1867. He became a protégé of the great author shortly. After which, he went to Lycee Pierre-Corneille.
Because of the start of the Franco-Prussian war, he enrolled as a volunteer and left for Paris, where he will work as a navy department clerk for the next ten years.
During his visits at Flaubert, he met the naturalist writer Emile Zola, which influenced his writing in this style, becoming a master of the short story style, naturalist literary wave.
In 1878 he moved to the Ministry of Public Instructions and became an editor for major newspapers, like “Le Figaro.”
In 1880 he started to publish: “Boule de Suif” (“Ball of Lard”), followed by: “Deux Amis”, “Mademoiselle Fifi”, continued with him finishing his first novel: “Une Vie” (1883) translated into English, and reached an immense success, selling 25,000 copies in the first year (a remarkable achievement).
The second novel was: “Bel Ami” (published in France in 1885 and English in 1903). In four months, it was re-printed in 37 printings because demand was too high to match production.
He travelled to several countries: Algeria, Auvergne, England, Italy, Sicily, which influenced him more to the naturalism genre.
In January 1892, he tried to commit suicide, cutting his throat and was taken to the Mental health private asylum at Esprit Blanche at Passy, Paris. At this place, he passed away a year later, in July 1893.
He is considered the founder of the SHORT STORY genre.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Few people haven’t heard of “Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” or “Treasure Island”, born in November 1850 Edinburgh, Scotland. The son of a lighthouse engineer and on his mother side through a high social class lineage.
The family constantly tried to move to warmer climate regions. His family was devout Christians who influenced Robert to be a religious person as a child, which aided him while he was suffering from a more severe sickness. Because of this illness, he was home-schooled by private tutors and not at school. In November 1867, he started to attend the University of Edinburgh, where he studied engineering.
He started to take journeys with his father in Orkney, Shetland and Erraid, during 1869-1870. Similar travels have influenced Walter Scott’s writing.
During a visit to England in 1873, he encountered Sidney Colvin and Fanny Sitwell (who married Colvin in 1901). Sidney Colvin became Stevenson’s literary adviser. He also became acquainted with the editor at “The Cornhill Magazine”, named Leslie Stephen. Stevenson was quickly making his way, more actively in the London literary world.
A visit to the Edinburgh Infirmary to a patient named William Henley, a chatty poet with an injury to his leg that left him with a wooden leg, might have inspired his character: Long John Silver from the novel: “Treasure Island”.
Stevenson went on numerous trips, a couple of them by boat, canoe or on the sea, in general, that inspired the plot of his books.
He met Fannny Van de Grift Osbourne, a divorced magazine short-story writer with three children, and upon a second encounter in 1877, the two started a romantic relationship. Between 1878 and 1880, he had more health issues that did not allow him to write or function well to have a decent income, which took him closer to Fanny Osbourne.
In May 1880, he married her, after which the couple travelled to Napa Valley, north of San Francisco. But soon after, they moved once more to England, Dorset, in 1884, where the novelist Henry James came to join them.
After this, he continued on his writing and completed most of his books. In November 1883, “Treasure Island” was published, and in 1886, he published one of his famous novels: “Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.”, followed by: “The Black Arrow: A tale of the two roses” in 1888.
He continued on his travels in San Francisco, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia.
In December 1894, probably due to a cerebral haemorrhage, Robert Stevenson dropped on the floor. Several hours later, he died a few weeks after his 44th birthday.
After in his own time, he was admired, Stevenson saw a severe decline in appreciation through most of the 20th century. Only to the end of it, there was a rediscovery, and Stevenson got the deserved place back among the great writers born in the 19th century.
Howard Pyle (1853-1911)
Maybe his main character might be a bit well known than the name of the writer. The author of: “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood” was born in Delaware, U.S., in March 1853. He attended private schools and was a creative side from an early age, interested in drawing and writing.
This passion for creative arts made him study for three years at F.A. Van der Wielen, Philadelphia.
Upon a visit to the island of Chincoteague, in 1876 he illustrated and wrote an article that was well received by the Americal literary periodical: “Scribner’s monthly”.
With much encouragement, he moved to New York to pursue his career as a literary magazine writer and illustrator, sending another article to the: “Harper’s weekly” 1878. He received a good amount of money and increased his success.
In 1881 he married Anne Poole, a singer with whom he had seven children.
This career was pursued, and he was approached to contribute to multiple books while working on his own series: “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood”, published in 1883. A work that combines numerous traditions, legends studied and collected from the English folklore. He did not concern that much about the historical accuracy, modifying Robin Hood’s legend timeline, placing him in Richard I's reign (The Lion Hearted) and his brother John (Lackland).
The book was very well received and obtained international success quickly. His focus continued on children books.
Upon a trip with his wife, while their children remained home, their son died unexpectedly, which inspired the author to write: “The Garden Behind the Moon”.
Between 1894 and 1900, he went on an academic, teaching career at the Drexel Institute, teaching illustration techniques.
He was well admired for his novels but also for his drawing abilities. At one point, even the famous painter: Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter of appreciation about Howard Pyle.
In November 1911, while on a trip to Florence, he died suddenly from a kidney failure.
Nihil sine Deo
