Hugh Stowell Scott

Hugh Stowell Scott (9 May 1862 – 19 November 1903)[1][2] was an English novelist (under the pseudonym Henry Seton Merriman).

Life

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne,[3] he became an underwriter at Lloyd's of London, but then devoted himself to travel and to writing novels, many of which had great popularity. Scott visited India as a tourist in 1877-78 and set his novel Flotsam (1896) there.[4] He was an enthusiastic traveller, many of his journeys being undertaken with his friend and fellow author Stanley J. Weyman.[5] He was unusually modest and retiring in character. He died of appendicitis, aged 41, at Melton, Suffolk.[6]

Upon his death, Scott left £5000 to Evelyn Beatrice Hall, his sister-in-law and fellow writer, best known for her biographical work The Friends of Voltaire, writing that the legacy was "in token of my gratitude for her continued assistance and literary advice, without which I should never have been able to have made a living by my pen." [7]

Novels

His first novel, Young Mistley was published anonymously in 1888.[8] His other novels include The Phantom Future (the only novel of his set entirely in England, 1889), The Slave of the Lamp (1892), From One Generation to Another (1892), The Sowers (generally considered his best, set in Russia, where it was banned) (1896), In Kedar's Tents (1897), Roden's Corner (1898), Suspense, Dross (1899), Slave of the Lamp, With Edged Tools (a bestseller in 1894), Grey Lady, Isle of Unrest (1900), The Velvet Glove, The Vultures (1902), Queen (1903), Barlasch of the Guard (1903) and "The Last Hope" (1904). He worked with great care, and his best books held a high place in Victorian fiction.

Stories

  • Tomaso's Fortune and Other Stories (1904)
  • Sister (1892)
  • A Small World (1900)
  • In a Crooked Way
  • The Tale of a Scorpion
  • On the Rocks (1898)
  • "Golossa-a-l"
  • The Mule
  • In Love and War
  • Tomaso's Fortune (1899)
  • Stranded
  • Putting Things Right (1894)
  • For Juanita's Sake
  • At the Front (1894)
  • The End of the "Mooroo"
  • In a Caravan (1893)
  • In the Track of the Wandering Jew (1895)
  • Through the Gate of Tears (1896)
  • A Pariah (1896)
  • The Prodigal's Return (1896)
  • Magazine Stories Uncollected
  • Well Meant (1892)
  • A Pair of Dark Horses (1893)
  • In Countermine B (1893)
  • The Slowcoach (1893)
  • The Panther (1894)
  • The Haunted Hand (1894)
  • Crab-Appleby (1894)
  • Hand and Heart (1894)
  • A Friend in Need (1895)
  • The Lie That Tony Told (1895)
  • "The Morning Star" (1895)
  • The Carnival in Spain (1896)
  • Last Year's Nest (1896)
  • On the Brink (1896)
  • Of This Generation (1896)
  • After Many Days (1897)
  • In the Valley of Repose (1898)
  • An Old Custom (1901)

References

  1. ↑ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  3. ↑ . Accessed 11 May 2010.
  4. ↑ . Accessed 11 May 2010.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ . . Both accessed 11 May 2010.
  7. ↑ The Advertiser, (Adelaide, SA) March 09, 1904
  8. ↑ The Concise Dictionary of National Biography. Twentieth Century 1901-1903 (London: Oxford University Press).

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource

External links