Robert Hichens (writer)

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][2]

Biography

Hichens was born in Speldhurst in Kent, the eldest son of the Rev. Frederick Harrison Hichens, and his wife Abigail Elizabeth Smythe.^[3][4] He was educated at Clifton College,^[5] the Royal College of Music and early on had a desire to be a musician.^[1] Later in life he would become music critic on The World, taking the place of George Bernard Shaw.^[1] He studied at the London School of Journalism. Hichens was a great traveller. Egypt was one of his favourite 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] Hichens was a homosexual;^[6] 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satire of Hichens's friends Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas; since the work made clear Wilde was homosexual it was withdrawn from publication in 1895,^[1] but not before helping set the stage for Wilde's public disgrace and downfall.^[1][6]

Hichens was also friends with several other writers, including E. F. Benson and Reggie Turner,^[6] as well as the composer Maude Valérie White.^[7]

Hichens's 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 becomes dangerously obsessed with 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's best fiction – it is frequently anthologised).^[1][2] "How Love Came to Professor Guildea" was not initially well-received, with Frederic Taber Cooper calling the story "a hideous bit of morbidity"^[8] and Edmund Wilson dismissing the story as "trash".^[8] Later reviews of the story were more positive; J. A. Cuddon called it "outstanding" and compared it with "The Horla" by Guy de Maupassant and "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions.^[9] Brian Stableford described the story as an "authentic masterpiece of horror fiction",^[2] and Jason Colavito called it "possibly one of the greatest stories of its age".^[8]

Hichens's Felix (1902), is an early fictional treatment of hypodermic morphine addiction, while The Garden of Allah (1904) sold well internationally,^[1] and was made into a film three times.

Hichens published his memoirs in 1947, Yesterday.

Selected bibliography

Novels

• The Coast Guard's Secret (1886)
• The Green Carnation (published anonymously, 1894; republished, 1949) – available at Wikisource
• 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 three-strip Technicolor features, with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer)
• The Woman with the Fan (1904)
• The Call of the Blood (1906)
• Barbary Sheep (1907)
• A Spirit in Prison (1908)
• Bella Donna (1909), in which Alla Nazimova starred on Broadway in 1912, filmed in 1915, in 1923 with Pola Negri and in 1934 with Mary Ellis and Conrad Veidt.
• The Fruitful Vine (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 Bracelet (1930)
• The First Lady Brendon (1931)
• Mortimer Brice (1932)
• The Paradine Case (1933) – film version directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1947
• 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 (1942)
• Veils (1943)
• Harps in the Wind (1945)
• Beneath the Magic (1950)

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

• The Spell of Egypt (1910)
• 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

• "How Love Came to Professor Guildea" (1900)
• "Demetriadi's Dream"

Plays

• The Law of the Sands (1916)
• Black Magic (1917)
• The Voice from the Minaret (1919)

Filmography

• Bella Donna, directed by Edwin S. Porter and Hugh Ford (1915, based on the novel Bella Donna)
• The Garden of Allah, directed by Colin Campbell (1916, based on the novel The Garden of Allah)
• Barbary Sheep, directed by Maurice Tourneur (1917, based on the novel Barbary Sheep)
• Flames, directed by Maurice Elvey (UK, 1917, based on the novel Flames)
• The Slave, directed by Arrigo Bocchi (UK, 1918, based on the novel The Slave)
• Hidden Lives, directed by Maurits Binger and B. E. Doxat-Pratt (Netherlands, 1920, based on a play by Robert Hichens and John Knittel)
• The Call of the Blood, directed by Louis Mercanton (France, 1920, based on the novel The Call of the Blood)
• The Woman with the Fan, directed by René Plaissetty (UK, 1921, based on the novel The Woman with the Fan)
• The Fruitful Vine, directed by Maurice Elvey (UK, 1921, based on the novel The Fruitful Vine)
• The Voice from the Minaret, directed by Frank Lloyd (1923, based on the play The Voice from the Minaret)
• Bella Donna, directed by George Fitzmaurice (1923, based on the novel Bella Donna)
• The Lady Who Lied, directed by Edwin Carewe (1925, based on the story The Lady Who Lied)
• The Garden of Allah, directed by Rex Ingram (1927, based on the novel The Garden of Allah)
• After the Verdict, directed by Henrik Galeen (UK, 1929, based on the novel After the Verdict)
• Bella Donna, directed by Robert Milton (UK, 1934, based on the novel Bella Donna)
• The Garden of Allah, directed by Richard Boleslawski (1936, based on the novel The Garden of Allah)
• Temptation, directed by Irving Pichel (1946, based on the novel Bella Donna)
• The Paradine Case, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1947, based on the novel The Paradine Case)
• Call of the Blood, directed by John Clements and Ladislao Vajda (UK, 1948, based on the novel Call of the Blood)

References

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

External links

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Robert Smythe Hichens

• Works by Robert Hichens at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Robert Hichens at Internet Archive
• Works by Robert Hichens at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Robert S Hichens, brief bibliography at Fantastic Fiction
• Robert Hichens at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Robert Hichens at Library of Congress, with 112 library catalogue records
• Two plays by Robert Hichens on Great War Theatre
• Obituary in The New York Times