C. S. Forester

Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (27 August 1899 – 2 April 1966), known by his pen name Cecil Scott "C. S." Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Hornblower novels ''A Ship of the Line'' and '' Flying Colours'' were jointly awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1938. His other works include '' The African Queen'' (1935; turned into a 1951 film by John Huston) and '' The Good Shepherd'' (1955; turned into a 2020 film, ''Greyhound'', adapted by and starring Tom Hanks). During the Second World War he moved to Washington D.C. where he worked for the British Ministry of Information, writing propaganda for the Allied cause.

Early years

Forester was born in Cairo on 27 August 1899 to English parents George Foster Smith and Sarah Medhurst Troughton. His father George Smith was an English school teacher in Cairo in a school set up by the British protectorate to give upper-class Egyptian boys a taste of English schooling. The family broke up when he was young and his mother took him to London, where he was educated at Alleyn's School and Dulwich College. He began to study medicine at Guy's Hospital, but left without completing his degree. He was of good height and somewhat athletic, but wore glasses and had a slender physique. He failed his Army physical and was told that there was no chance that he would be accepted. He began writing seriously, using his pen name, in around 1921.

Second World War

During the Second World War Forester moved to the United States, where he worked for the British Ministry of Information and wrote propaganda to encourage the U.S. to join the Allies. He eventually settled in Berkeley, California.

In 1942, while he was living in Washington, D.C., he met the young British diplomat Roald Dahl and encouraged him to write about his experiences in the Royal Air Force.Donald Sturrock, ''Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl'', Harper Collins 2010, p. 168. According to Dahl's autobiography, ''Lucky Break'', Forester asked him about his experiences as a fighter pilot, and this prompted Dahl to write his first story, "A Piece of Cake".

Literary career

Forester wrote many novels, but he is best known for the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series about an officer in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. He began the series with Hornblower a captain in the first novel, '' The Happy Return'', which was published in 1937, but demand for more stories led him to fill in Hornblower's life story, and he wrote novels detailing his rise from the rank of midshipman. The last completed novel was published in 1962. Hornblower's fictional adventures were based on real events, but Forester wrote the body of the works carefully to avoid entanglements with real world history, so that Hornblower is always off on another mission when a great naval battle occurs during the Napoleonic Wars.

Forester's other novels include '' The African Queen'' (1935) and '' The General'' (1936); two novels about the Peninsular War, '' Death to the French'' (published in the United States as ''Rifleman Dodd'') and '' The Gun'' (filmed as '' The Pride and the Passion'' in 1957); and seafaring stories that do not involve Hornblower, such as ''Brown on Resolution'' (1929), ''The Captain from Connecticut'' (1941), '' The Ship'' (1943), and '' Hunting the Bismarck'' (1959), which was used as the basis of the screenplay for the film '' Sink the Bismarck!'' (1960). Several of his novels have been filmed, including '' The African Queen'' (1951), directed by John Huston. Forester is also credited as story writer on several films not based on his published novels, including '' Commandos Strike at Dawn'' (1942).

Forester also wrote several volumes of short stories set during the Second World War. Those in ''The Nightmare'' (1954) were based on events in Nazi Germany, ending at the Nuremberg trials. The linked stories in ''The Man in the Yellow Raft'' (1969) follow the career of the destroyer USS ''Boon'', while many of the stories in ''Gold from Crete'' (1971) follow the destroyer HMS ''Apache''. The last of the stories in ''Gold from Crete'' is ''If Hitler Had Invaded England'', which offers an imagined sequence of events starting with Hitler's attempt to implement Operation Sea Lion and culminating in the early military defeat of Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941.

His non-fiction works about seafaring include ''The Age of Fighting Sail'' (1956), an account of the sea battles between Great Britain and the United States in the War of 1812.

Forester also published the crime novels '' Payment Deferred'' (1926) and ''Plain Murder'' (1930), as well as two children's books. ''Poo-Poo and the Dragons'' (1942) was created as a series of stories told to his son George to encourage him to finish his meals. George had mild food allergies and needed encouragement to eat. ''The Barbary Pirates'' (1953) is a children's history of early 19th-century pirates.

Forester appeared as a contestant on the television quiz programme '' You Bet Your Life'', hosted by Groucho Marx, in an episode broadcast on 1 November 1956.

A previously unknown novel of Forester's, ''The Pursued'', was discovered in 2003 and published by Penguin Classics on 3 November 2011.

Personal life

Forester married Kathleen Belcher in 1926. They had two sons, John, born in 1929, and George, born in 1933. The couple divorced in 1945. In 1947 he married Dorothy Foster. Kathleen Belcher’s greatuncle was Capt. Edward Belcher, RN, who achieved renown as a hydrographer and explorer. After his retirement, Belcher devoted much of his time to writing. After penning biographical material, he turned his hand to naval fiction, inventing a character called ''Horatio Howard Brenton'', and attributing great feats and adventures to him. It is possible that Forester found some inspiration in these stories for his own ''Horatio Hornblower''.

Forester died in Fullerton, California on 2 April 1966.

John Forester wrote a two-volume biography of his father, including many elements of Forester's life which became clear to his son only after his father's death.
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Bibliography

Horatio Hornblower

# 1950 '' Mr Midshipman Hornblower''. Michael Joseph.
# 1941 "The Hand of Destiny".''Collier's''
# 1950 " Hornblower and the Widow McCool" ("Hornblower’s Temptation" ""Hornblower and the Big Decision"). '' The Saturday Evening Post''
# 1952 ''Lieutenant Hornblower''. Michael Joseph.
# 1962 ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''. Michael Joseph.
# 1967 ''Hornblower and the Crisis, an unfinished novel''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''Hornblower During the Crisis'' (posthumous)
# 1953 '' Hornblower and the Atropos''. Michael Joseph.
# 1937 '' The Happy Return''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''Beat to Quarters''
# 1938 ''A Ship of the Line''. Michael Joseph.
# 1941 ''"Hornblower's Charitable Offering"''. ''Argosy''
# 1938 '' Flying Colours''. Michael Joseph.
# 1941 "Hornblower and His Majesty". ''Collier's''
# 1945 ''The Commodore''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''Commodore Hornblower''
# 1946 ''Lord Hornblower''. Michael Joseph.
# 1958 ''Hornblower in the West Indies''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies''
# 1967 " The Last Encounter". Sunday Mirror, 8 May 1966 (posthumous).
# 1964 ''The Hornblower Companion''. Michael Joseph. (Supplementary book comprising another short story, "The Point and the Edge" only as an outline, "The Hornblower Atlas" and "Some Personal Notes")

Omnibus

# 1964 ''The Young Hornblower''. (a compilation of books 1, 2 & 3). Michael Joseph.
# 1965 ''Captain Hornblower'' (a compilation of books 5, 6 & 7). Michael Joseph.
# 1968 ''Admiral Hornblower'' (a compilation of books 8, 9, 10 & 11). Michael Joseph.
# 2011 ''Hornblower Addendum – Five Short Stories'' (originally published in magazines)

Other novels

* 1924 ''A Pawn among Kings''. Methuen.
* 1924 ''The Paid Piper''. Methuen.
* 1926 '' Payment Deferred''. Methuen.
* 1927 ''Love Lies Dreaming''. John Lane.
* 1927 ''The Wonderful Week''. John Lane.
* 1928 ''The Daughter of the Hawk''. John Lane.
* 1929 ''Brown on Resolution''. John Lane.
* 1930 ''Plain Murder''. John Lane.
* 1931 ''Two-and-Twenty''. John Lane.
* 1932 '' Death to the French''. John Lane. Published in the U.S. as ''Rifleman Dodd''. Little Brown.
* 1933 '' The Gun''. John Lane.
* 1934 ''The Peacemaker''. Heinemann.
* 1935 '' The African Queen''. Heinemann.
* 1935 ''The Pursued'' (a lost novel rediscovered in 1999 and published by Penguin Classics in 2011)"A Note on the Text" by Lawrence Brewer, ''The Pursued'' p. 220
* 1936 '' The General''. Michael Joseph. First published as a serial in the ''News Chronicle'' 14–18 January 1935
* 1940 ''The Earthly Paradise''. Michael Joseph. Published in the U.S. as ''To the Indies''.
* 1941 ''The Captain from Connecticut''. Michael Joseph.
* 1942 ''Poo-Poo and the Dragons''. Michael Joseph.
* 1943 '' The Ship''. Michael Joseph.
* 1948 ''The Sky and the Forest''. Michael Joseph.
* 1951 ''Randall and the River of Time''. Michael Joseph.
* 1955 '' The Good Shepherd''. Michael Joseph.

Short stories

*"The Wandering Gentile", ''Liverpool Echo'', 1955

Posthumous

* 1967 ''Long before Forty'' (autobiographical). Michael Joseph.
* 1971 ''Gold from Crete'' (short stories). Michael Joseph.
* 2011 ''The Pursued'' (novel). Penguin.

Collections

* 1944 ''The Bedchamber Mystery''; to which is added the story of ''The Eleven Deckchairs'' and ''Modernity and Maternity''. S. J. Reginald Saunders. Published in the US as ''Three Matronly Mysteries''. eNet Press
* 1954 ''The Nightmare''. Michael Joseph
* 1969 ''The Man in the Yellow Raft''. Michael Joseph (posthumous)

Plays in three acts; John Lane

* 1931 ''U 97''
* 1933 ''Nurse Cavell''. (with C. E. Bechhofer Roberts)

Non-fiction

* 1922 ''Victor Emmanuel II''. Methuen (?)
* 1927 ''Victor Emmanuel II and the Union of Italy''. Methuen.
* 1924 ''Napoleon and his Court''. Methuen.
* 1925 ''Josephine, Napoleon’s Empress''. Methuen.
* 1928 ''Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre''. Methuen.
* 1929 ''Lord Nelson''. John Lane.
* 1929 ''The Voyage of the Annie Marble''. John Lane.
* 1930 ''The Annie Marble in Germany''. John Lane.
* 1936 ''Marionettes at Home''. Michael Joseph Ltd.
* 1953 ''The Adventures of John Wetherell''. Doubleday & Company, Inc.
* 1953 ''The Barbary Pirates''. Landmark Books, Random House. Published in the UK in 1956 by Macdonald & Co.
* 1957 ''The Naval War of 1812''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''The Age of Fighting Sail''
* 1959 ''Hunting the Bismarck''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''The Last Nine Days of the Bismark'' and ''Sink the Bismarck''

Non-fiction short pieces

*"Calmness under Air Raids in Franco Territory". ''Western Mail'', 28 April 1937
*"Who Is Financing Franco?". ''Aberdeen Press & Journal'', 5 May 1937
*”Sabotage". Sunday Graphic, 11 September 1938
*"Saga of the Submarines". ''Falkirk Herald'', 1 August 1945
*"Hollywood Coincidence". ''Leicester Chronicle'', 3 September 1955

Film adaptations

In addition to providing the source material for numerous adaptations (not all of which are listed below), Forester was also credited as "adapted for the screen by" for '' Captain Horatio Hornblower''.

* '' Payment Deferred'' (1932), based on a 1931 play which was in turn based on Forester's novel of the same name
* ''Brown on Resolution'' (1935), based on the novel of the same name
* '' Eagle Squadron'' (1942), story
* '' Commandos Strike at Dawn'' (1942), short story "The Commandos"
* '' Forever and a Day'' (1943), story
* '' Captain Horatio Hornblower'' (1951), based on the novels '' The Happy Return'', ''A Ship of the Line'' and '' Flying Colours''
* '' The African Queen'' (1951), the novel of the same name
* ''Sailor of the King'' (1953), the novel ''Brown on Resolution''
* '' The Pride and the Passion'' (1957), the novel ''The Gun''
* '' Sink the Bismarck!'' (1960), the novel ''The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck''
* ''Hornblower'' (1998–2003 series of made-for-television movies), based on the novels ''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower'', ''Lieutenant Hornblower'' and ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''
* '' Greyhound'' (2020), the novel ''The Good Shepherd''

See also

* Honor Harrington – a fictional space captain and admiral in the Honorverse novels by David Weber, inspired by Horatio Hornblower (see dedication in '' On Basilisk Station'')
* Patrick O'Brian – author of the Aubrey–Maturin series
* Dudley Pope – author of the Ramage series
* Richard Woodman – author of the Nathaniel Drinkwater series
* Douglas Reeman (writing as Alexander Kent) – The Bolitho novels

References

Further reading

* Sternlicht, Sanford V., ''C.S. Forester and the Hornblower saga'' (Syracuse University Press, 1999)
* Van der Kiste, John, ''C.S. Forester's Crime Noir: A view of the murder stories'' (KDP, 2018)

External links

C. S. Forester Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center
*
*

C. S. Forester Society
which publishes th
e-journal ''Reflections''
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C. S. Forester on ''You Bet Your Life'' in 1956

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forester, C. S.
1899 births
1966 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English male writers
20th-century pseudonymous writers
Alumni of King's College London
English historical novelists
English male novelists
James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients
Nautical historical novelists
People educated at Alleyn's School
People educated at Dulwich College
Writers about the Age of Sail
Writers from London
Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age