Edmund Clerihew Bentley (10 July 1875 – 30 March 1956), who generally published under the names E. C. Bentley or E. Clerihew Bentley, was a popular English novelist and humorist, and inventor of the
clerihew
A clerihew () is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem of a type invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person, and the remainder puts the subject in an absurd light or reveals som ...
, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics.
Biography
Bentley was born in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and educated at
St Paul's School and
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...
.
[Cohen, Nancy. "Bentley, Edmund Clerihew (E. C.)". In Gale, Steven H., ed. (1996)]
''Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese''
pp. 138–42. Taylor & Francis. His father,
John Edmund Bentley
John Edmund Bentley (1847 – 12 December 1913) was an English sportsman who played in the first international rugby football match in 1871, representing England as a halfback.
Early life
John Edmund Bentley was born in Calver, Derbyshire, the ...
, was professionally a civil servant but was also a rugby union international having played in the first ever international match for England against Scotland in 1871. Bentley worked as a journalist on several newspapers, including ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
''. He also worked for the weekly ''
The Outlook'' during the editorship of
James Louis Garvin
James Louis Garvin CH (12 April 1868 – 23 January 1947) was a British journalist, editor, and author. In 1908, Garvin agreed to take over the editorship of the Sunday newspaper ''The Observer'', revolutionising Sunday journalism and restori ...
. His first published collection of poetry, titled ''Biography for Beginners'' (1905),
popularized the clerihew form; it was followed by two other collections, ''More Biography'' (1929) and ''Baseless Biography'' (1939).
[
His detective novel '']Trent's Last Case
''Trent's Last Case'' is a detective novel written by E. C. Bentley and first published in 1913. Its central character, the artist and amateur detective Philip Trent, reappeared subsequently in the novel ''Trent's Own Case'' (1936), and the sho ...
'' (1913) was much praised, numbering Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...
among its admirers, and with its labyrinthine and mystifying plotting can be seen as the first truly modern mystery. It was adapted as a film in 1920, 1929
This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...
, and 1952
Events January–February
* January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
* February 6
** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...
. The success of the work inspired him, after 23 years, to write a sequel, ''Trent's Own Case
''Trent's Own Case'' is a 1936 British detective novel written by E. C. Bentley (in collaboration with H. Warner Allen) as a sequel to his best-known novel ''Trent's Last Case'' (1913).
Plot
The artist and amateur criminologist, Philip Trent, in ...
'' (1936). There was also a book of Trent short stories, ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938).
From 1936 until 1949 Bentley was president of the Detection Club. He contributed to two crime stories for the club's radio serials broadcast in 1930 and 1931, which were published in 1983 as '' The Scoop and Behind The Screen''. In 1950 he contributed the introduction to a Constable & Co
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...
omnibus edition of Damon Runyon's "stories of the bandits of Broadway", which was republished by Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Nicolas Bentley
Nicolas Clerihew Bentley (14 June 1907 – 14 August 1978) was a British writer and illustrator, best known for his humorous cartoon drawings in books and magazines in the 1930s and 1940s. The son of Edmund Clerihew Bentley (inventor of the clerih ...]
was an illustrator.
Phonographic recordings of his work "Recordings for the Blind" are heard in the film '' Places in the Heart'', by the character Mr. Will.
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...
dedicated his popular detective novel on anarchist terrorism, '' The Man Who Was Thursday'', to Edmund Clerihew Bentley, a school friend.[Stapleton, Julia (2009)]
''Christianity, Patriotism, and Nationhood: The England of G. K. Chesterton''
p. 15. Lexington Books.
Although he is best known for his crime fiction and clerihews, Bentley also wrote at least one science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
short story. This is the recently re-discovered "Flying Visit", published in the ''Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'' on 31 March 1953.
Short prose works
Fiction
*"The Inoffensive Captain". '' The Strand Magazine'', March 1914. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes
Trent may refer to:
Places Italy
* Trento in northern Italy, site of the Council of Trent United Kingdom
* Trent, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Germany
* Trent, Germany, a municipality on the island of Rügen United States
* Trent, California, ...
'' (1938).
*"The Clever Cockatoo". ''The Strand Magazine'', July 1914. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938).
*"The Ordinary Hair-Pins". ''The Strand Magazine'', October 1916. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938).
*"The Sweet Shot". ''The Strand Magazine'', March 1937. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938).
*"The Old-Fashioned Apache". ''The Strand Magazine'', May 1937. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938).
*"Trent and the Vanishing Lawyer". ''The Strand Magazine'', August 1937. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938) as "The Vanishing Lawyer".
*"Trent and the Bad Dog". ''The Strand Magazine'', September 1937. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938).
*"Trent and the Genuine Tabard". ''The Strand Magazine'', January 1938. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938) as "The Genuine Tabard".
*"Trent and the Unknown Peer". ''The Strand Magazine'', February 1938. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938) as "The Unknown Peer".
*"Trent and the Ministering Angel". ''The Strand Magazine'', November 1938. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (HarperCollins Detective Story Club edition, 2017) as "The Ministering Angel".
*"The Public Benefactor". Magazine publication unknown. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938).
*"The Little Mystery". Magazine publication unknown. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938).
*"The Fool-Proof Lift". Magazine publication unknown. Collected in ''Trent Intervenes'' (1938) as "Trent and the Fool-Proof Lift".
*"Flying Visit". ''Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'' (London), 31 March 1953.
Non-fiction
*"Two Machines and a Party". '' Daily News'' (London), 7 November 1905.
*"Hearst for Governor". ''Daily News'' (London), 21 October 1906.
*"Naas". ''Daily News'' (London), 6 November 1906.
*"G. K.". '' The Listener'', 17 June 1936.
*"Hitler Again Demonstrates His Pet Brand of Treachery". ''Ballymena Weekly Telegraph'', 20 April 1940.
*"These Things Are Kept from the German Public". ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'', date unknown. Reprinted: ''Belfast Telegraph'', 4 June 1940.
*"Next US President". ''The Daily Telegraph'', date unknown. Reprinted: ''Belfast Telegraph'', 27 June 1940.
*"The Lie as a Wartime Weapon". ''The Daily Telegraph'', date unknown. Reprinted: ''Belfast Telegraph'', 31 July 1940.
*"I Am Glad I Was Born When I Was". ''The Listener'', 29 August 1940.
*"Nazi Propaganda in Last War". ''The Daily Telegraph'', date unknown. Reprinted: ''Belfast Telegraph'', 7 September 1940.
*"Boys and Girls of Yesterday and Today". ''The Listener'', 12 December 1940.
*"The Interesting Age". ''The Listener'', 16 December 1943.
Book reviews
*"Arabi's Side". ''Daily News'' (London), 10 June 1907.
*"The King's Serjeants". ''Daily News'' (London), 21 June 1911.
References
Sources
* Binyon, T. J., ''Murder Will Out: The Detective in Fiction'' (Oxford, 1989), pp. 57–58.
External links
*
*
*
Illustrated Bibliography of 1st Editions
with some clerihews and some biographical information on Bentley himself
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bentley, Edmund
1875 births
1956 deaths
20th-century English novelists
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
British anti-communists
English crime fiction writers
English mystery writers
English male poets
English humorists
English male novelists
Humorous poets
Members of the Detection Club
People educated at St Paul's School, London
Presidents of the Oxford Union
20th-century English male writers