Eden Phillpotts (4 November 1862 – 29 December 1960) was an English author, poet and dramatist. He was born in Mount Abu, India, was educated in Plymouth, Devon, and worked as an insurance officer for ten years before studying for the stage and eventually becoming a writer.
Life
Eden Phillpotts was a great-nephew of
Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter. His father Henry Phillpotts was a son of the bishop's younger brother Thomas Phillpotts.
James Surtees Phillpotts
James Surtees Phillpotts (18 July 1839 – 16 October 1930) was a reforming Headmaster of Bedford School and the author and editor of a number of educational books.
Biography
Born in Cornwall on 18 July 1839, James Surtees Phillpotts was a gra ...
the reforming headmaster of
Bedford School
:''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.''
Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...
was his second cousin.
Eden Phillpotts was born on 4 November 1862 at
Mount Abu in
Rajasthan. His father Henry was an officer in the
Indian Army, while his mother Adelaide was the daughter of an
Indian Civil Service officer posted in Madras, George Jenkins Waters.
[''Dictionary of National Biography'', article by Thomas Moult]
Henry Phillpotts died in 1865, leaving Adelaide a widow at the age of 21. With her three small sons, of whom Eden was the eldest, she returned to England and settled in
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
.
[Eden Phillpotts, ''From the Angle of 88'', 1952]
Phillpotts was educated at Mannamead School in Plymouth. At school he showed no signs of a literary bent. In 1879, aged 17, he left home and went to London to earn his living. He found a job as a clerk with the
Sun Fire Office
Sun Alliance Group plc was a large insurance business with its main offices in the City of London and later Horsham. It was created in 1959 by the merger of Sun Insurance, founded in 1710, and Alliance Assurance founded in 1824. In 1996 Sun Alli ...
.
Phillpotts' ambition was to be an actor and he attended evening classes at a drama school for two years. He came to the conclusion that he would never make a name as an actor but might have success as a writer. In his spare time out of office hours he proceeded to create a stream of small works which he was able to sell. In due course he left the insurance company to concentrate on his writing, while also working part-time as assistant editor for the weekly
''Black and White'' magazine.
Eden Phillpotts maintained a steady output of three or four books a year for the next half century. He produced poetry, short stories, novels, plays and mystery tales. Many of his novels were about rural
Devon life and some of his plays were distinguished by their effective use of regional dialect.
Eden Phillpotts died at his home in
Broadclyst near
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
, Devon, on 29 December 1960.
Personal life
Phillpotts was for many years the President of the
Dartmoor Preservation Association and cared passionately about the conservation of Dartmoor. He was an agnostic and a supporter of the
Rationalist Press Association.
Phillpotts was a friend of
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
, who was an admirer of his work and a regular visitor to his home. She dedicated her 1932 novel
Peril at End House
''Peril at End House'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by the Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1932 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in March of the same year. The US edition ...
to Phillpotts, and in her autobiography, she expressed gratitude for his early advice on fiction writing and quoted some of it.
Jorge Luis Borges was another Phillpotts admirer. Borges mentioned him numerous times, wrote at least two reviews of his novels, and included him in his "Personal Library", a collection of works selected to reflect his personal literary preferences.
Philpotts allegedly sexually abused his daughter Adelaide. In a 1976 interview for a book about her father, Adelaide described an incestuous "relationship" with him that she says lasted from the age of five or six until her early thirties, when he remarried. When she herself finally married at the age of 55 her father never forgave her, and never communicated with her again.
[James Y. Dayananda, 'Phillpotts , (Mary) Adelaide Eden (1896–1993)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 201]
accessed 9 May 2017
/ref>
Writings
Phillpotts wrote a great many books with a Dartmoor setting. One of his novels, ''Widecombe Fair
Widecombe Fair is an annual fair in England, held in the Dartmoor village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor on the second Tuesday of September. It is well known as the subject of the folk song of the Widecombe Fair (song), same name, featuring Uncle Tom ...
'', inspired by an annual fair
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
at the village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor
Widecombe in the Moor () is a village and large civil parish in Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. Its church is known as the Cathedral of the Moors on account of its tall tower and its size, relative to the small population it serves. It ...
, provided the scenario for his comic play ''The Farmer's Wife
''The Farmer's Wife'' is a 1928 British silent romantic comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jameson Thomas, Lillian Hall-Davis and Gordon Harker.
It is adapted from a 1916 play of the same name by British novelist, poet an ...
'' (1916). It went on to become a 1928 silent film of the same name, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
. It was followed by a 1941 remake, directed by Norman Lee and Leslie Arliss
Leslie Arliss (6 October 1901, London – 30 December 1987, Jersey, Channel Islands) was an English screenwriter and director. He is best known for his work on the Gainsborough melodramas directing films such as ''The Man in Grey'' and ''The Wi ...
. It became a BBC TV drama in 1955, directed by
Owen Reed. Jan Stewer played Churdles Ash. The BBC had broadcast the play in 1934.
He co-wrote several plays with his daughter Adelaide Phillpotts
Mary Adelaide Eden Ross (née Phillpotts; 23 April 1896 – 4 June 1993) was an English novelist, poet and playwright. She married at the age of 55 leaving behind her father who had controlled their incestuous relationship.
Life
Phillpotts was ...
,[ Eden is best known as the author of many novels, plays and poems about Dartmoor. His Dartmoor cycle of 18 novels and two volumes of short stories still has many avid readers despite the fact that many titles are out of print.
Philpotts also wrote a series of novels, each set against the background of a different trade or industry. Titles include: ''Brunel's Tower'' (a pottery) and ''Storm in a Teacup'' (hand-papermaking). Among his other works is ''The Grey Room'', the plot of which is centred on a haunted room in an English manor house. He also wrote a number of other mystery novels, both under his own name and the pseudonym Harrington Hext. These include: ''The Thing at Their Heels'', '' The Red Redmaynes'', ''The Monster'', ''The Clue from the Stars'', and ''The Captain's Curio''. ''The Human Boy'' was a collection of schoolboy stories in the same genre as Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co., though different in mood and style. Late in his long writing career he wrote a few books of interest to science fiction and fantasy readers, the most noteworthy being ''Saurus'', which involves an alien reptilian observing human life.
Eric Partridge praised the immediacy and impact of his dialect writing.
]
Photographs
Postbridge Clapper Bridge 2005-07-21.jpg, The clapper bridge at Postbridge, which is the central location of Phillpotts' novel ''The Thief of Virtue''.
Works
Novels
*''The End of a Life'' (1891)
*''Folly and Fresh Air'' (1891)
*''A Tiger's Club'' (1892)
''A Deal with the Devil''
(1895)
''Some Every-day Folks''
(1895)
''My Laughing Philosopher''
(1896)
''Down Dartmoor Way''
(1896)
''Lying Prophets: A Novel''
(1897)
*''Children of the Mist'' (1898)
*''Sons of the Morning'' (1900)
''The Good Red Earth''
(1901)
*''The River'' (1902)
''Old Delabole''
(1903)
''The Golden Fetich''
(1903)
*''The American Prisoner
''The American Prisoner'' is a British novel written by Eden Phillpotts and published in 1904
and adapted into a film by the same name in 1929. The story concerns an English woman who lives at Fox Tor farm, and an American captured during ...
'' (1904)
''The Farm of the Dagger''
(1904)
*''The Secret Woman'' (1905)
*''The Poacher's Wife'' (1906) AKA ''Daniel Sweetland'' (1906)
*''The Sinews of War: A Romance of London and the Sea'' (1906) with Arnold Bennett
*''Doubloons'' (1906) with Arnold Bennett
*''The Portreeve'' (1906)
*''The Whirlwind'' (1907)
''The Human Boy Again''
(1908)
''The Mother''
(1908)
''The Virgin in Judgment''
(1908) AKA ''A Fight to Finish'' (1911)
''The Statue: A Story of International Intrigue and Mystery''
(1908) with Arnold Bennett
''The Three Brothers''
(1909)
''The Fun of the Fair''
(1909)
*'' The Haven'' (1909)
''The Flint Heart: A Fairy Story''
(1910)
*''The Thief of Virtue'' (1910)
*''The Beacon'' (1911)
''Demeter's Daughter''
(1911)
*''The Three Knaves'' (1912)
*''The Forest on the Hill'' (1912)
''The Lovers: A Romance''
(1912)
*''Widecombe Fair'' (1913)
''The Joy of Youth''
(1913)
''The Old Time Before Them''
(1913)
''Faith Tresilion''
(1914)
*''The Master of Merripit'' (1914)
*''Brunel's Tower'' (1915)
''The Green Alleys: A Comedy''
(1916)
''The Human Boy and the War''
(1916)
*''The Banks of Colne: (the Nursery)'' (1917)
*''The Girl and the Faun'' (1917)
''The Spinners''
(1918)
''From the Angle of Seventeen''
(1912)
*''Evander'' (1919)
''Storm in a Teacup''
(1919)
*''Miser's Money'' (1920)
''Eudocia''
(1921)
(1921)
*''The Bronze Venus'' (1921)
*''Orphan Dinah'' (1920)
''The Red Redmaynes''
(1922)
*''Pan and the Twins'' (1922)
''Number 87''
(1922)
''The Thing at Their Heels''
(1923)
*''Cheat-the-boys; a Story of the Devonshire Orchards'' (1924)
*''Redcliff'' (1924)
*''The Treasures of Typhon'' (1924)
*''The Lavender Dragon'' (1924)
*''Who Killed Diana?'' (1924)
*''Circé's Island'' (1924)
*''A Voice from the Dark'' (1925)
*''The Monster'' (1925)
*''George Westover'' (1926)
*''The Marylebone Miser'' (1926) AKA ''Jig-Saw'' (1926)
''Cornish Droll: A Novel''
(1926)
*''The Miniature'' (1926)
*''The Jury'' (1927)
*''Arachne'' (1928)
*''Children of Men'' (1928)
*''The Ring Fence'' (1928)
*''Tryphena'' (1929)
*''The Apes'' (1929)
*''The Three Maidens'' (1930)
*''Alcyone (a Fairy Story)'' (1930)
*''"Found Drowned"'' (1931)
*''A Clue from the Stars'' (1932)
*''The Broom Squires'' (1932)
*''Stormbury, A Story of Devon'' (1932)
*''The Captain's Curio'' (1933)
*''Bred in the Bone'' (1933)
*''Witch's Cauldron'' (1933)
*''Nancy Owlett'' (1933)
*''Minions of the Moon'' (1934)
*''Ned of the Caribbees'' (1934)
*''Portrait of a Gentleman'' (1934)
*''Mr. Digweed and Mr. Lumb: A Mystery Novel'' (1934)
*''The Oldest Inhabitant: A Comedy'' (1934)
*''A Close Call'' (1936)
*''The Owl of Athene'' (1936)
*''The White Camel: A Story of Arabia'' (1936)
*''The Anniversary Murder'' (1936)
*''The Wife of Elias: A Mystery Novel'' (1937)
*''Wood-nymph'' (1937)
*''Farce in Three Acts'' (1937)
*''Portrait of a Scoundrel'' (1938)
''Saurus''
(1938)
''Lycanthrope, the Mystery of Sir William Wolf''
(1938)
*''Dark Horses'' (1938)
*''Golden Island'' (1938)
*''Thorn in Her Flesh'' (1939)
*''Tabletop'' (1939) with Arnold Bennett
*''Monkshood'' (1939)
*''Chorus of Clowns'' (1940)
*''Goldcross'' (1940)
*''Awake Deborah!'' (1941)
*''Ghostwater'' (1941)
*''The Deed Without a Name'' (1942)
*''Pilgrims of the Night'' (1942)
*''A Museum Piece'' (1943)
*''Flower of the Gods'' (1943)
*''The Changeling'' (1944)
*''The Drums of Dombali'' (1945)
*''They Were Seven: (A Mystery)'' (1945)
*''Quartet'' (1946)
*''The Fall of the House of Heron'' (1948)
*''Address Unknown'' (1949)
*''The Waters of Walla'' (1950)
*''Through a Glass Darkly'' (1951)
*''George and Georgina: A Mystery Story'' (1952)
*''His Brother's Keeper'' (1953)
*''The Widow Garland'' (1955)
*''Connie Woodland'' (1956)
*''Giglet Market'' (1957)
*''There Was an Old Man'' (1959)
Short Fiction Books
''My Adventure in the Flying Scotsman; a Romance of London and North-Western Railway Shares''
(1888)
''The Human Boy''
(1899)
*''Loup-garou!'' (1899)
*''Summer Clouds and Other Stories'' (1893)
''Fancy Free''
(1901)
''The Striking Hours''
(1901)
''The Transit of the Red Dragon: And Other Tales''
(1903)
''Knock at a Venture''
(1905)
*''The Unlucky Number'' (1906)
''The Folk Afield''
(1907)
''Tales of the Tenements''
(1910)
*''The Judge's Chair'' (1914)
''The Human Boy and the War''
(1916)
*''Chronicles of St. Tid'' (1918)
''Black, White, and Brindled''
(1923)
*''Up Hill, Down Dale: A Volume of Short Stories'' (1925)
*''Peacock House and Other Mysteries'' (1926)
*''It happened Like That, a New Volume of Short Stories'' (1928)
*''Brother Man'' (1928)
(1929)
*''Cherry Gambol and Other Stories'' (1930)
*''They Could Do No Other: A Volume of Stories'' (1932)
*''Once upon a Time'' (1936)
*''The Hidden Hand'' (1952)
Poetry
''Up-Along and Down-Along''
(1905)
''Wild Fruit''
(1911)
''The Iscariot''
(1912)
''Delight and Other Poems''
(1916)
''Plain Song''
(1917)
''A Shadow Passes'.
bservations and Poems(1918)
''As the Wind Blows''
(1920)
''A Dish of Apples''
(1921)
''Pixies' Plot''
(1922)
*''Thoughts in Prose and Verse'' (1924)
*''Cherry-Stones'' (1924)
*''A Harvesting'' (1924)
*''Brother Beast'' (1928)
*''Goodwill'' (1928)
*''For Remembrance'' (1929)
*''A Hundred Sonnets'' (1929)
*''A Hundred Lyrics'' (1930)
*''Becoming'' (1932)
''Song of a Sailor Man: A Narrative Poem''
(1933)
*''Sonnets from Nature'' (1935)
*''A Dartmoor Village'' (1937)
*''Miniatures'' (1942)
*''The Enchanted Wood'' (1948)
*''One Thing and Another'' ssays and poems.(1954)
Plays
''The Prude's Progress: A Comedy''
with Jerome K. Jerome (1895)
''A Golden Wedding: An Original Comedy in One Act''
(1899)
*''A Breezy Morning'' (1904)
''A Pair of Knickerbockers''
(1900)
''Curtain Raisers''
(1912)
''The Shadow; A Play in Three Acts''
(1913)
''The Mother: A Play in Four Acts''
(1914)
''The Secret Woman; A Play in Five Acts''
(1914)
''The Angel in the House: A Comedy in Three Acts''
(1915)
*
The Farmer's Wife
' (1916)
*''Arachne; A Play'' (1920) By Adelaide Eden Phillpotts
''St. George and the Dragons: A Comedy in Three Acts''
(1919) AKA *''The bishop's night out'' (1929)
*''The Market-Money. A Play in One Act'' (1923)
*''Bed Rock: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1924)
*''Devonshire Cream: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1925)
*''A Comedy Royal'' (1925) Dramatization of ''Eudocia (1921)''
*'' Yellow Sands'' (1926)
*'' Blue Comet'' (1927)
*''The Runaways: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1928)
*''Three Short Plays: The Market-money; Something to Talk about; The Purple Bedroom'' (1928)
*''Buy a Broom: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1929)
*''Jane's Legacy: A Folk Play in Three Acts'' (1931)
*''The Good Old Days: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1932) with his daughter
''My Garden''
(1906)
*''Dance of the Months.'' ketches of Dartmoor and poems.
A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch f ...
(1911)
''My Shrubs''
(1915)
''My Devon Year''
(1916)
*''One Hundred Pictures from Eden Phillpotts / Selected by L.H. Brewitt'' (1919)
*''A West Country Pilgrimage'' (1920) ssays and verse.*''A West Country Sketch Book'' (1928) Essays from ''Dance of the Months'' and ''A West Country Pilgrimage'' with one new essay.
*''Essays in Little'' (1931)
*''Handmade Paper: Its Method of Manufacture as Described in the Novel "Storm in a Teacup"'' (1932)
*''A Year with Bisshe-Bantam'' (1934)
*''A Mixed Grill'' (1940) Essays.
*''From the Angle of 88'' (1951)
*''Selected Letters'' (1984)
Omnibus
''Three plays: The shadows; The mother; The secret woman''
(1913)
*''Circe's Island and The Girl & The Faun'' (1925)
*''The Complete Human Boy. Comprising "The Human Boy," "The Human Boy Again," "The Human Boy and the War," "The Human Boy's Diary," "From the Angle of Seventeen," Etc.'' (1930)
*''West Country Plays'' (1933) 'Buy a Broom'' and ''A Cup of Happiness''.*''The Book of Avis: A Trilogy Comprising Bred in the Bone, Witch's Cauldron, A Shadow Passes'' 936
References
Further reading
*
* The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, George Watson, Ian R. Willison CUP Archive, 1987
External links
*
*
*
*
*
Eden Phillpotts papers, MSS 1458
in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections
The L. Tom Perry Special Collections is the special collections department of Brigham Young University (BYU)'s Harold B. Lee Library in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1957 with 1,000 books and 50 manuscript collections, as of 2016 the Library's special ...
, Harold B. Lee Library
The Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) is the main academic library of Brigham Young University (BYU) located in Provo, Utah. The library started as a small collection of books in the president's office in 1876 before moving in 1891. The Heber J. Gran ...
, Brigham Young University
Eden Phillpotts Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillpotts, Eden
1862 births
1960 deaths
19th-century British short story writers
20th-century English novelists
Dartmoor
English agnostics
English fantasy writers
English male short story writers
English short story writers
English male novelists
English male poets
English science fiction writers
People educated at Plymouth College
Writers from Plymouth, Devon
People of British India
Victorian novelists