Hubert Montague Crackanthorpe (12 May 1870 – c. November 1896) was a late Victorian British writer who created works mainly in the genres of the essay, short story, and novella. He also wrote limited amounts of

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

. After dying early and under mysterious circumstances, his name is now little known and has all but vanished from conventional literary biographies of the period. Crackanthorpe is usually associated with the literary movement of naturalism. His literary legacy consists largely of three volumes of short stories he managed to publish during his lifetime; contemporary opinions of his talent as a writer varied widely, though one of his works was published with an appreciation by

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

Private life

Crackanthorpe was born to Montague Hughes Cookson, later Crackanthorpe (1832–1913), and his wife, Blanche Althea Elizabeth, née Holt (d. 1928). Montague Cookson took the name Crackanthorpe by Royal Licence in 1888 on inheriting the Crackanthorpe estate through his grandmother Dorothy Crackanthorpe, who was also grandmother to

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and

Dorothy Wordsworth Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth (25 December 1771 – 25 January 1855) was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives. Dorothy Wordsworth had no a ...

. In 1893 Hubert Crackanthorpe married Leila Macdonald, another writer. The couple shared a literary life in Chelsea and France and travelled together from France to Italy, reaching the Amalfi Coast (Salerno) but the journey ended with a litigation. Leila was financially prosperous and soon came into a large inheritance. However, the temperamental Crackanthorpes were ill-suited for the institution of marriage, and they separated in 1896, although they were again living together in Paris at the time of Crackanthorpe's death.

Literary work

Crackanthorpe began his literary career as editor, with W. H. Wilkins, of a periodical entitled ''The Albemarle''. Over the years, Crackanthorpe has been associated with another avant-garde literary magazine, ''

The Yellow Book ''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...

''; Some of the pieces Crackanthorpe published in the ''Yellow Book'' were collected in ''Sentimental Studies and a Set of Village Tales'' (1895). After its publication, Crackanthorpe continued to publish short stories in various periodicals. Crackanthorpe's literary technique is reminiscent of his contemporary,

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

. They both shared a passion for detailed psychological portraits. Crackanthorpe had a talent for describing scenes in a style rich with substance and texture. To create an additional layer of realism, some of Crackanthorpe's characters speak in rural British dialects.

The mystery of his passing

The state of Crackanthorpe's marriage to Leila began to disintegrate rapidly after 1895. Leila miscarried in 1896 because of a venereal infection she contracted from Hubert; soon after, she left Hubert and travelled to Italy. Left to his own philandering devices, Hubert promptly began an affair with a woman named Sissie Welch, sister of

Richard Le Gallienne Richard Le Gallienne (20 January 1866 – 15 September 1947) was an English author and poet. The British-American actress Eva Le Gallienne (1899–1991) was his daughter by his second marriage to Danish journalist Julie Nørregaard (1863–1942) ...

. After a few months, Hubert managed a reconciliation with Leila. Leila was now living in Paris with a lover of her own. Hubert and Leila set up house once more with their respective lovers in tow. This complicated domestic arrangement did not last long, and Leila left Hubert on 4 November 1896. Hubert Crackanthorpe was never seen alive again after his wife left him for the second time. Leila walked out the door of the Crackanthorpes' Paris home and boarded a boat for London in December 1896. Hubert's body was found in the

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on Christmas Eve. It is unknown whether he was a victim of foul play, or if he succumbed to a

suicidal Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...

impulse. In subsequent years the aristocratic Crackanthorpe family was eager to keep the story of Hubert Crackanthorpe from coming to public attention. Critics tend to group Crackanthorpe together with a clutch of young British writers and artists of the 1890s who suffered untimely deaths caused by various factors, including suicide, alcohol abuse or tuberculosis; e.g.

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

Ernest Dowson Ernest Christopher Dowson (2 August 186723 February 1900) was an English poet, novelist, and short-story writer who is often associated with the Decadent movement. Biography Ernest Dowson was born in Lee, then in Kent, in 1867. His great-uncle ...

Lionel Johnson Lionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 – 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist, and critic (although he claimed Irish descent and wrote on Celtic themes). Life Johnson was born in Broadstairs, Kent, England in 1867 and educated at Win ...

, and the two editors of the ''Yellow Book'',

Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 187216 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His black ink drawings were influenced by Woodblock printing in Japan, Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He ...

and Henry Harland.Holbrook Jackson, ''The Eighteen Nineties'', Pelican Books, 1950 (see page 130); Katherine Mix, ''A Study in Yellow'', Kansas City University Press, 1960.

Works

* ''Wreckage: Seven Studies'' (London: Heinemann, 1893; New York: Cassell, 1894). * ''Sentimental Studies and a Set of Village Tales'' (London: Heinemann, 1895; New York: Putnam, 1895). * ''Vignettes: A Miniature Journal of Whim and Sentiment'' (London & New York: John Lane, 1896; New York: Bruno Chapbooks, 1915). * ''Last Studies'' (London: Heinemann, 1897). * ''The Light Sovereign: A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts'' (London: Harland, 1917). * ''Collected Stories, 1893–1897'' (Gainesville, Fla.: Scholars Facsimiles and Reprints, 1969).

References

External links