Gilbert Parker

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker, 1st Baronet (23 November 1862 – 6 September 1932), known as Gilbert Parker, Canadian novelist and British politician, was born at Camden East, Addington, Ontario, the son of Captain Joseph Parker, R.A.

Education and employment

He was educated as a teacher in Ottawa and taught at Marsh Hill and Bayside schools in Hastings County before becoming a teacher at the Ontario Institute for the Deaf and Dumb (in Belleville, Ontario) in 1882. From there he went on to lecture at Trinity College. In 1886, he went to Australia, and for a while became associate editor of the '' Sydney Morning Herald''. He also traveled extensively in the Pacific, Europe, Asia, Egypt, the South Sea Islands and subsequently in northern Canada. In the early nineties he began to gain a growing reputation in London as a writer of romantic fiction.

Published works

Novels

The best of his novels are those in which he first took for his subject the history and life of the French Canadians; and his permanent literary reputation rests on the fine quality, descriptive and dramatic, of his Canadian stories. ''Pierre and his People'' (1892) was followed by ''Mrs. Falchion'' (1893), ''The Trail of the Sword'' (1894), ''When Valmond came to Pontiac'' (1895), ''An Adventurer of Icy North'' (1895), and ''The Seats of the Mighty'' (1896, dramatized in 1897). ''The Seats of the Mighty'' was a historical novel depicting the English conquest of Quebec with James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm as two of the characters. ''The Lane that Had No Turning'' (1900), a collection of short stories set in the fictional Quebec town of Pontiac, contains some of his best work, and is viewed by some as being in the tradition of such Gothic classics as Stoker's '' Dracula'' and James's ''The Turn of the Screw''. In '' The Battle of the Strong'' (1898) he broke new ground, laying his scene in the Channel Islands. His chief later books were ''The Right of Way'' (1901), ''Donovan Pasha'' (1902), ''The Ladder of Swords'' (1904), ''The Weavers'' (1907), ''Northern Lights'' (1909), ''The Judgment House'' (1913), ''The Promised Land: A Story of David in Israel'' (1920), and ''The Power And The Glory'' (1925). Parker had three that made it into the top 10 on the annual list of bestselling novels in the United States, two of which were on it for two years in a row. The 1905 '' New International Encyclopaedia'' claimed that it was the "dramatic quality of his . . . books hichwon for them heirconsiderable popularity, despite their disregard of truth in local color."

Sir Gilbert Parker is also known for his poetry, in particular the sonnet ''Reunited''. The English composer Sir Edward Elgar set to music three of Parker's romantic poems: '' Oh, soft was the song'', ''Twilight'', '' Was it some Golden Star?'' in 1910, as part of an uncompleted song-cycle, his Op. 59. Elgar also set to music his little poem '' Inside the Bar'', written in 1917 as a sequel to his setting of Kipling's wartime nautical poems in '' The Fringes of the Fleet''.

Other activities

In December 1895 he married Miss Amy VanTine of New York City, a wealthy heiress, daughter of Ashley VanTine.

His Canadian connection and his experience in Australia and elsewhere had made him a strong Imperialist in politics, and from that time he began to devote himself in large measure to a political career. He still kept up his literary work, but some of the books last mentioned cannot compare with those by which he made his name. He was elected to the British House of Commons as a Conservative member for Gravesend in 1900 and remained MP until 1918.

He was knighted in the 1902 Coronation Honours for his service to Canadian literature, receiving the accolade from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October that year. In the succeeding years he continually strengthened his position in the party, particularly by his energetic work on behalf of Tariff Reform and Imperial Preference. During World War I he organized British publicity toward the United States. He was created a baronet on 21 June 1915 and appointed as a Privy Councillor in 1916.

In May 1905, Parker publicly claimed to have seen a "vision" of fellow house member, Frederic Carne Rasch, despite the fact that Rasch was known to be bedridden at home with influenza.

He died in London (England) on 6 September 1932 and on 26 September he was buried in Belleville, Ontario. One of the honorary pallbearers was then Prime Minister of Canada, Richard Bedford Bennett.

World War I propagandist

The British put forth a large effort to find an able and persuasive writer to effectively communicate with the Americans. They decided to use Sir Gilbert Parker. The British supplied Parker with a "large propaganda office" to plan, write, and distribute the new technique of British propaganda. His main objective was to create new relationships and hold onto existing ones with American citizens. His writings, known as the "White Papers," were sent into the New York Times in 1914. The subheading of the article read, "A Modest Appeal from Sir Gilbert Parker to read the British Side." To do this, Gilbert showered the American people with writings from people such as Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells