Robert Barr (writer)
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Robert Barr (16 September 1849 – 21 October 1912) was a
Scottish-Canadian Scottish Canadians are people of Scottish people, Scottish descent or cultural heritage, heritage living in Canada. As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and amongst the first Europeans to settle in the country, Scottish people have made a ...
short story writer and novelist who also worked as a newspaper and magazine editor.


Early years in Canada

Barr was born in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, Scotland to Robert Barr and Jane Watson. In 1854, he emigrated with his parents to
Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...
. His family settled on a farm near the village of Muirkirk. Barr assisted his father with his work as a carpenter and builder and was a teacher in Kent County, then in 1873 entered the
Toronto Normal School The Toronto Normal School was a teachers college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1847, the Normal School was located at Church and Gould streets in central Toronto (after 1852), and was a predecessor to the current Ontario Institute for St ...
. After graduating, he taught in Walkerville and in 1874 became headmaster of the Central School at
Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
in 1874. During the 1870s, he wrote humorous pieces for various publications, including the Toronto ''Grip'', under the pseudonym "Luke Sharp", which he took from an
undertaker A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as w ...
's sign. After the ''
Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...
'' serialized his account of a boating trip on
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
, in 1876 he changed careers and became a reporter there, then a columnist. Two of his brothers followed him to the newspaper.


London years

In 1881, by which time he was exchange editor of the ''Free Press'', Barr decided to "vamoose the ranch" and relocated to London to continue his fiction writing career while establishing a weekly English edition of the newspaper. The magazine was very successful. In 1892 he founded the magazine '' The Idler'', choosing
Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue ''Three Men in a Boat'' (1889). Other works include the essay collections '' Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow'' (1886) an ...
as his collaborator (wanting, as Jerome said, "a popular name"). This was also very successful. Barr stepped down as co-editor in 1894, but in 1902 became the sole proprietor and returned as editor. In London in the 1890s, Barr began writing crime novels and became more prolific, publishing a book a year. He also wrote stories of the supernatural. Detective stories were much in vogue because of the popularity of
Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
's
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
stories; Barr published the first Sherlock Holmes parody, "Detective Stories Gone Wrong: The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs" (also known as "The Great Pegram Mystery") in ''The Idler'' in 1892, and followed it in 1894 with "The Adventure of the Second Swag". His 1906 novel ''The triumphs of Eugène Valmont'' parodies Holmes and other "gentleman detectives" whose pompous sleuth is a possible antecedent 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 ...
's
Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and ''Alibi''), and more ...
. Barr socialized widely with other best-selling authors. In 1903, despite initial reservations about taking on the project, he completed ''The O'Ruddy'', a novel left unfinished by his recently deceased friend
Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
. Despite his Holmes satires, he remained on very good terms with Doyle, who described him in the 1920s in his memoir ''Memories and Adventures'' as "a volcanic Anglo—or rather Scot-American, with a violent manner, a wealth of strong adjectives, and one of the kindest natures underneath it all". Barr himself wrote several humorous articles about being a writer, including in 1899 “Literature in Canada” , where he described it as a country whose “average citizen ... loves whiskey better than books".


Writing style

Barr's short stories usually feature a witty narrator and an ironic twist. His novels tend to be episodic, the chapters often linked only by the central character. His work featured a wide range of protagonists, but his characters are often stereotyped. His narration often includes moral and other asides.


Personal life and death

In August 1876, when he was 27, Barr married Ontario-born Eva Bennett, who was 21. They had either two or three children. The 1911 census places Robert Barr, "a writer of fiction", at Hillhead,
Woldingham Woldingham is a village and civil parish high on the North Downs between Oxted and Warlingham in Surrey, England, within the M25, southeast of London. The village has 2,141 inhabitants, many of whom commute to London, making Woldingham part o ...
, Surrey, a village southeast of London, living with his wife, Eva, their son William, and two female servants. He died there from heart disease on 21 October 1912.''The New York Times''. 23 October 1912.''Who's Who 1914'', xxi


Honors

In 1900, Barr was awarded an honorary degree by the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
.


Works

* ''In a Steamer Chair and Other Stories'' (13 short stories, 1892)
Gutenberg Library

Librivox
* "The Face And The Mask" (24 short stories, 1894):
Gutenberg Library
* ''In the Midst of Alarms'' (a story of the 1866 attempted Fenian invasion of Canada, 1893)
Gutenberg Library
* ''From Whose Bourne'' (novel, 1896
Gutenberg LibraryInternet Archive
* ''One Day's Courtship'' (1896
Gutenberg Library
* ''Revenge!'' (20 short stories, 1896
Gutenberg LibraryLibrivox
*''The Strong Arm'
Gutenberg Library
* ''A Woman Intervenes'' (novel, 1896
Gutenberg Library
* ''The Mutable Many'' (1896) * ''Tekla: A Romance of Love and War'' (1898
Gutenberg Library
* ''Jennie Baxter, Journalist'' (1899
Gutenberg Library
* ''The Unchanging East'' (1900) * ''The Victors'' (1901) * ''A Prince of Good Fellows'' (1902
Gutenberg Library
* ''Over The Border: A Romance'' (1903) * ''The O'Ruddy, A Romance'', with
Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
(1903
Gutenberg Library
* ''A Chicago Princess'' (1904) * ''The Speculations of John Steele'' (1905) * ''The Tempestuous Petticoat'' (1905–12) * ''A Rock in the Baltic'' (1906
Gutenberg Library
* ''The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont'' (1906
Gutenberg Library
* '' The Measure of the Rule'' (1907) * ''Young Lord Stranleigh'' (1908) * ''Stranleigh's Millions'' (1909) * ''The Sword Maker'' (historical novel, 1910
Gutenberg LibraryInternet Archive
* ''The Palace of Logs'' (1912) * "The Ambassador's Pigeons" (1899) * "And the Rigor of the Game" (1892) * "Converted" (1896) * "Count Conrad's Courtship" (1896) * "The Count's Apology" (1896) * "A Deal on Change" (1896) * "The Exposure of Lord Stanford" (1896) * "Gentlemen: The King!" * "The Hour-Glass" (1899) * "An invitation" (1892) * "A Ladies Man" * "The Long Ladder" (1899) * "Mrs. Tremain" (1892) *" Transformation" (1896) * "The Understudy" (1896) * " The Vengeance of the Dead" (1896) * "The Bromley Gibbert's Story" (1896) * " Out of Thun" (1896) * "The Shadow of Greenback" (1896) * "Flight of the Red Dog" (fiction) * "Lord Stranleigh Abroad" (1913) * "One Day's Courtship and the Heralds of Fame" (1896) * ''Cardillac''


Sources



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References


External links


Works by or about Robert Barr
at
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*


Electronic editions

* * * *
Works by or about Robert Barr
a
The Literature NetworkSony Reader e-book version of ''The Triumph of Eugene Valmont''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barr, Robert 1850 births 1912 deaths 19th-century Canadian novelists 19th-century Canadian short story writers 19th-century British male writers 19th-century British writers 19th-century Scottish novelists 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian short story writers 20th-century Scottish novelists Canadian male novelists Canadian male short story writers Canadian science fiction writers Detroit Free Press people Scottish male novelists Scottish science fiction writers Scottish short story writers Scottish emigrants to Canada Writers from Glasgow