William Fryer Harvey AM (14 April 1885 – 4 June 1937), known as W. F. Harvey, was an English writer of short stories, most notably in the macabre and horror genres. Among his best-known stories are " August Heat" and "The Beast with Five Fingers", described by horror historian

Les Daniels Leslie Noel Daniels III, better known as Les Daniels (October 27, 1943 – November 5, 2011), was an American writer. Background Daniels attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he wrote his master's thesis on ''Frankenstei ...

as "minor masterpieces". Dalby, Richard (1985). "William Fryer Harvey". In Bleiler, E. F., ed., ''Supernatural Fiction Writers''. New York: Scribner's. pp. 591–596.

Biography

Born into a wealthy Quaker family in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, he attended the Quaker

Bootham School Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19, and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The schoo ...

in Yorkshire and Leighton Park School in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

before going on to Balliol College, Oxford. He took a degree in medicine at

. Ill health dogged him, however, and he devoted himself to personal projects such as his first book of short stories, ''Midnight House'' (1910). In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he initially joined the

Friends' Ambulance Unit The Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) was a volunteer ambulance service, founded by individual members of the British Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), in line with their Peace Testimony. The FAU operated from 1914–1919, 1939–1946 and 19 ...

, but later served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

, and received the

Albert Medal for Lifesaving The Albert Medal for Lifesaving was a British medal awarded to recognize the saving of life. It has since been replaced by the George Cross. The Albert Medal was first instituted by a royal warrant on 7 March 1866. It was named in memory of P ...

.Bowers, Bill, ed. (2003). ''Classic Ghost Stories: Eighteen Spine-Chilling Tales of Terror and the Supernatural''. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. p. 382. Lung damage received during the rescue leading to the award troubled him for the rest of his life, but he continued to write both short stories and his cheerful and good-natured memoir ''We Were Seven''. Harvey was a practising Quaker. William Fryer Harvey Grave Letchworth

Before the war he had shown interest in adult education, on the staff of the Working Men's College, Fircroft,

Selly Oak Selly Oak is an industrial and residential area in south-west Birmingham, England. The area gives its name to Selly Oak ward and includes the neighbourhoods of: Bournbrook, Selly Park, and Ten Acres. The adjoining wards of Edgbaston and Harborn ...

, Birmingham. He returned to Fircroft in 1920, becoming Warden, but by 1925 ill-health forced his retirement. In 1928 he published a second collection of short stories, ''The Beast with Five Fingers,'' and in 1933 he published a third, ''Moods and Tenses.'' He lived in Switzerland with his wife for much of this time, but nostalgia for his home country caused his return to England. He moved to

Letchworth Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249. Letchworth ...

in 1935 and died there in 1937 at the age of 52. After a funeral service at the local

Friends Meeting House A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where meeting for worship is usually held. Typically, Friends meeting houses are simple and resemble local residential buildings. Steeples, spires, and ...

Harvey was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Old Letchworth. The release of the film ''

The Beast with Five Fingers ''The Beast with Five Fingers'' is a 1946 mystery horror film directed by Robert Florey from a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on a short story written by W. F. Harvey and first published in 1919 in ''The New Decameron''. The film stars Robe ...

'' (1946), directed by

Robert Florey Robert Florey (14 September 1900 – 16 May 1979) was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor. Born as Robert Fuchs in Paris, he became an orphan at an early age and was then raised in Switzerland. In 1920 he worked a ...

and starring

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...

, inspired by what was perhaps his most famous and praised short story, caused a resurgence of interest in Harvey's work. In 1951 a posthumous fourth collection of his stories, ''The Arm of Mrs Egan and Other Stories'', appeared, including a set of twelve stories left in manuscript at the time of his death, headed "Twelve Strange Cases". In 2009 Wordsworth Editions printed an omnibus volume of Harvey's stories, titled ''The Beast with Five Fingers'', in its Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural series (). The volume contains 45 stories and an introduction by

David Stuart Davies David Stuart Davies (born 1946) is a British writer. He worked as a teacher of English before becoming a full-time editor, writer, and playwright. Davies has written extensively about Sherlock Holmes, both fiction and non-fiction. He is the edi ...

Publications

* ''Midnight House and Other Tales'' (1910) * ''The Misadventures of Athelstan Digby'' (1920) * ''A Conversation About God'' (1923), with William Fearon Halliday * ''The Beast with Five Fingers and Other Tales'' (1928) * ''Quaker Byways and Other Papers'' (1929) * ''Moods and Tenses: Tales'' (1933) * ''The Mysterious Mr. Badman'' (1934) * ''John Rutty of Dublin, Quaker Physician'' (1934), reprinted from ''The Friends' Quarterly Examiner'' * ''We Were Seven'' (1936) * ''Caprimulgus'' (1936) * ''Mr. Murray and the Boococks'' (1938) * ''Midnight Tales'' (1946) – a selection of twenty macabre tales from earlier collections, published by J. M. Dent * ''The Arm of Mrs. Egan and Other Stories'' (1951) – previously uncollected stories, mainly mysteries, published by J. M. Dent * ''The Double Eye'' (2009), introduction by

Richard Dalby Richard Lawrence Dalby (15 April 1949 – 4 May 2017) was an editor and literary researcher noted for his anthologies of ghost stories. Early life Richard Dalby was born in London on 15 April 1949 to Tom, a publishing editor, and Nancy, an amate ...

* ''The Beast with Five Fingers: Supernatural Stories'' (2009), selected and introduced by David Stuart Davies, published by Wordsworth Editions

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Wf Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford English short story writers English memoirists English horror writers Ghost story writers English Quakers 1885 births 1937 deaths Writers from Leeds Recipients of the Albert Medal (lifesaving) People associated with the Friends' Ambulance Unit Burials in Hertfordshire People educated at Bootham School People educated at Leighton Park School

Biography

Publications

References

Further reading

External links