Hugh Conway

Hugh Conway, the pen name of Frederick John Fargus (26 December 1847 – 15 May 1885), was an English novelist born in Bristol, the son of an auctioneer. He had success with his fiction in the early 1880s.

This article is about the English novelist. For the Irish politician, see Hugh Conway (Lord Treasurer). For the labor economics academic, see Hugh E. Conway.

Life

Fargus was intended for his father's business, but at the age of 13 joined the school ship Conway in the Mersey, lent by the Admiralty for training future merchant navy officers. In deference to his father's wishes, however, he gave up the idea of becoming a seaman. He returned to Bristol, where he was articled to a firm of accountants until his father's death in 1868, when he took over the family auctioneering business.[1] He married Amy Spark, daughter of a Bristol alderman, on 26 August 1871. They had three sons and a daughter.[2] One son, Archibald, was a first-class cricketer, scholar and clergyman.[3]

Works

While a clerk Fargus had written the words for various songs, adopting the pen name Hugh Conway in memory of his training-ship days. James Williams Arrowsmith, a Bristol printer and publisher, took an interest in his work – Fargus's first short story appeared in Arrowsmith's Miscellany.[1] In 1883 Fargus published through Arrowsmith his first novella, Called Back, an early thriller of which over 350,000 copies were sold within four years. One admirer of the book was the American poet Emily Dickinson. A stage version of it was produced in London in 1884, and in that year Fargus published another story, Dark Days.[1]

Ordered to the Riviera for his health, Fargus caught typhoid fever and died in Monte Carlo.[1] He was buried in Nice. Several other books by him appeared posthumously, notably A Family Affair,[1] which was serialized in the English Illustrated Magazine in 1884–1885 and first published in volume form in 1885.[4][5]

Long after his death, one of his novels was filmed as The Last Rose of Summer (1920).

Short stories

• The Daughter of the Stars
  • 1881, Thirteen at Table, Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual 1881
• The Secret of the Stradivarius
  • 1881 December, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 130, pp. 771–784
• The Bandsman's Story
  • 1882 April, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 131, pp. 491–504
• A Speculative Spirit
  • 1882 June 3, All the Year Round, Vol. 49, pp. 373–377
• A Cabinet Secret
  • 1882 December 9, All the Year Round, Vol. 50, pp. 469–475
• Fleurette
  • 1883 April, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 133, pp. 512–523
• The Blatchford Bequest
  • 1883 November 3, 10, 17 and 24, Chambers's Journal, Vol. 60, pp. 699 ff., 713 ff., 729 ff. and 744 ff.
• My First Client
  • 1883 December, Bristol Times and Mirror
• Miss Rivers's Revenge
  • 1883 December 1, 8 and 15, Chambers's Journal Vol. 60, pp. 762 ff., 778 ff. and 793 ff.

———

• Bound Together. Tales, 2 vols (1884)
• The Secret of the Stradivarius (1881)
• Fleurette (1883)
• A Cabinet Secret (1882)
• The Bandsman's Story (1882)
• The Blatchford Bequest (1883)
• My First Client (1883)
• Our Last Walk
• Miss Rivers's Revenge (1883)
• The Daughter of the Stars (1881)
• In One Short Year!
• The Truth of It
• A Speculative Spirit (1882)

———

• Paul Vargas
  • 1884 April, The English Illustrated Magazine Vol. 1, pp. 439–449
• Chewton-Abbot
  • 1884 May 3, 10 and 17, Chambers's Journal Vol. 61, pp. 280 ff., 295 ff. and 315 ff.
• The "Bichwa"
  • 1884, Bristol Times and Mirror Christmas Number
• A Dead Man's Face
  • 1884 December, Harper's New Monthly Magazine Vol. 70, pp. 143–152
• Julian Vanneck
  • 1884, Society Winter Number
• A Genuine Ghost
  • 1884, London Figaro Christmas Number
  • 1885 January 25, @ GenealogyBank
  • 1885 Feb 7, @ PapersPast
  • 1885 Feb 21, @ PapersPast
• "Somebody's" Story
  • 1884, Shakspearean Show Book, pp. 3–12
• Carriston's Gift
  • 1885, The Graphic Summer Number, pp. 4–28

———

• Carriston's Gift and Other Tales (1885, New York)
• Carriston's Gift (1885)
• Chewton-Abbot (1884)
• Paul Vargas (1884)
• A Dead Man's Face (1884)
• Julian Vanneck (1884)
• The "Bichwa" (1884)

———

• At What a Cost!
  • 1885 August 22, Sheffield & Rotherham Independent
  • 1885 September 18, The Nottinghamshire Guardian
• The Story of a Sculptor
  • 1885 August 29, September 5 and 12, Sheffield & Rotherham Independent
  • 1885 August 28, September 4 and 11, The Nottinghamshire Guardian
• Capital Wine
  • 1885 September 19, Sheffield & Rotherham Independent
  • 1885 September 25, The Nottinghamshire Guardian

———

• At What Cost, and Other Stories [1885]
• At What Cost (1885, as At What a Cost!)
• The Story of a Sculptor (1885)
• Capital Wine (1885)

———

• A Fresh Start
  • 1886 June 12, 19, @ Trove
  • 1887 June 24, @ Trove (as A Hasty Marriage)
  • 1887 August 4, @ Trove (as A Hasty Marriage)
  • 1888 March 13, @ Trove (as A Hasty Marriage)
  • 1893 October 12, @ Trove (as A Hasty Marriage)
  • 1893 October 20, @ Trove (as A Hasty Marriage)

———

• Carriston's Gift... [1886]
• Carriston's Gift (1885)
• A Fresh Start (1886, @ Trove)
• Julian Vanneck (1884)
• A Dead Man's Face (1884)

———

References

1. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Conway, Hugh" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 69.
2. ODNB entry by Charles Kent, rev. Graham Law. Retrieved 18 November 2013. Pay-walled.
3. "Bristol Farguses". Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
4. Bookseller 1888, p. 156. Hachette publishes French translation of Hugh Conway's posthumous 1886 novel Living or Dead as Vivant ou Mort.
5. XIX Century Fiction. Part I: A–K. Jarndyce Bloomsbury, 2019.

Other sources

• Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers, London. Catalogue CLXXXVII, Spring 2010: Novels & Tales 1748–1926.
• Bristol Archives. Accessed 20 March 2017.

External links

• Hugh Conway at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Hugh Conway at Library of Congress Authorities, with 42 catalogue records