Fergus Hume

Ferguson Wright Hume (8 July 1859 – 12 July 1932), known as Fergus Hume, was a prolific English novelist.[1]

Fergus Hume (c.1882)

Early life

Hume was born in Powick, Worcestershire, England, the second son of James C. Hume, a Scot and clerk and steward at the County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum there. When he was three the family emigrated to Dunedin, New Zealand, where he was educated at Otago Boys' High School and studied law at the University of Otago. He was admitted to the New Zealand bar in 1885. Shortly after graduation Hume relocated to Melbourne, Australia, where he obtained a job as a barristers' clerk. He began writing plays, but found it impossible to persuade the managers of Melbourne theatres to accept or even to read them.

Rise to fame

Hume first came to attention after a play he had written, entitled The Bigamist was stolen by a rogue called Calthorpe, and presented by him as his own work under the title The Mormon. Finding that the novels of Émile Gaboriau were then very popular in Melbourne, Hume obtained and read a set of them and determined to write a novel of the same kind. The result was The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, set in Melbourne, with descriptions of poor urban life based on his knowledge of Little Bourke Street. It was self-published in 1886 and became a great success. Because he sold the British and American rights for 50 pounds, however, he reaped little of the potential financial benefit. It became the best-selling mystery novel of the Victorian era; in 1990 John Sutherland called it the "most sensationally popular crime and detective novel of the century".[2] This novel inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle remarked, "Hansom Cab was a slight tale, mostly sold by 'puffing'."[3]

After the success of his first novel and the publication of another, Professor Brankel's Secret (c. 1886), Hume returned to England in 1888.[4] His third novel, Madame Midas, was based on the life of the mine and newspaper owner Alice Ann Cornwell. After this book became a play her estranged husband, John Whiteman, sued over its content.[5]

Hume resided in London for a few years and then moved to the Essex countryside where he lived in Thundersley for 30 years. Eventually he produced more than 100 novels and short stories.

Personal life

Hume was homosexual. He was subject to at least one blackmail attempt by a West Indian actor, Antoine Bollars, and also gave money to an actor, Gordon Lawrence, who was later jailed in Melbourne for crossdressing.[6][7]

He had a close friendship with an actor, Philip Beck, with whom he lived, and who later committed suicide. A newspaper report of the time stated that "he sold himself to an actor in return for financial assistance when ill in Melbourne, the consideration being a halfshare in the profits of all books or plays subsequently written by Hume. As the actor was said to have shot himself while sailing for England to enforce his rights, Philip Beck is clearly the man in question."[8]

In 1892 Hume published a homoerotic novel The Island of Fantasy.[9]

His obituary notice in The Times stated that he was a very religious man who during his last years did much lecturing to young people's clubs and debating societies. He lived with a married man, a John Joseph Melville, who was described as 'his companion'.[10] Having sold the copyright of his one bestseller for £50, Hume died in England at 73 on the edge of genteel poverty, leaving £201/6/0d.[11] at Thundersley on 12 July 1932, shortly after completing his last book, The Last Straw.

Works

Individual works

Plays

  • The Bigamist (1887). Hume gave the script to a fraudster, Calthorpe Mallaby, who re-titled the play The Mormon, and presented it under his own name at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1887
  • The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, with Arthur Law (1888)
  • Madame Midas, the Gold Queen, with Philip Beck (1888)
  • In Love and War (1889)
  • The Fool of the Family (1900)

Novels

  • The Golden Idol (Date Unknown)
  • The Dwarf's Chamber (Date Unknown)
  • The Harlequin Opal (Date Unknown)
  • The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886)
  • Professor Brankel's Secret (1886)
  • Madame Midas (1888)
  • The Girl from Malta (1889)
  • The Piccadilly Puzzle (1889)
  • The Gentleman Who Vanished: A Psychological Phantasy (1890); aka The Man Who Vanished
  • Miss Mephistopheles (1890); aka Tracked by Fate
  • The Man with a Secret (1890)
  • The Year of Miracle: A Tale of the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred (1891)
  • A Creature of the Night (1891)
  • Monsieur Judas (1891)
  • When I Lived in Bohemia: Papers Selected from the Portfolio of Peter ---, Esq (1891)
  • Whom God Hath Joined (1891)
  • The Black Carnation (1892)
  • Aladdin in London (1892)
  • The Fever of Life (1892)
  • The Island of Fantasy (1892)
  • The Man with a Secret (1892)
  • The Chinese Jar (1893)
  • The Harlequin Opal (1893)
  • The Nameless City: A Rommany Romance (1893), under the name Stephen Grail, at least in the US[12]
  • A Speck of the Motley (1893)
  • The Lone Inn (1894)
  • The Mystery of Landy Court (1894); aka From Thief to Detective
  • The Best of Her Sex (1894)
  • The Gates of Dawn (1894)
  • A Midnight Mystery (1894)
  • The Third Volume (1894)
  • The Crime of Liza Jane (1895)
  • The White Prior (1895)
  • The Expedition of Captain Flick (1896)
  • The Carbuncle Clue (1896)
  • A Marriage Mystery (1896)
  • Tracked by a Tattoo (1896)
  • Claude Duval of Ninety-Five (1897)
  • The Tombstone Treasure (1897)
  • For the Defence (1898)
  • The Clock Struck One (1898)
  • The Rainbow Feather (1898)
  • The Devil-Stick (1898); aka For the Defense
  • Lady Jezebel (1898)
  • Under One Cover (1898)
  • The Red-Headed Man (1899)
  • The Silent House in Pimlico (1899)
  • The Indian Bangle (1899)
  • The Crimson Cryptogram (1900)
  • Shylock of the River (1900)
  • The Vanishing of Tera (1900)
  • The Bishop's Secret (1900); aka Bishop Pendle
  • The Lady from Nowhere (1900)
  • A Traitor in London (1900)[13]
  • The Millionaire Mystery (1901)
  • The Crime of the Crystal (1901)
  • The Golden Wang-Ho (1901); aka The Secret of the Chinese Jar
  • The Mother of Emeralds (1901)
  • A Woman's Burden (1901)
  • The Pagan's Cup (1902)
  • The Turnpike House (1902)
  • Woman: The Sphinx (1902)
  • A Coin of Edward VII (1903)
  • The Jade Eye (1903)
  • The Silver Bullet (1903)
  • The Yellow Holly (1903)
  • The Guilty House (1903)
  • The Miser's Will (1903)
  • The Mandarin's Fan (1904)
  • The Wheeling Light (1904)
  • The Red Window (1904)
  • The Lonely Church (1904)
  • The White Room (1904)
  • The Secret Passage (1905)
  • Lady Jim of Curzon Street (1905)
  • The Opal Serpent (1905)
  • The Fatal Song (1905)
  • The Scarlet Bat (1905)
  • The Wooden Hand (1905)
  • The Mystery of the Shadow (1906)
  • The Black Patch (1906)
  • Jonah's Luck (1906)
  • The Purple Fern (1907)
  • The Yellow Hunchback (1907)
  • The Amethyst Cross (1908)
  • Flies in the Web (1908)
  • The Sealed Message (1908)
  • The Green Mummy (1908)
  • The Crowned Skull (1908)
  • The Mystery of a Motor Cab (1908)
  • The Sacred Herb (1908)
  • The Devil's Ace (1909)
  • The Solitary Farm (1909)
  • The Top Dog (1909)
  • The Disappearing Eye (1909)
  • The Peacock of Jewels (1910)
  • The Lonely Subaltern (1910)
  • The Mikado Jewel (1910)
  • The Spider (1910)
Cover of a 1907 New York publication of The Silent House (1899)
  • The Steel Crown (1911)
  • High Water Mark (1911)
  • The Jew's House (1911)
  • The Pink Shop (1911)
  • The Rectory Governess (1911)
  • The Mystery Queen (1912)
  • The Blue Talisman (1912)
  • Red Money (1912)
  • Across the Footlights (1912)
  • Mother Mandarin (1912)
  • A Son of Perdition: An Occult Romance (1912)
  • The Curse (1913)
  • In Queer Street (1913)
  • Seen in the Shadow (1913)
  • The Thirteenth Guest (1913)
  • The Lost Parchment (1914)
  • The 4 PM Express (1914)
  • Not Wanted (1914)
  • Answered (1915)
  • The Caretaker (1915)
  • The Red Bicycle (1916)
  • The Grey Doctor (1917)
  • The Silent Signal (1917)
  • Heart of Ice (1918)
  • The Black Image (1918)
  • Next Door (1918)
  • Crazy-Quilt (1919)
  • The Master-Mind (1919)
  • The Dark Avenue (1920)
  • The Other Person (1920)
  • The Singing Head (1920)
  • The Woman Who Held On (1920)
  • Three (1921)
  • The Unexpected (1921)
  • A Trick of Time (1922)
  • The Moth-Woman (1923)
  • The Whispering Lane (1924)
  • The Caravan Mystery (1926). Originally published as a newspaper serial under the title The Caravan Crime (1921)
  • The Second Last Straw (1932)
  • The Last Straw (1932)

Collections of works

  • Chronicles of Faeryland (1892)
  • The Dwarf's Chamber: And Other Stories (1896)
  • Hagar of the Pawn Shop The Gypsy Detective (1898)
  • The Dancer in Red (1906)

See also

References
  1. John Sutherland (1990) [1989]. "Hume, Fergus". The Stanford Companion to Victorian Literature. p. 313.
  2. John Sutherland (1990) [1989]. "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab". The Stanford Companion to Victorian Literature. pp. 454–455.
  3. "Fergus Hume's Startling Story" by Simon Casterton, Inside Story : Books and Arts, 8 May 2012
  4. "Hume, Fergus". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. pp. 893–94.
  5. Griffiths, D. (23 September 2004). Cornwell [other married names Whiteman, Robinson], Alice Ann (1852–1932), goldmining industrialist and newspaper proprietor. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 9 Dec. 2017, see link
  6. Susan Wyndham, A Crime Writer's Secret Life, The Age, 2 March 2016
  7. Peter Pierce, Hansom Cab: Lucy Sussex clears up mystery behind Fergus Hume’s success, The Australian, 4 July 2015
  8. Encore, The Critic (Adelaide), 18 October 1902, p12
  9. Peter Pierce, Hansom Cab: Lucy Sussex clears up mystery behind Fergus Hume’s success, The Australian, 4 July 2015
  10. Lucy Sussex, The Queer Story of Fergus Hume, in Curtis Evans (ed.) Murder in the Closet: Essays on Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before Stonewall (McFarland & Co, 2017.), pp18-32.
  11. Lucy Sussex, The Queer Story of Fergus Hume, in Curtis Evans (ed.) Murder in the Closet: Essays on Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before Stonewall (McFarland & Co, 2017.), pp18-32.
  12. "The nameless city. A Rommany romance". LCCN Permalink. Library of Congress (lccn.loc.gov). Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  13. "Review: A Traitor in London, by Fergus Hume". Westminster Review. 155: 109. 1901.
Other sources
  • Lucy Sussex, The Queer Story of Fergus Hume, in: Curtis Evans (ed.) Murder in the Closet: Essays on Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before Stonewall (McFarland & Co, 2017.)
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