The Busiest Man in England

Grant Allen and the Writing Trade, 1875-1900
1. Auflage 2005
ISBN: 978-1-349-52939-1
Verlag: Springer Nature B.V.

Buch, Englisch, 251 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 407 g

This book is a critical biography of Grant Allen, (1848-1899), the first for a century, based on all the surviving primary sources. Born in Kingston, Ontario, into a cultured and affluent family, Allen was educated in France and England. A mysterious marriage while he was an Oxford undergraduate wrecked his academic career and radicalized his views on sexual and marital questions, as did a three-year teaching stint in Jamaica. Despite his lifelong ill health and short life, Allen was a writer of extraordinary productivity and range. About half - more than 30 books and many hundreds of articles - reflects interests which ran from Darwinian biology to cultural travel guides. His prosperity, however, was underpinned by fiction; more than 30 novels, including The Woman Who Did, which has attracted much recent attention from feminist critics and historians. The Better End of Grub Street uses Allen's career to examine the role and status of the freelance author/journalist in the late-Victorian period. Allen's career delineates what it took to succeed in this notoriously tough profession.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Morton, P.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Prosa, Erzählung, Roman, Prosaautoren
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: 'The Most Hateful of Professions' Canada and Oxford (1848-1873) Jamaica (1873-1876) Setting Out the Stall (1876-1880) 'A Pedlar Crying Stuff': Selling the Wares (1880-1889) The Stock in Trade: Writing Science The Stock in Trade: Light Fiction The Prosperous Tradesman (1890-1895) Dealing With the 'Dissenting Grocer' Retailing The Woman Who Did Last Orders (1896-1899) 'We of the Proletariate.' Abbreviations in the Notes Notes and References Bibliography Index

Über Autor(innen)

PETER MORTON currently teaches in the School of Humanities at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. His previous books include , a study of Darwinism and the literary imagination; and , a history of early modern Adelaide. Morton also served as scientific historian to the Australian government for three years while writing the prizewinning , the story of the Anglo-Australian joint project that established the rocket town of Woomera in the 1940s.