Edward Frederic Benson (24 July 1867 – 29 February 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and short story writer.
Early life
E. F. Benson was born at Wellington College in Berkshire, the fifth child of the headmaster, Edward White Benson (later chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, Bishop of Truro and Archbishop of Canterbury), and his wife born Mary Sidgwick ("Minnie").
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of Arthur Christopher Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson (Maggie), an author and amateur Egyptologist. Two other siblings died young. Benson's parents had six children and no grandchildren.
Benson was educated at Temple Grove School, then at Marlborough College, where he wrote some of his earliest works and upon which he based his novel David Blaize. He continued his education at King's College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was a member of the Pitt Club, and later in life he became an honorary fellow of Magdalene College.
Works
Benson's first book was Sketches from Marlborough (1888), published while he was a student. He started his novel-writing career with the (then) fashionably controversial Dodo (1893), which was an instant success, and followed it with a variety of satire and romantic and supernatural melodrama. He repeated the success of Dodo, which featured a scathing description of composer and militant suffragette Ethel Smyth, with the same cast of characters a generation later: Dodo the Second (1914), "a unique chronicle of the pre-1914 Bright Young Things" and Dodo Wonders (1921), "a first-hand social history of the Great War in Mayfair and the Shires".Introduction by Prunella Scales to Dodo: An Omnibus. Introduction in 1986 edition from The Hogarth Press. Original publication of novels 1893, 1914, 1921.
The Mapp and Lucia series, written relatively late in his career, consists of six novels and two short stories. The novels are: Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp, Lucia in London, Mapp and Lucia, Lucia's Progress (published as The Worshipful Lucia in the United States) and Trouble for Lucia. The short stories are "The Male Impersonator" and "Desirable Residences". Both appear in anthologies of Benson's short stories, and the former is also often appended to the end of the novel Miss Mapp.
Benson was also known as a writer of atmospheric and at times humorous or satirical ghost stories, which often were published in story magazines such as Pearson's Magazine or Hutchinson's Magazine, twenty of which were illustrated by Edmund Blampied. These "spook stories", as he called them, were reprinted in collections by his principal publisher Walter Hutchinson. His 1906 short story "The Bus-Conductor", a fatal-crash premonition tale about a person haunted by a hearse driver, has been adapted several times.
Benson's story David Blaize and the Blue Door (1918) is a children's fantasy influenced by the work of Lewis Carroll.Morgan, Chris, "E. F. Benson" in, E. F. Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985. pp.491–496. "Mr Tilly's Seance" is a witty and amusing story about a man flattened by a traction engine who finds himself dead and conscious on the 'other side'. Other notable stories are the eerie "The Room in the Tower" and "Pirates".
Benson is known for a series of biographies/autobiographies and memoirs, including one of Charlotte Brontë. His last book, delivered to his publisher ten days before his death, was an autobiography titled Final Edition.
Links to Rye, East Sussex
The principal setting of four of the Mapp and Lucia books is a town named Tilling, which is recognizably based on Rye, East Sussex, where Benson lived from 1918 and served as mayor from 1934. Benson's home, Lamb House, served as the model for Mallards, Mapp's – and ultimately Lucia's – home in some of the Tilling series. There really was a handsome "Garden Room" adjoining the street but it was destroyed by a bomb during the Second World War. Lamb House attracted writers: it was earlier the home of Henry James, and later of Rumer Godden.
He donated a church window of the main parish church in Rye, St Mary's, in memory of his brother, as well as providing a gift of a viewing platform overlooking the Town Salts. His dog, Taffy, is featured in the stained glass window. Taffy is buried in a corner of the garden at Lamb House Henry James & Lamb House, East Sussex (National Trust Guidebooks 1999) by Oliver Garnett (Author)ISBN-13 : 978-1843591771.
Personal life Benson was an intensely discreet homosexual.Aldrich, Robert; Wotherspoon, Garry: Who's Who In Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II, Routledge, p49 At Cambridge, he fell in love with several fellow students, including Vincent Yorke (father of the novelist Henry Green), about whom he confided to his diary, "I feel perfectly mad about him just now... Ah, if only he knew, and yet I think he does."Masters, Brian "The Life of E. F. Benson", Chatto & Windus, 1992, p86 In later life, Benson maintained friendships with a wide circle of homosexual men and shared a villa on the Italian island of Capri with John Ellingham Brooks;Palmer, Geoffrey: E. F. Benson, As He Was, Lennard Pub, 1988 before the First World War, the island had been popular with wealthy homosexual men. It is unclear though if he engaged with homosexual contacts there, as he seems to have rejected casual contacts. He lived for some years with American artist George Wolfe Plank, who worked for Vogue magazine, at his home in Rye.
Homoeroticism and a general homosexual sensibility suffuse his literary works, such as David Blaize (1916), and his most popular works are famed for their wry and dry camp humour and social observations.
In London he lived at 395 Oxford Street, W1, now a branch of Russell & Bromley just west of Bond Street Underground Station, 102 Oakley Street, SW3, and 25 Brompton Square, SW3, where much of the action of Lucia in London and Secret Lives occurs and where English Heritage placed a Blue Plaque in 1994.
Death Benson died on 29 February 1940 of throat cancer at University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Bibliography Novels Dodo trilogy: Dodo: A Detail of the Day (1893) Dodo's Daughter (1913; published in the UK as Dodo the Second) Dodo Wonders (1921)
David Blaize series: David Blaize (1916) David Blaize and the Blue Door (1918) David of King's (1924; published in the United States as David Blaize of King's)
Mapp and Lucia series: Queen Lucia (1920) Miss Mapp (1922 [UK]; published in the United States 1923) Lucia in London (1927 [UK]; published in the United States 1928) Mapp and Lucia (1931) Lucia's Progress (1935; published in the United States as The Worshipful Lucia) Trouble for Lucia (1939)
Colin series: Colin: A Novel (1923) Colin II (1925)
Self-contained novels:
The Rubicon (novel)|The Rubicon (1894) The Judgement Books (novella, 1895) Limitations (Benson novel) (1896) The Babe, B.A. (1897) The Money Market (1898) (1898) The Capsina (1899) Mammon and Co. (1899) The Princess Sophia (1900) The Luck of the Vails (1901) Scarlet and Hyssop (1902) An Act in a Backwater (1903) The Book of Months (1903) (1903) The Valkyries (1903) The Challoners (1904) The Angel of Pain (1905 [USA]; published in the UK 1906) The Image in the Sand (1905) The House of Defence (1906) Paul (1906) Sheaves (1907) The Blotting Book (1908) (1908) A Reaping (1909) (A sequel to The Book of Months) Daisy's Aunt (1910; published in the United States as The Fascinating Mrs. Halton) Margery (1910; published in the UK as Juggernaut) The Osbornes (1910) Account Rendered (1911) Mrs. Ames (1912) Thorley Weir (1913) The Weaker Vessel (1913) Arundel (1914) The Oakleyites (1915) Mike (1916 [UK]; published in the United States as Michael) An Autumn Sowing (1917) Mr. Teddy (1917 [UK]; published in the United States as The Tortoise) Up and Down (1918) (1919) Robin Linnet (1919) Lovers and Friends (1921) Peter (1922) Alan (1924) Rex (1925) Mezzanine (1926) Pharisees and Publicans (1926) Paying Guests (1929) The Inheritor (1930) Secret Lives (1932) As We Are, A Modern Revue (1932) Travail of Gold (1933) Ravens' Brood (1934)
Short stories "Adjustments" (Munsey's Magazine April 1923) "The Alliance of Laughter" (Scribner's Magazine December 1902) "And No Bird Sings" (Woman December 1926) "And the Dead Spake—" (Hutchinson's Magazine October 1922) "The Ape" (The Story-teller May 1917) "At Abdul Ali's Grave" (The Graphic 24 June 1899, as "A Curious Coincidence") "At King's Cross Station" (Six Common Things, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893) "Atmospherics" (The Radio Times 28 December 1928) "At the Farmhouse" (Hutchinson's Magazine March 1923) "Aunts and Pianos" (The Windsor Magazine August 1926) "Autumn and Love" (Six Common Things, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893) "Bagnell Terrace" (Hutchinson's Magazine July 1925) "The Bath-Chair" (More Spook Stories by E. F. Benson, Hutchinson, 1934) "The Bed by the Window" (Hutchinson's Story-Magazine July 1929) "Between the Lights" (The Room in the Tower and Other Stories by E. F. Benson, Mills Boon, 1912) "Blue Stripe" (Six Common Things, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893) "The Box at the Bank" (Hutchinson's Magazine March 1928) "Boxing Night" (The Tatler 30 November 1923) "The Bread of Deceit" (Ainslee's Magazine October 1903) "A Breath of Scandal" (The Story-teller July 1932) "The Brick [Dodo]" (The Home Magazine (UK) March 1923) "Bully" (The Windsor Magazine November 1915) "Buntingford Jugs" (The Windsor Magazine December 1925) "The Bus Conductor" (The Pall Mall Magazine December 1906) "By the Sluice" (The Tatler 25 March 1927) "By the Waters of Sparta" (Temple Bar August 1903) "The Call" (The Radio Times 17 December 1926) "Carrington" (Six Common Things, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893) "The Case of Bertram Porter" (The Windsor Magazine March 1911) "The Case of Frank Hampden" (Pearson's Magazine December 1915, as "The Return of Frank Hampden") "The Cat" (The Illustrated London News 27 November 1905) "Caterpillars" (The Room in the Tower and Other Stories by E. F. Benson, Mills Boon, 1912) "The China Bowl" (Pearson's Magazine December 1916) "The Chippendale Mirror" (Pearson's Magazine May 1915) "Christmas with the Old Masters" (Hutchinson's Magazine December 1922) "Christopher Comes Back" (Hutchinson's Magazine May 1929) "The Clandon Crystal" (The Onlooker 23 November 1901) "A Comedy of Styles" (The Windsor Magazine February 1914) "Complementary Souls" (Cassell's Magazine September 1925) "The Confession of Charles Linkworth" (The Cavalier and the Scrap Book 13 January 1912) "The Corner House" (Woman May 1926) "Corstophine" (Hutchinson's Magazine September 1924) "The Countess of Lowndes Square" (The Pall Mall Magazine October 1910) "A Creed of Manners" (Phil May's Annual #4, Winter 1894) "The Dance" (More Spook Stories by E. F. Benson, Hutchinson, 1934) "The Dance on the Beefsteak" (Temple Bar September 1902) "Dark and Nameless" (Hutchinson's Magazine November 1924, as "The Temple") "The Death Warrant" (Six Common Things, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893) "The Defeat of Lady Grantham" (Six Common Things, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893) "Dewan-I-Khas" (The Century Magazine June 1914) "Dicky's Pain" (The Windsor Magazine April 1927) "The Disappearance of Jacob Conifer" (The Windsor Magazine October 1927) "Dives and Lazarus" (The New Statesman and Nation 12 August 1939) "Dr. Drage's Dilemma" (Nash's Magazine September 1909) "Dodo and the Maharajah [Dodo]" (Hearst's International June 1921) "Doggies" (The Windsor Magazine January 1928) "Donald Murray's Romance" (Lippincott's Monthly Magazine September 1899) "A Double Misfit" (Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly August 1902) "The Drawing-Room Bureau" (The Woman at Home December 1915) "Dummy on a Dahabeah" (Weekly Welcome 1 June 1896, as "Cherry Blossom")