Hugh Stowell Scott

Hugh Stowell Scott (9 May 1862 – 19 November 1903)[1][2] was a prominent English novelist who used the pseudonym Henry Seton Merriman. His most successful novel was The Sowers (1896), which went through thirty UK editions.[3][4]

Life

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne,[5] he became an underwriter at Lloyd's of London, but then devoted himself to travel and to writing novels, many of which had great popularity. Scott visited India as a tourist in 1877–1878 and set his novel Flotsam (1896) there.[6] He was an enthusiastic traveller, many of his journeys being undertaken with his friend and fellow author Stanley J. Weyman.[7]

Scott married Ethel Frances Hall (1865–1943) on 19 June 1889.[8] The couple had no children.

Scott was unusually modest and retiring in character. He died of appendicitis in 1903, aged 41, at Melton, Suffolk.[9][7]

In his will, Scott left £5000 to Evelyn Beatrice Hall, his sister-in-law and fellow writer, best known for her biographical work The Friends of Voltaire, writing that the legacy was "in token of my gratitude for her continued assistance and literary advice, without which I should never have been able to have made a living by my pen."[10]

Novels

His first novel, Young Mistley was published anonymously in 1888.[11] His other novels include The Phantom Future (the only novel of his set entirely in England, 1889), The Slave of the Lamp (1892), From One Generation to Another (1892), The Sowers (generally considered his best, set in Russia, where it was banned) (1896), In Kedar's Tents (1897),[12] Roden's Corner (1898), Suspense, Dross (1899), With Edged Tools (a bestseller in 1894), Grey Lady, Isle of Unrest (1900), The Velvet Glove, The Vultures (1902), Queen (1903), Barlasch of the Guard (1903) and The Last Hope (1904). He worked with great care, and his best books held a high place in Victorian fiction.

Bibliography
  • Young Mistley (1888)
  • The Phantom Future (1888)
  • The Slave of the Lamp (1892)
  • From One Generation to Another (1892)
  • A Small World (1900)
  • In a Crooked Way
  • The Tale of a Scorpion
  • On the Rocks (1898)
  • Golossa-a-l
  • The Mule
  • In Love and War
  • Roden's Corner (1898)
  • Suspense (1899)
  • Dross (1899)
  • Tomaso's Fortune (1899)
  • Stranded
  • Putting Things Right (1894)
  • For Juanita's Sake
  • At the Front (1894)
  • The End of the "Mooroo"
  • In a Caravan (1893)
  • In the Track of the Wandering Jew (1895)
  • Through the Gate of Tears (1896)
  • The Sowers (1896)
  • A Pariah (1896)
  • The Prodigal's Return (1896)
  • In Kedar's Tents (1897)
  • Magazine Stories Uncollected
  • Well Meant (1892)
  • Sister (1892)
  • A Pair of Dark Horses (1893)
  • In Countermine B (1893)
  • The Slowcoach (1893)
  • The Panther (1894)
  • The Haunted Hand (1894)
  • Crab-Appleby (1894)
  • Hand and Heart (1894)
  • A Friend in Need (1895)
  • The Lie That Tony Told (1895)
  • "The Morning Star" (1895)
  • The Carnival in Spain (1896)
  • Last Year's Nest (1896)
  • On the Brink (1896)
  • Of This Generation (1896)
  • After Many Days (1897)
  • In the Valley of Repose (1898)
  • Grey Lady (1900)
  • Isle of Unrest (1900)
  • An Old Custom (1901)
  • The Velvet Glove (1902)
  • The Vultures (1902)
  • Queen (1903)
  • Barlasch of the Guard (1903)
  • The Last Hope (1904)

References
  1. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  2. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  3. Cox, Homer T. (1967). Henry Seton Merriman (Twayne's English Authors Series). New York: Twayne Publishers.
  4. Seccombe, Thomas; rev. Mills, Rebecca (2004). "Scott, Hugh Stowell (1862–1903)". In Mills, Rebecca (ed.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35988. Retrieved 2 May 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) (registration required)
  5. . Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  6. . Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  7. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Merriman, Henry Seton" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 173.
  8. "Ethel Frances Hall". Cobbold Family History Trust. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  9. . Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  10. The Advertiser, (Adelaide, SA) March 09, 1904
  11. The Concise Dictionary of National Biography. Twentieth Century 1901–1903 (London: Oxford University Press).
  12. "Review: In Kedar's Tents by Henry Seton Merriman". The Athenæum (3654): 629–630. 6 November 1897.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.

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