E. F. Benson


Edward Frederic Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and short story writer.
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Early life

E. F. Benson was born at Wellington College in Berkshire, the fifth child of the headmaster, Edward White Benson, and his wife born Mary Sidgwick.
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, 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 was a precocious and prolific writer. His first book was Sketches from Marlborough, published while he was a student. He started his novel-writing career with the fashionably controversial Dodo, 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, "a unique chronicle of the pre-1914 Bright Young Things" and Dodo Wonders, "a first-hand social history of the Great War in Mayfair and the Shires".
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 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 is a children's fantasy influenced by the work of Lewis Carroll. "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.

Personal life

Benson was an intensely discreet homosexual. At Cambridge, he fell in love with several fellow students, including Vincent Yorke, 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." 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; before the First World War, the island had been popular with wealthy homosexual men.
Homoeroticism and a general homosexual sensibility suffuse his literary works, such as David Blaize, 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.

Novels

Dodo trilogy:
  1. Dodo: A Detail of the Day
  2. '
  3. '
David Blaize series:
  1. David Blaize
  2. '
  3. David of King's
Mapp and Lucia series:
  1. Queen Lucia
  2. Miss Mapp
  3. Lucia in London
  4. Mapp and Lucia
  5. Lucia's Progress
  6. Trouble for Lucia
Colin series:
  1. '
  2. Colin II
Self-contained novels:The Rubicon |The Rubicon The Judgement Books Limitations The Babe, B.A. The Money Market The Capsina '

Short stories

  • "Adjustments"
  • "The Alliance of Laughter"
  • "And No Bird Sings"
  • "And the Dead Spake—"
  • "The Ape"
  • "At Abdul Ali's Grave"
  • "At King's Cross Station"
  • "Atmospherics"
  • "At the Farmhouse"
  • "Aunts and Pianos"
  • "Autumn and Love"
  • "Bagnell Terrace"
  • "The Bath-Chair"
  • "The Bed by the Window"
  • "Between the Lights"
  • "Blue Stripe"
  • "The Box at the Bank"
  • "Boxing Night"
  • "The Bread of Deceit"
  • "A Breath of Scandal"
  • "The Brick "
  • "Bully"
  • "Buntingford Jugs"
  • "The Bus Conductor"
  • "By the Sluice"
  • "By the Waters of Sparta"
  • "The Call"
  • "Carrington"
  • "The Case of Bertram Porter"
  • "The Case of Frank Hampden"
  • "The Cat"
  • "Caterpillars"
  • "The China Bowl"
  • "The Chippendale Mirror"
  • "Christmas with the Old Masters"
  • "Christopher Comes Back"
  • "The Clandon Crystal"
  • "A Comedy of Styles"
  • "Complementary Souls"
  • "The Confession of Charles Linkworth"
  • "The Corner House"
  • "Corstophine"
  • "The Countess of Lowndes Square"
  • "A Creed of Manners"
  • "The Dance"
  • "The Dance on the Beefsteak"
  • "Dark and Nameless"
  • "The Death Warrant"
  • "The Defeat of Lady Grantham"
  • "Dewan-I-Khas"
  • "Dicky's Pain"
  • "The Disappearance of Jacob Conifer"
  • "Dives and Lazarus"
  • "Dr. Drage's Dilemma"
  • "Dodo and the Maharajah "
  • "Doggies"
  • "Donald Murray's Romance"
  • "A Double Misfit"
  • "The Drawing-Room Bureau"
  • "Dummy on a Dahabeah"
  • "The Dust-Cloud"
  • "Entomology"
  • "The Everlasting Silence"
  • "Expiation"
  • "The Exposure of Pamela"
  • "The Face"
  • "The False Step"
  • "Femme Dispose"
  • "For His Friends"
  • "The Friend in the Garden"
  • "The Gardener"
  • "The Garden Gate"
  • "Gare du Nord"
  • "Gavon's Eve"
  • "Guy's Candidate"
  • "The Hanging of Alfred Wadham"
  • "The Hapless Bachelors"
  • "The Harmonious Blacksmith"
  • "Highness"
  • "Home Sweet Home"
  • "The Horror-Horn"
  • "Household Books"
  • "The House with the Brick-Kiln"
  • "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery"
  • "Inscrutable Decrees"
  • "In the Dark"
  • "In the Tube"
  • "Jack and Poll"
  • "James Lamp"
  • "Julian's Cottage"
  • "The Lesson"
  • "The Letters of Anthony Noble"
  • "The Light in the Garden"
  • "The Limoges Manuscript"
  • "Love's Apostate"
  • "Machaon"
  • "Middleman"
  • "Miss Maria's Romance"
  • "Mr. Tilly's Séance"
  • "M.O.M."
  • "Monkeys"
  • "Mrs. Amworth"
  • "Mrs. Andrews's Control"
  • "Mrs. Naseby's Denial"
  • "Music"
  • "My Friend the Murderer"
  • "Naboth's Vineyard"
  • "Negotium Perambulans"
  • "Noblesse Oblige"
  • "Number 12"
  • "The Old Bligh"
  • "The Osborne Year"
  • "The Other Bed"
  • "Outside the Door"
  • "The Overture to 'Tannhauser'"
  • "A Pair of Chelsea Figures"
  • "The Passenger"
  • "The Peerage Cure"
  • "Philip's Safety Razor"
  • "Pirates"
  • "Poor Miss Huntingford"
  • "Professor Burnaby's Discovery"
  • "The Progress of Princess Waldeneck "
  • "The Psychical Mallards"
  • "The Puce Silk"
  • "Puss-Cat"
  • "The Queen of the Spa"
  • "Queen's Pawn Gambit"
  • "Reconciliation"
  • "The Red House"
  • "The Renewal"
  • "The Return of Dodo "
  • "The Return of Sherlock Holmes "
  • "The Return of the Probationer"
  • "Revolt in the Temple"
  • "Roderick's Story"
  • "The Room in the Tower"
  • "The Satyr's Sandals"
  • "The Sea-Green Incorruptible"
  • "Sea Mist"
  • "The Shootings of Achnaleish"
  • "The Shuttered Room"
  • "The Simple Life"
  • "Smorfia"
  • "The Snow-Stone"
  • "The Sound of the Grinding"
  • "Spinach"
  • "Starfish and Sea Lavender "
  • "The Story of a Mazurka"
  • "The Superannuation Department, A.D. 1945"
  • "A Superfluous Loyalist"
  • "The Tale of an Empty House"
  • "The Terror by Night"
  • "The Three Old Ladies"
  • "Through"
  • "Thursday Evenings" "Pears' Annual 1920"
  • "To Account Rendered"
  • "The Top Landing"
  • "The Tragedy of a Green Totem"
  • "The Tragedy of Oliver Bowman"
  • "Two Days After"
  • "What Came Into the Long Gallery"
  • "A Winter Morning"
  • "The Wishing-Well"
  • "The Witch-Ball"
  • "The Woman in the Veil"
  • "A Woman's Ambition"
  • "Young Marling"
  • "The Zoo"

Collections and uncollected short stories

Collections:Six Common Things, collection of 16 short stories:
  • : "Once", "Autumn and Love", "Two Days After", "Carrington", "Jack and Poll", "At King's Cross Station", "The Sound of the Grinding", "Blue Stripe", "A Winter Morning", "The Zoo", "The Three Old Ladies", "Like a Grammarian", "Poor Miss Huntingford", "The Defeat of Lady Grantham.", "The Tragedy of a Green Totem", "The Death Warrant"The Room in the Tower, and Other Stories, collection of 16 short stories and 1 novelette:
  • : "The Room in the Tower", "The Dust-Cloud", "Gavon's Eve", "The Confession of Charles Linkworth", "At Abdul Ali's Grave", "The Shootings of Achnaleish", "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery", "Caterpillars", "The Cat", "The Bus-Conductor", "The Man Who Went Too Far", "Between the Lights", "Outside the Door", "The Terror by Night", "The Other Bed", "The Thing in the Hall", "The House with the Brick-Kiln"', collection of 14 short stories:
  • : "The Countess of Lowndes Square", "The Blackmailer of Park Lane", "The Dance on the Beefsteak", "The Oriolists", "In the Dark", "The False Step", "The Case of Frank Hampden", "Mrs. Andrews's Control", "The Ape", "Through", "Puss-Cat", "There Arose a King", "Tragedy of Oliver Bowman", "Philip's Safety Razor""And the Dead Spake—", and The Horror Horn, collection of 2 short stories:
  • : "The Horror-Horn", "And the Dead Spake..."
  • ', collection of 12 short stories:
  • : "And the Dead Spake...", "The Outcast", "The Horror-Horn", "Machaon", "Negotium Perambulans", "At the Farmhouse", "Inscrutable Decrees", "The Gardener", "Mr. Tilly's Séance", "Mrs. Amworth", "In the Tube", "Roderick's Story"Spook Stories, collection of 12 short stories:
  • : "Reconciliation", "The Face", "Spinach", "Bagnell Terrace", "A Tale of an Empty House", "Naboth's Vineyard", "Expiation", "Home, Sweet Home", "And No Bird Sings", "The Corner House", "Corstophine", "The Temple"More Spook Stories, collection of 13 short stories:
  • : "The Step", "The Bed by the Window", "James Lamp", "The Dance", "The Hanging of Alfred Wadham", "Pirates", "The Wishing-Well", "The Bath-Chair", "Monkeys", "Christopher Comes Back", "The Sanctuary", "Thursday Evenings", "The Psychical Mallards", collection of 4 novellas:
  • : "Portrait of an English Nobleman", "Janet", "Friend of the Rich", "The Unwanted"The Horror Horn and Other Stories: The Best Horror Stories of E. F. Benson, collection of 13 short stories:
  • : "The Sanctuary", "Monkeys", "The Bed by the Window", "And No Bird Sings", "The Face", "Mrs. Amworth", "Negotium Perambulans", "The Horror-Horn", "The House with the Brick-Kiln", "The Thing in the Hall", "Caterpillars", "Gavon's Eve", "The Room in the Tower"The Tale of an Empty House and Other Ghost Stories, collection of 14 short stories:
  • : "The Face", "Caterpillars", "Expiation", "The Tale of an Empty House", "The Bus-Conductor", "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery", "The Other Bed", "The Room in the Tower", "Mrs. Amworth", "And No Bird Sings", "Mr. Tilly's Séance", "Home, Sweet Home", "The Sanctuary", "Pirates"The Flint Knife, edited by Jack Adrian, collection of 15 short stories :
  • : "The Flint Knife", "The Chippendale Mirror", "The Witch-Ball", "The Ape", "Sir Roger de Coverley", "The China Bowl", "The Passenger", "The Friend in the Garden", "The Red House", "Through", "The Box at the Bank", "The Light in the Garden", "Dummy on a Dahabeah", "The Return of Frank Hampden", "The Shuttered Room"Desirable Residences and Other Stories, edited by Jack Adrian, collection of 6 short stories:
  • : "The Superannuation Department AD 1945", "The Satyr's Sandals", "The Disappearance of Jacob Conifer", "Number 12", "The Top Landing", "Sea Mist"The Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson, edited by Richard Dalby, omnibus ed of collections The Room in the Tower, and Other Stories, Visible and Invisible, Spook Stories and More Spook Stories, with the addition of an essay on "The Clonmel Witch Burning", about the murder of Bridget Cleary; Despite its title, the collection does not include any of the stories collected in The Flint Knife.Fine Feathers and Other Stories, edited by Jack Adrian, collection of 31 short stories:
  • : The three Spook stories printed here do not appear in The Flint Knife or The Collected Ghost Stories:
  • :* The Further Diversions of Amy Bondham: "The Lovers", "Complete Rest", "The Five Foolish Virgins"
  • :* Crook stories: "My Friend the Murderer", "Professor Burnaby's Discovery"
  • :* Sardonic stories: "The Exposure of Pamela", "Miss Maria's Romance", "The Eavesdropper", "James Sutherland, Ltd", "Bootles", "Julian's Cottage"
  • :* Society stories: "Fine Feathers", "The Defeat of Lady Hartridge", "The Jamboree", "Complementary Souls", "Dodo and the Brick", "A Comedy of Styles", "Noblesse Oblige", "An Entire Mistake", "Mr Carew's Game of Croquet", "The Fall of Augusta", "The Male Impersonator"
  • :* Crank stories: "M. O. M.", "The Adventure of Hegel Junior", "The Simple Life", "Mrs Andrews's Control", "George's Secret", "Buntingford Jugs"
  • :* Spook stories: "By the sluice", "Atmospherics", "Boxing Night"The Collected Spook Stories series, collects all of E. F. Benson's supernatural fiction.
  • # Vol. 1: The Terror by Night, collection of 14 short stories and 1 novelette:
  • #: "At Abdul Ali's Grave", "The Man Who Went Too Far", "The Cat", "The Dust-Cloud", "Gavon's Eve", "The Shootings of Achnaleish", "The Bus-Conductor", "The Terror by Night", "The House with the Brick-Kiln", "Between the Lights", "Caterpillars", "Outside the Door", "The Thing in the Hall", "The Other Bed", "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery"
  • # Vol. 2: The Passenger, collection of 14 short stories:
  • #: "The Room in the Tower", "The Confession of Charles Linkworth", "The Friend in the Garden", "Dummy on a Dahabeah", "The Red House", "The Chippendale Mirror", "The Return of Frank Hampden", "The China Bowl", "The Passenger", "The Ape", "Through", "Thursday Evenings", "The Light in the Garden", "The Psychical Mallards"
  • # Vol. 3: Mrs Amworth, collection of 16 short stories:
  • #: "The Outcast", "Number 12", "Mrs. Amworth", "The Top Landing", "The Gardener", "The Horror-Horn", "And the Dead Spake...", "Negotium Perambulans...", "In the Tube", "Machaon", "Mr. Tilly's Séance", "At the Farmhouse", "Inscrutable Decrees", "Roderick's Story", "Expiation", "Boxing Night"
  • # Vol. 4: The Face, collection of 15 short stories:
  • #: "Naboth's Vineyard", "The Face", "Spinach", "Reconciliation", "Corstophine", "The Temple", "A Tale of an Empty House", "Bagnell Terrace", "The Corner House", "And No Bird Sings", "The Call", "The Bath-Chair", "The Dance", "Home, Sweet Home", "By the Sluice"
  • # Vol. 5: Sea Mist, collection of 20 short stories:
  • #: "Dives and Lazarus", "Sir Roger de Coverley", "The Box at the Bank", "Pirates", "The Witch-Ball", "The Hanging of Alfred Wadham", "Atmospherics", "The Wishing-Well", "Christopher Comes Back", "The Bed by the Window", "The Shuttered Room", "The Flint Knife", "James Lamp", "The Step", "The Sanctuary", "Monkeys", "Sea Mist", "Mrs. Andrews's Control", "The Clandon Crystal", "The Everlasting Silence"Night Terrors: The Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson, edited by David Stuart Davies; Effectively a reprint of Richard Dalby's 1992 Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson, since it is an omnibus ed of The Room in the Tower, and Other Stories, Visible and Invisible, Spook Stories and More Spook Stories; It omits the essay on "The Clonmel Witch Burning" and substitutes an introduction by Davies for that by Dalby.The E. F. Benson Megapack, collection of 35 short stories and 1 novelette:
  • : "At Abdul Ali's Grave", "The Man Who Went Too Far", "The Cat", "Gavon's Eve", "The Dust-Cloud", "The Shootings at Achnaleish", "The Bus-Conductor", "The House with the Brick-Kiln", "Outside the Door", "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery", "The Confession of Charles Linkworth", "The Room in the Tower", "Caterpillars", "Between the Lights", "The Terror by Night", "The Other Bed", "The China Bowl", "The Passenger", "The Ape", "Through", "Thursday Evenings", "The Psychical Mallards", "Mrs Amworth", "The Gardener", "The Horror-Horn", "And the Dead Spake...", "Negotium Perambulans", "In the Tube", "Mr. Tilly's Séance", "The Case of Frank Hampden", "Mrs. Andrews's Control", "The Death Warrant", "Machaon", "At the Farmhouse", "Inscrutable Decrees", "The Thing in the Hall"Ghost Stories, collection of 8 short stories and 1 novelette:
  • : "Spinach", "In the Tube", "The Man Who Went Too Far", "Mrs Amworth", "The Room in the Tower", "The Bus-Conductor", "Negotium Perambulans", "And No Bird Sings", "Caterpillars"The Outcast and Other Dark Tales, collection of 16 short stories:
  • : "Dummy on a Dahabeah", "A Winter Morning", "The Thing in the Hall", "The Passenger", "The Light in the Garden", "The Outcast", "The Top Landing", "The Face", "The Corner House", "By the Sluice", "Pirates", "The Secret Garden", "The Flint Knife", "The Bath-Chair", "The Dance", "Billy Comes Through"
Uncollected short stories:

Collection of sketches

  • ''''

Unpublished plays

Dodo The Friend in the Garden Dinner for Eight
  • ''The Luck of the Vails''

Non-fiction

; Articles :
; Autobiographies:
  • ' Mother Final Edition: Informal Autobiography
; Biographies:Sir Francis Drake '
  • ', or As We Are Ferdinand Magellan Charlotte Brontë King Edward VII Queen Victoria Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë Queen Victoria's Daughters
; Guides:Daily Training, with Eustace MilesDiversions Day by Day, with Eustace Miles
; History:Deutschland Über Allah Poland and Mittel-Europa ' The Kaiser and English Relations
; Opinion:Thoughts from E. F. Benson Thoughts from E. F. Benson
; Pamphlets:Notes on Excavations in Alexandrian Cemeteries Two Generations, 10-page pamphletFrom Abraham to Christ
; Society:The Social Value of Temperance
; Sports:
  • ', edited with Eustace Miles', edited with Eustace MilesEnglish Figure Skating
  • '
; Others:Sketches from Marlborough The Mad Annual, with Eustace Miles
  • ''Bensoniana''

Adaptations

Sequels

Further "Mapp and Lucia" books have been written by Tom Holt, Guy Fraser-Sampson, and Ian Shepherd.