Eden Phillpotts

Eden Phillpotts (* November 4, 1862 in Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India, † December 29 1960 in Broad Clyst at Exeter ) was an English writer.

Life

Phillpotts was the eldest son of army officer Henry Phillpotts (1828-1865) and his wife Adelaide Matilda Waters ( 1843-1921 ). When his father died in 1865, his mother took him and his sister back to England and settled with relatives in South West England.

Phillpotts visited the Mannamead School in Plymouth. At age 17, he left his mother in 1879 to go to London. There he found a job as a clerk in the Sun Insurance Company, where he was to work for the next ten years. At the same time he attended for two years a drama school, but then gave his plan to become an actor, and devoted himself to just writing. For his literary ambitions he remained at this time only the night hours until success as a writer was his life, the hoped-for turnaround.

Despite its success Phillpotts was completed in 1890 /91 to his day job and became editor of the magazine just neugegründeteten Black & White. On November 18, 1893, he married Emily Topham († 1928) and had two children with her: the later writer Adelaide Ross ( 1896-1993 ) and Henry.

Phillpotts 1899 went with his family to Devon and settled in Torquay; where he was a neighbor of the writer Agatha Christie. When his wife died, he married after the obligatory mourning 1829 Lucy Robina Joyce († 1968). With it, he was in the same year in Broad Clyst, where he lived until his death.

With 98 years Eden Phillpotts died on 29 December 1960 and in accordance with his last wishes, his ashes were scattered over Dartmoor.

Reception

Phillpots was one of the most prolific and multi-faceted writers in Devon. His " Dartmoor Cycle" encompassing the entire region and was published in 18 novels. The first work of the series was Children of the Mist (1898), and the finale was Children of Men (1923). The most famous was probably the most tragic tale The Secret Woman ( 1905).

One of his novels, Widecombe Fair, inspired by the annual market in the village of Widecombe -in-the -Moor, was the template for his comedy The Farmer's Wife. This play was filmed in 1927 by Alfred Hitchcock under the title The Farmer's Wife.

In addition to his novels also includes his work poetry, short stories and plays. His crime novels he published under the pseudonym partly Harrington Hext. Also in collaboration with Arnold Bennett and Jerome K. Jerome produced some pieces; also daughter of Adelaide is considered an important assistant and Researcher of his pieces.

Philpotts was an early patron and friend of Agatha Christie, who truly appreciated his work and visited him regularly; Christie dedicated to him the novel " Death on the Nile " (English " Peril at End House "). He wrote numerous works of different literary significance, including crime and social novels and novels with excellent home landscape descriptions of the Dartmoor region, as well as essays and children's books as well as lyrical and dramatic works.

Works (selection)

• From the angle of 88 Hutchinson, London, 1951.
• The farmer 's wife.
• Widecombe fair.
• The red redmaynes.
• The monster.
• The clue of the stars.
• The Captain 'S Curio.