The Major Characters of a Study in Scarlet

First published in 1887 a Study in Scarlet was the first of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. A complete story in its own right, it was also the story that introduced the major characters that would be found in subsequent stories.

Cover of a Study in Scarlet - David Henry Friston - PD-life-70

-Dr Watson

The first of the major characters to appear in a Study in Scarlet is Dr John Watson, an army doctor invalided out of the army, having been injured in the Anglo-Afghan War. Watson is in need of reasonable priced accommodation in London, and it is for this reason that he is introduced to Holmes who is in the same predicament. Watson is recovering for his wounds, but this relative immobility gives the doctor ample time to wonder about his housemate, which ultimately leads to him in joining Holmes at a crime scene.

Watson is quickly identified as being the voice of right and wrong, giving emotion to a tale, where Holmes would be cold and calculating. Watson might not be as smart as Holmes but offers energy instead.

Dr Watson would of course become the chronicler of Holmes’ adventures, as well as his friend, confident and often a co-conspirator.

-Sherlock Holmes

A Study in Scarlet was the work that introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world, and most people will know all about the detective. It is in a Study in Scarlet that the attributes and traits of Holmes were first identified though, traits which changed little in subsequent stories.

Holmes is a Consulting Detective, a man who other detectives and members of the public consult to solve mysteries, often without the need to leave the rooms of 221B Baker Street. Watson identifies him as a many of immense knowledge, but this knowledge is often specialised and selective, knowing the fantastic but ignoring the mundane.

Holmes is a man who does not seek the limelight, willing to let others take the credit, but rejoicing in the knowledge that he has been tested.

-Gregson and Lestrade

A Study in Scarlet centres around two murders in London, so of course the police are involved, and specifically Inspectors Gregson and Lestrade. Holmes would consider Tobias Gregson and G Lestrade to be the best of the capital’s police force, but in this story and in subsequent ones it would become apparent that they were reliant on the skills of Holmes to solve their problems. Both ambitious in their own right, Gregson and Lestrade happily take all of the credit for the solving of the murders in a Study in Scarlet and in their other cases.

The characters above are of course present in other stories, aside from a Study in Scarlet. Other important characters in the book though are central to the story and so even an overview of them is going to give away elements of the story. The below may spoil a Study in Scarlet if you have yet to read it.

-Enoch Drebber and Joseph Stangerson

Drebber was the first murder victim, found dead with the words Rache written in blood beside him. Subsequently Joseph Stangerson is also found dead in similar circumstances. Both were Mormons and had come from America together. Both were though hardly upstanding members of society.
-John Ferrier and Lucy Ferrier

The Ferriers were father and daughter who had been rescued by the Mormons in Utah, and adopted into the religion. John Ferrier has been given land and made a success of it. Lucy would fall in love with a stranger, a non-Mormon which would prove to have dramatic repercussions.

-Jefferson Hope

Jefferson Hope and Lucy Ferrier were in love, but the Mormons could not allow the marriage, and there forced separation would also see Hope travel to England, where he would become the central character of a Study in Scarlet.

When a Study in Scarlet was written it wasn’t certain that there would be further novels in which Sherlock Holmes would serve, this story therefore does much to establish the characteristics of Holmes and Watson especially. It also means that it is the one Sherlock Holmes story that has to be read to ensure that the others make perfect sense.

Copyright - First Published 10th November 2011

Biography of Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen is one of the most famous poets of World War I and a contemporary of Robert Graves, Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon, and there is probably no better, or memorable, war poem than “Dulce et Decorum Est”. Wilfred Owen was one of the best poets of his generation, and yet sadly the writer would not live to see his 26th birthday.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on the 18th March 1893, in a house known as Plas Wilmot just outside of Oswestry in Shropshire. Owen was the oldest of four children born to Thomas and Susan Owen. As the name suggests Owen had a mixed Welsh and English ancestry. The early years of Owen’s life were fairly comfortable as the family lived in a house owned by his grandfather, and the family had income from his father’s wages as a railway worker. When Owen was just four though, his grandfather died, and the family was forced to move into lodgings in Birkenhead.

Wilfred Owen - PD-life-70

It was in Birkenhead that Owen was educated, first at the Birkenhead Institute and then at the Shrewsbury Technical School. It is often recorded that Owen was only ten when he discovered a love of writing poetry, although little remains of any early poetry from this period. Schooling obviously played a big part in his life, but Owen was also heavily influenced by his family’s strong Anglican beliefs.

In 1911, Owen left school and tried to gain entrance to the University of London. Due to his relative impoverished state, it meant that Owen was forced to take a matriculation exam to gain entrance; Owen needed to gain first-class honours, which he failed to achieve. Owen though was not done with education though and went to lessons at University College, Reading, reading both botany and Old English. To pay for his lodgings and board, Owen offered tuition at Wyle Cop School and also worked as a lay assistant to the Vicar at Dunsden. Owen went on to become a teaching assistance at the Berlitz School in Bordeaux in 1913.

Owen’s stay in France though ended in 1915 when, like so many of his generation, Owen joined the army to fight on the Western Front. Owen had previously thought of himself as a pacifist before the outbreak of the war, but he felt that it was his duty to fight alongside his fellow countrymen. As such in October 1915, Wilfred Owen enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles. Training at Hare Hall Camp in Essex was long and hard, although Owen eventually was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1917. Owen was then sent to join the Manchester Regiment fighting in France. On arrival in France, Owen was optimistic and, like the majority of other soldiers, believed in the propaganda that often portrayed war to be like a game of cricket, alongside the belief that it was both right and fitting to fight for your country. This propaganda itself was often propagated by many English poets of the day, people like Rupert Brooke who often painted a very rose-tinted view of war.

Soon though, Wilfred Owen was writing his own poems about his own war. Owen saw plenty of fighting and, in the summer of 1917, led his troops into battle at the Somme. Owen was badly concussed in the fighting, a shell exploding yards from him, the explosion throwing him into a shell crater, in which he lay for three days alongside the body of another officer. Owen was eventually rescued from the hole, but was diagnosed as suffering from shell shock.

Following the diagnosis, Owen was sent to the Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh to recover. There he met Siegfried Sassoon who read through his poems, Sassoon was already recognized as a leading poet of the age, and both encouraged and advised Owen. Sassoon also introduced Owen to Robert Graves, who was also a patient at the hospital. Graves also encouraged Owen to continue with his poetry.

Sassoon’s influence can be seen in the poems written at Craiglockhart, and it was in the period of convalescence that such poems as “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Disabled”, “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “Strange Meeting” were written. Owen though exceeded even the reputation of Sassoon and Graves, and his war poetry was full of the realism of gas and trench war on the Western Front. Convalescence continued into the Spring of 1918, when Owen undertook some work as a teacher before being posted to regimental duties at Ripon.

It is often speculated that Owen was homosexual, and having been introduced by Sassoon to many in the literary circle, it is thought that he had affairs with several male members of the circle. There is though little evidence of Owen’s sexuality as much personal correspondence did not survive after his death.

Eventually though, Owen’s period of convalescence at the hospital ended in August 1918. Although he could have stayed on home duty for the duration of the war Owen though, despite recognizing the horrors of war, believed it was his duty to return to the fight, as well as to report on the events going on at the front. Owen also knew that there were few realistic poets left fighting, as Sassoon had been placed on permanent sick leave after being shot in the head. Sassoon himself was opposed to the return of Owen to the fighting and even threatened to stop him from doing so, as a result Owen did not tell him he was going back to France.

Wilfred Owen found himself back on the Western Front in August 1918, where he promptly led his troops in storming enemy positions at Joncourt and Beaurevoir on Somme. For his leadership he was awarded the Military Cross, although the award was made after his death. On the 4th November 1918, Owen took part in the Battle of the Sambre Canal at Ors. There the troops were directed to take positions on the other side of the canal. In the lead, Owen was killed by enemy machine gun fire; he was only 25 years of age.

It is poignant to think that the war ended only seven days later. It was in fact as the bells of peace were rung across England that the news of his death was delivered to his family. Wilfred Owen’s body was laid to rest with so many of his colleagues at the Ors Communal Cemetery.
After the war, Owen’s work was not forgotten, mainly due to the patronage of Siegfried Sassoon. It was Sassoon who arranged for the “Collected Poems” of Owen to be published in 1920. The collection contained all of Owen’s thought provoking poems, including “Anthem for Doomed Youth” and “Dulce et Decorum Est”. Memorials were also created to Owen at Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Ors and Gailly.

There are many things to consider when you think of the life of Owen. Would he have become well-known if he had not met Sassoon at the Craighlockhart hospital? Would he have been as famous if he had survived the war? What could he have achieved if his life had not been cut short? These questions will never have any answers and so Wilfred Owen can only be remembered for what he achieved in his life. He was not the most prolific of poets but his work expressed the horrors of war, and brought a more realistic image of what warfare actually meant. Even today his works are still studied in many English schools, both as poetic masterpieces but also works that express the first hand feelings of a soldier fighting for his country.

Copyright - First Published 10th July 2008

Biography of Raymond Chandler

There are few authors who have become so synonymous with one genre of fiction, as Raymond Chandler has done. Think of detective fiction involving a private eye and most people will immediately think of Philip Marlowe. Raymond Chandler’s style of writing has been often imitated but no better style has ever been found for the genre.

Raymond Thornton Chandler was born on the 23rd July, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois. Raymond Chandler was the only son of Maurice Chandler, an American railroad worker and Florence Chandler. Maurice though was an alcoholic, and the two soon divorced. Upon confirmation of the divorce in 1895, Florence returned to England taking her son with her. Chandler therefore spent in childhood days in Upper Norwood in London, in a house with his mother, uncle, aunt and grandmother. Florence and Chandler were basically supported by his uncle, who was a prominent London lawyer.

School wise Chandler was predominantly educated at Dulwich College, from 1900, also in London, where he did reasonably well in what was best described as a classical education. Chandler had the opportunity to go to university but instead decided to spend time in Germany and France. Abroad he took time to study international law, but returned to England in 1907. In the same year he took on British nationality, mainly in an attempt to get a job with the Civil Service.

Chandler passed the Civil Service examination, and was one of the best in the year. This enabled him to take up a civil servant position within the Admiralty. It did not take him long though to realise that the Civil Service was not for him, and he resigned after twelve months in the role. This twelve months though had made him aware that he would prefer a literary career, and had even managed to get a poem published.

Looking to writing to make a living, Chandler turned his hand to journalism and as a reviewer, but he couldn’t find anything to interest him as much as his own writings did. His own writing was actually mildly successful and by 1912 he had managed to publish twenty seven poems, and a “The Rose Leaf Romance”, which was his first published short story.

Unhappy with his life in England, Chandler sought to return to America, something he achieved by borrowing money from his uncle. He struggled though any job to interest him, and have decided to live in Los Angeles, took jobs picking fruit and stringing tennis rackets. In search of a more steady income Chandler took a bookkeeping course by correspondence which he completed ahead of schedule. This qualification enabled him to achieve a position with a Los Angeles’s creamery.

In 1917, with the First World War raging, Raymond Chandler decided to enlist in the Canadian Army, with whom he was sent to the Western Front. After a short time in the trenches, Chandler transferred to the Royal Air Force, with whom he was training when the war came to an end. Raymond Chandler found himself discharged from the military services in 1919, from Vancouver, and promptly travelled back to Los Angeles. This time around Los Angeles was a lot kinder to him and he found work with the Dabney Oil Syndicate as a bookkeeper, after a short time working for a bank in San Francisco. The start of the 1920s proved to be a happy and a sad time for Chandler. Raymond Chandler’s mother died in September 1923, but he had found his true love at the same time.

Raymond Chandler was in love with Pearl Eugenie Pascal, also known as Cissy. It was though a union that Chandler’s mother had looked favourably on. Cissy was eighteen years older than Chandler’s thirty-six years of age, when they married in 1924. Cissy had also already been married and divorced twice beforehand. In love, Chandler also saw his career progress and by 1932 he was vice-president of the Dabney Oil Syndicate. This happy situation though soon came to an end though as Cissy fell ill and the depression started to hit the business. Chandler turned to alcohol, just as his father had done many years before. The alcohol saw him absent from work on numerous occasions and there were also rumours of liaisons with the office secretaries. Thus in 1932 Chandler was fired and became one of the increasing numbers of Americans out of work.

From a good income, Chandler and Cissy now found themselves reliant on their limited savings. With job prospects poor, Raymond Chandler turned his hand to creative writing to make a living. The most popular form of literature at the time was pulp fiction, and so Chandler taught himself to deal with the word limits and subjects required from the publishers. Raymond Chandler was a natural and in 1933, his first story “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot” was published in Black Mask magazine. Chandler also started to develop his unique style of evocative metaphors in his writings.

Chandler did fairly well in the world of pulp fiction although he was not the most prolific of writers. In a world where the likes of Lester Dent and Erle Stanley Gardner could write dozens of books each year, Chandler managed only nineteen stories between 1933 and 1939, spread over the Black Mask, Dime Detective and Detective Fiction Weekly magazines. This may have been due to Chandler trying to go beyond the boundaries of normal pulp fiction creating a depth to the characters involved.

The work though was not in vain, and in 1939 at the age of fifty one, Raymond Chandler managed to get his first novel published. This was “The Big Sleep”, and it has proved to be one of the most enduring detective novels of all time. This was the first introduction of Philip Marlowe, and the private eye soon became a cult character, although Philip Marlowe had actually appeared in an earlier short story, “Killer in the Rain”. Philip Marlowe went on to appear in six more novels; “Farewell, My Lovely” (1940), “The High Window” (1942), “The Lady in the Lake” (1943), “The Little Sister” (1949), “The Long Goodbye” (1953), and “Playback” (1958).

The success of his Philip Marlowe novels did open up new opportunities for Chandler, and in 1943 he commenced a career as a screenwriter. Despite disliking the way that Hollywood operated Chandler found himself working with Billy Wilder on the 1944 film “Double Indemnity”. The film was based on the work of James M. Cain, who loved the adaptation, although Wilder found Chandler difficult to work with. Chandler also collaborated on the screenplays for “And Now Tomorrow” (1944), “The Unseen” (1945) and “Strangers on a Train” (1951). This last film was written with Alfred Hitchcock, who ended up replacing chandler as he was unhappy with Chandler’s work.

Raymond Chandler actually only wrote one screenplay by himself which was the Oscar nominated “The Blue Dahlia” (1946), although he did have a large input on the Bogart adaptation of “The Big Sleep” in 1946. By the 1950′s though Chandler turned his back on Hollywood and instead went back to his own writings.

Despite the success of his novels, Chandler did not write faster than he had done before. In his whole life he only published seven novels and a total of twenty four short stories. The income from his work though did allow a comfortable living for Chandler and his wife. The couple moved to La Jolla, near San Diego in 1946. The climate was good for Cissy, who was suffering from fibrosis of the lungs.

His writing did not receive a huge amount of recognition in the industry, although as previously mentioned he was not the most prolific of writers. In 1946 he received a screenplay award from the Mystery Writers of America, and eight years later received another award for a novel. The same organisation made him president of themselves in 1958.

Chandler started to decline though after the death of Cissy in 1954, Cissy had been suffering from fibrosis of the lungs. Chandler and Cissy had been married for thirty years and it had a profound effect on the author. Chandler slipped into bouts of depression, and he turned to drink as he had done years before. Chandler still managed to write although the quality of his work his often said not to be as good as it had been during in peak, although it was during Cissy’s illness that “The Long Goodbye” was written.

The first few months after the death of his wife were a difficult time for Chandler and he attempted suicide on more than one occasion. Whether he seriously intended to end his life is not known though, as his most famous attempt saw him phone the police to tell them he was going to kill himself.

The complications to be found in his life were not solely alcohol and depression related and he soon found himself connected to a number of women. He travelled to England where he struck up a relationship with Jessica Tyndale and then Linda Loring. He also became linked to Sonia Orwell, who was George Orwell’s widow, and Natasha Spender, who was Stephen Spender’s wife, Spender being a well known English poet of the day. His love though seems to have been split between his secretary, Jean Fracasse and his literary agent, Helga Greene. It was Helga who did much to care for Chandler, and it was she who pushed Chandler to finish “Playback” which was published in 1958.

Raymond Chandler passed away on 26th March 1959 at his home in La Jolla. The cause of death was recorded as pneumonial peripheral vascular shock and pre-renal uremia. It was on his death bed that he proposed to Helga Greene, and she inherited his estate following his death. It was though not a clear cut inheritance though and a lawsuit ensued with Jean Fracasse. It was this lawsuit that prevented Raymond Chandler from being buried next to his deceased wife, Cissy, and instead ended up in the Potter’s Field at Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego.

Chandler left behind a great legacy in literary terms. His characters were used in subsequent books, but the impact on the whole genre of detective and crime fiction has been much more of an impact. It is no exaggeration to suggest that with Philip Marlowe a whole literary genre may have fallen by the wayside.

Copyright - First Published 14th June 2008

Biography of Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton is an American author famous for his novels, television and film work. In the latter part of the 20th century, a string of successful film adaptations of his novel ensured that Crichton became a best selling author and household name.

Crichton was born John Michael Crichton on the 23rd October 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. Michael was the first son of John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton. The family, including two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a younger brother, Douglas, soon moved to Roslyn, New York, where Michael grew up.

From an early age, Michael was encouraged to write and type by his father. His father’s wide ranging interests also seemed to rub off on Michael, as the son sought out new expansive knowledge. His mother also assisted in this search for information, regularly taking all of the children to the theatre and museums. Childhood illness also meant that Michael would often have to spend time indoors, time he would use in learning and conducting scientific experiments.

By the age of fourteen Crichton was an accomplished writer. Following in his father’s footsteps he had his first taste of journalism, selling his own articles to the travel section of the New York Times’.
Crichton did well enough at school to earn a place at Harvard University. Studying anthropology at the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus, Crichton was successful in achieving his BA. Crichton in fact graduated summa cum laude’ in 1964.

His undergraduate study was generally a success. Crichton though at one point did believe that one of his professors was deliberately marking his work down. Crichton proved his case, submitting a piece of work written by George Orwell, for which the professor gave him a B minus.

Michael Crichton - Jon Chase photo/Harvard News Office - CC-BY-3.0

Following his graduation Crichton went to Europe as the Henry Russell Shaw Travelling Fellow. This included a stint at the English Cambridge University, where he was the Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology.

In 1965 Crichton returned to America, and entered Harvard Medical School, training as a doctor. Crichton quickly found that his time at medical school would be more expensive than expected so he turned to writing to pay his fees. Crichton obtained his MD in 1969 before undertaking a year’s postdoctoral fellowship at the Jonas Silk Institute for Biological Studies in California.

The novels he wrote at medical school were written under pseudonyms, John Lange and Jeffery Hudson. Crichton used the pseudonyms because his novels, A Case of Need in particular, made reference to real people at Harvard Medical School. A Case of Need was his fourth novel, following on from Odds On, Scratch One and Easy Go. A Case of Need was the best received and was in fact nominated for, and won, the 1969 Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. Of course in accepting his award, his anonymity was gone.

After receiving his award, Crichton published his first novel in his own name. This novel was The Andromeda Strain, a story of a virus from outer space, which quickly became Crichton’s first bestseller. The novel was Crichton’s first to be turned into a film, as it was adapted to become a 1971 Robert Wise film. Though still a medical student, Crichton found himself to be a famous author as well.

Crichton soon found his success meant that he could shy away from a medical profession to focus full time on his writing career. Continuing to write novels under his John Lange pseudonym, Crichton also managed to write non-fiction science work, before co-authoring the novel Dealing with his brother.

The success of the Andromeda Strain as a film, introduced Crichton to the world of movies. 1972 saw Crichton write and direct his first tv-movie, called Pursuit it was based on his novel Binary. It was 1973 that saw his first big film break, as Westworld hit the big screen. Starring Yul Brynner, it was the first film to use 2D CGI. In all thirteen of his books have been turned into films, including the Jurassic Park series and Congo.

Crichton’s film interest meant that as a novel writer he has not been prolific. Crichton in fact averages a novel every three or four years. There are common themes throughout his novels though, as he shows the conflict between technology and social and moral values, Congo is a prime example showing how technology and greed, in the form of diamonds, can show what a danger science can be. The other major theme is what happens when fail proof systems suddenly fail, Jurassic Park and Westworld being key examples.

Crichton though is far from being anti-technology. He has always had a keen interest in computers and computer modelling. Crichton used computer modelling in his study of anthropology. In the 1980s he also created the graphical text game Amazon for the Atari ST and Commodore 64. In 1999 Crichton founded Time-Line Computer Entertainment Studios, a company designed to make video games.

Away from his books and film work, Crichton is best known for his television work. Crichton used his medical knowledge to create and produce the television drama ER, a series which has had worldwide success. In December 1994 ER enabled to him have a unique US record of having the Number One movie, for Jurassic Park, the Number One book, Disclosure, and Number One TV show, ER.

His work across all forms of media, has enabled Crichton to pick up a range of awards, although maybe not as many as would be expected for a bestselling author. ER won a Writers Guild of America award, a Peabody and an Emmy. Aside from A Case of Need, The Great Train Robbery won a second award from the Mystery Writers of America’s, winning as it did the 1980 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture.

Away from the award ceremonies, Crichton has also been honoured, with a Chinese dinosaur being named after him, Bienosauraus crichtoni.

Away from work Crichton has been married on five occasions and divorced on four. The five wives have been Suzanna Childs, Joan Radam, Kathy St. Johns, Anne-Marie Martin and his current wife, Sherri Alexander. Anne-Marie and Crichton have produced Crichton’s only child to date, a daughter called Taylor.

Crichton has sold in excess of 150 million copies of his novels, and many millions more have watched the film adaptations. Into his sixties now, Crichton still writes and produces bestselling work had regular intervals.

Copyright - First Published 11th March 2008