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J. D. Beresford

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J.D. Beresford
BornJohn Davys Beresford
(1873-03-17)17 March 1873
Died2 February 1947(1947-02-02)(aged 73)
GenreScience fiction,horror,ghost stories,mystery novel
ChildrenElisabeth Beresford
Marcus Beresford (a.k.a.Marc Brandel)

John Davys Beresford(17 March 1873 – 2 February 1947) was an English writer, now remembered mainly for his early science fiction and some short stories of thehorror storyandghost storygenres. Beresford was a great admirer ofH. G. Wells,and wrote the first critical study of Wells in 1915.[1]His Wellsian novelThe Hampdenshire Wonder(1911) was a major influence for the authorOlaf Stapledon.[2]His other science-fiction novels includeThe Riddle of the Tower,about adystopian,hive-like society.[3]

Life

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His father, John James Beresford (1821 – 1897),[4]was a clergyman inCastor,now inCambridgeshirenearPeterborough.His mother was Adelaide Elizabeth Morgan (1837 – 1902).[5]J. D. Beresford was affected byinfantile paralysis,which left him partiallydisabled.[6][7]He was educated atOundle.

After training to become an architect, he became a professional writer, first as adramatist,and journalist. During early adulthood, he rejected his father's theism and became a "determined but defensive" agnostic.[8]He combined a life in Edwardian literary London with time spent in the provinces, in particularCornwall,whereD. H. Lawrencehad an extended stay in hisPorthcothancottage. Later in life Beresford abandoned his earlier agnosticism and described himself as aTheosophistand apacifist.[6]

Beresford was also interested inpsychology,and attended several meetings organised byAlfred Richard Orageto discuss psychological issues. Other attendees at these meetings includedHavelock Ellis,Clifford Sharp,David EderandMaurice Nicoll.[9]

Beresford also contributed to numerous publications; in addition to being a book reviewer forThe Manchester Guardian,he also wrote for theNew Statesman,[10]The Spectator,Westminster Gazette,and the Theosophist magazineThe Aryan Path.[11]At one time, Beresford was offered the editorship of the pacifist magazinePeace Newsbut refused because he claimed he "would be a bad editor".[12]

Beresford's interest with spiritualism and philosophy may be illustrated best by the publisher's notes to his novel,On A Huge Hill:

"Mr Beresford's readers have long known that that for him there are more things in heaven or earth than are dreamt of in official medical philosophy. He has used his novelist's skill to convince the sensitive reader that the age of miracles is not over, and that, in certain circumstances, the spirit may exercise what seem to us miraculous powers over the substance of the body. This he did in 'The Camberwell Miracle' and 'Peckover'; and in this absorbing novel, he returns to the theme, with the study of a man fitting himself to become a great healer."

Dorothy L. Sayersquotes from Beresford's essay "Writing Aloud" in her book on theology,Mind of the Maker.[13]She also mentions him in passing inWhose Body?.[14]

George Orwellin 1945 described him as a "natural novelist", whose strength, particularly inA Candidate For Truth,was his ability to take seriously the problems of ordinary people.[15]

Elisabeth Beresford(1926–2010), children's writer and creator ofThe Wombles,was his daughter. Through his son, writerMarc Brandel(Marcus Beresford),[16]he is the great-grandfather of American actorsGriffin NewmanandJames Newman.

He was married twice, first to Florence Linda Brown (1870 – 1916) and then to Eveline "Trissy" Beatrice Auford Roskams (1880 – 1975)[17]

Works

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  • The Early History of Jacob Stahl(1911), the first of a trilogy of novels withA Candidate For TruthandThe Invisible Event
  • The Hampdenshire Wonder(1911) Novel
  • A Candidate For Truth(1912)
  • Goslings: A World of Women(1913) Novel
  • The House in Demetrius Road(1914) Novel
  • The Invisible Event(1915) Novel
  • H.G. Wells(1915) criticism
  • These Lynneskers(1916) Novel
  • William Elphinstone Ford(1917) biography, with Kenneth Richmond
  • House Mates(1917) Novel
  • Nineteen Impressions(1918) stories
  • God's Counterpoint(1918) Novel
  • The Jervaise Comedy(1919) Novel
  • The Imperfect Mother(1920) Novel
  • Signs and Wonders(1921,Golden Cockerel Press) stories
  • Revolution(1921) Novel
  • The Prisoners of Hartling(1922) Novel
  • The Imperturbable Duchess and Other Stories(1923)
  • Monkey Puzzle(1925)
  • That Kind of Man, or Almost Pagan(1926) Novel
  • The Decoy(1927) Novel
  • The Instrument of Destiny(1928)mystery novel
  • All or Nothing(1928) Novel
  • Real People(1929) Novel
  • The Meeting Place and Other Stories(1929)
  • Love's Illusion(1930)
  • The Next Generation(1932) Novel
  • The Old People(1932) Novel
  • The Camberwell Miracle(1933) novel
  • Peckover(1934) Novel
  • On A Huge Hill(1935) Novel
  • Blackthorn Winter and other stories(1936)
  • Cleo(1937) Novel
  • What Dreams May Come(1941) Novel
  • A Common Enemy(1941) Novel
  • Men in the Same Boat(1943) (withEsmé Wynne-Tyson)
  • The Riddle of the Tower(1944) (with Esmé Wynne-Tyson) (reprinted bySolar Pressin 2023)
  • The Gift(1947) (with Esmé Wynne-Tyson)
  • The Prisoner
  • Love's Pilgrim
  • The Tapestry

References

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  1. ^Michael R. Page, The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.G. Wells:Science, Evolution, and EcologyAshgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012 (p. 191) ISBN1409438694.
  2. ^Brian Stableford,The Hampdenshire WonderinFrank N. Magill,ed.Survey of Science Fiction Literature,Vol. 2. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1979. pp. 945–949.ISBN0-89356-194-0
  3. ^Brian Stableford,The Riddle of the Towerin Frank N. Magill, ed.Survey of Science Fiction Literature,Vol. 4. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1979. pp. 1780–1783.ISBN0-89356-194-0
  4. ^"John Davys Beresford 1873-1947 – Ancestry®".
  5. ^"John Davys Beresford 1873-1947 – Ancestry®".
  6. ^abStanley J. Kunitzand Howard Haycraft,Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature,(Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950, (p.p. 130-1)
  7. ^George M. Johnson,J. D. Beresford.Twayne Publishers, 1998ISBN0805770399.(p.2)
  8. ^SF Encyclopedia article
  9. ^Mathew Thompson,Psychological Subjects: Identity, Culture, and Health in Twentieth-Century Britain.Oxford University Press, 2006.ISBN0199287805(p. 78-80).
  10. ^Bashir Abu-Manneh,Fiction of the New Statesman: 1913 – 1939,Lexington Books, 2011ISBN1611493528.(p. 37)
  11. ^Johnson, ( p.177)
  12. ^Johnson, p. 30.
  13. ^Dorothy L. Sayers,Mind of the Maker,Continuum, 2005ISBN0826476783(p. 25). Reprint of 1941 edition.
  14. ^Dorothy L. Sayers,Whose Body?,Gollancz, 1947 (p. 141). Reprint of 1928 first edition.
  15. ^"Good Bad Books"Tribune2 November 1945
  16. ^Joseph F. Clarke (1977).Pseudonyms.BCA. p. 26.
  17. ^"John Davys Beresford 1873-1947 – Ancestry®".
  • Bleiler, Everett(1948).The Checklist of Fantastic Literature.Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 49.

Further reading

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  • Frank Swinnerton,"Oliver Onionsand J.D. Beresford ", inThe Georgian literary scene, 1910–1935.London,: London, Heinemann (1935).
  • George M. Johnson, "J.D. Beresford". Dictionary of Literary Biography. British Short-Fiction Writers 1915–1945. Ed. John H. Rogers. Detroit: Gale Research (1996).
  • Richard Bleiler,"John Davys Beresford" in Darren Harris-Fain, ed.British Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Before World War I.Detroit, MI: Gale Research, (1997).
  • George M. Johnson,J.D. BeresfordNew York: Twayne Publishers. (1998)
  • George M. Johnson, "J.D. Beresford". Dictionary of Literary Biography. Late-Victorian and Edwardian British Novelists, Second Series. Ed. George M. Johnson. Detroit: Gale Research, (1999).
  • George M. Johnson, Dynamic Psychology in Modernist British Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, U.K., 2006.
  • George M. Johnson, "The Other Side of Edwardian Fiction: Two Forgotten Fantasy Novels of 1911". Wormwood: Literature of the fantastic, supernatural and decadent. U.K., No. 16 (Spring 2011) 3–15.
  • George M. Johnson, "Evil is in the Eye of the Beholder: Threatening Children in Two Edwardian Speculative Satires". Science Fiction Studies. Vol. 41, No.1 (March 2014): 26–44.
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