J. Keighley Snowden

James Keighley Snowden

James Keighley Snowden(23 June 1860 – 17 January 1947) was the author of about fourteen volumes of fiction from 1893 to 1937 in addition to several works of non-fiction. Writing also asKeighley Snowden,today his writings are largely forgotten.

Born as James Snowden inPreston,the son of Marianne née Haslam (1834–1911) and William Snowden (1833-1911), a Draper Master,he was raised in theWest Riding of Yorkshireand educated at the School of Science and Art inKeighley.Snowden began a long career injournalismwith theKeighley Newsand spent 10 years with theBirmingham Daily Postbefore joining the staff ofThe Yorkshire Postin 1893 as assistant lead-writer. He had already sold several of his short stories set inYorkshireto theBlack and WhiteandThe Pall Mall Magazine.In 1893 he published his first collection of short stories,Tales of the Yorkshire Wolds,sketched from scenes of life in the North West Riding in which he depicted memories from his youth and tales collected from his father and grandfather, both Yorkshiremen. In this early work Snowden described himself as a Yorkshireman "no longer privileged to dwell amongst his kinfolk" and referred to the book as "a tribute of affection." From this book came the comic tale 'A Ghost Slayer', later included in theanthologyVictorian Nightmares(1977) collected by Hugh Lamb.Much of the dialogue in his Yorkshire tales was written in local dialect.

His novelBarbara West(1901) is a tale of journalism set in the provinces of England during the 1880s, whileHate of Evil(1907) is a strange tale of a young clergyman who, to atone for an indiscretion during his youth opts for a life of poverty in a small and remote northern parish. Here his neighbour, the affluent Mrs Howard of Netherfell Hall, secretly adores him. He, meanwhile, seduces and subsequently betrays hischarwomanwhile still keeping the love of Mrs Howard. His historical novelKing Jack(1914) is set in theYorkshire Dalesduring the early 19th-century and concerns a notorious outlaw and poacher.

A preface toThe Weaver's Web(1932), itself a reprint of Snowden'sThe Web of an Old Weaver(1896) contains an introduction by his relative, the politicianPhilip Snowdenwho wrote of Snowden's "anxiety to see preserved the characteristics of a people which, I am afraid, are rapidly changing under the influence of modern transport and the uniformity of an education system imposed by a central authority."

In 1884 Snowden married Agnes Adamson Wallace Crawford.The couple had three sons and a daughter: theFleet Streetjournalist Wallace Crawford Snowden (1887–1965); the musician andcellistJohn Keighley Snowden (1892–1958); the film producerAlec Crawford Snowden(1901–1983), while their daughter was the internationally acclaimed pianist, lecturer and expert on Elizabethan music Marion Keighley Snowden (1885-1973).

James Keighley Snowden died aged 86 inWillesdeninMiddlesexin 1947.

Publications

• Tales of the Yorkshire WoldsLondon, Sampson Low, Marston & Co. (1893)
• The Web of an Old Weaver,London, Sampson Low, Marston & Co. (1896)
• The Plunder Pit,Methuen & Co. (1898)
• Barbara West,London: John Long (1901)
• Princess Joyce,London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons (1905)
• Hate of Evil,London: Hutchinson & Co. (1907)
• Kate Bannister,London: Eveleigh Nash (1907)
• The Life Class,London: T. Werner Laurie (1908)
• Verity Lads: being letters of Harry Verity to his Uncle Donty,London: T. Werner Laurie (1910)
• The Forbidden Theatre,London: T. Werner Laurie (1909)
• The Free Marriage,London: Stanley Paul & Co. (1911)
• Bright Shame,London: Stanley Paul & Co. (1912)
• King Jack,New York, E.P. Dutton (1914)
• Myth and Legend in the Bible,London: Watts (1915)
• The Master Spinner; a Life of Sir Swire Smith, LL.D., M.P.,George Allen & Unwin, Ltd, London (1921)
• Jack the Outlaw,London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. (1926)
• The Weaver's Web,London: Jonathan Cape (1932)