Maurice Hewlett

Picture of Maurice Hewlett, by G.C. Beresford

Maurice Henry Hewlett (22 January 1861 – 13 June 1923), was an English historical novelist, poet and essayist.

Biography

Hewlett

Maurice Hewlett

Photo by Bassano

He was born at Weybridge, the eldest son of Henry Gay Hewlett, of Shaw Hall, Addington, Kent. He was educated at the London International College, Spring Grove, Isleworth, and was called to the bar in 1891. He gave up the law after the success of Forest Lovers. From 1896 to 1901 he was Keeper of Lands, Revenues, Records and Enrolments, a government post as adviser on matters of medieval law.

Hewlett married Hilda Beatrice Herbert on 3 January 1888 in St Peter's Church, Vauxhall, where her father was the incumbent vicar. The couple had two children, a daughter, Pia, and a son, Francis, but separated in 1914, partly due to Hilda's increasing interest in aviation. In 1911, Hilda had become the first woman in the UK to gain a pilot's licence.

He settled at Broad Chalke, Wiltshire. His friends included Evelyn Underhill, and Ezra Pound, whom he met at the Poets' Club in London. He was also a friend of J. M. Barrie, who named one of the pirates in Peter Pan "Cecco" after Hewlett's son.

Hewlett was parodied by Max Beerbohm in A Christmas Garland in the part titled "Fond Hearts Askew".

Works

• Earthwork Out of Tuscany (1895) — travel
• The Masque of Dead Florentines (1895) — verse
• Songs and Meditations (1897)
• Forest Lovers (1898) — historical novel
• Pan and the Young Shepherd (1898) — play
• Youngest of the Angels (1898) — play
• Little Novels of Italy (1899) — short stories
• The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay (1900) — historical novel
• The New Canterbury Tales (1901)
• The Queen's Quair or The Six Years' Tragedy (1904) — historical novel
• The Road in Tuscany (1904)
• Fond Adventures: Tales of the Youth of the World (1905) — short stories
• The Fool Errant (1905) — historical novel
• The Stooping Lady (1907) — novel
• The Spanish Jade (1908) — travel
• Artemision (1909) — poems
• Halfway House (1908) — novel
• Open Country (1909) — novel
• Rest Harrow (1910) — novel
• Letters to Sanchia (1910)
• The Song of Renny (1911)
• Brazenhead the Great (1911)
• Mrs. Lancelot: A Comedy of Assumptions (1912) — historical novel
• The Lore of Proserpine (1913) — autobiographical account
• Bendish(1913) — novel
• For Two Voices (1914) — poem
• The Little Iliad (1915)
• The Song of the Plow (1916)
• The Village Wife’s Lament (1918) — poems
• Thorgils of Treadholt (1917)
• In Green Shade (1920)
• The Light Heart (1920)
• Wiltshire Essays (1921)
• Extemporary Essays (1922)
• The Last Essays of Maurice Hewlett (1924)
• The Letters of Maurice Hewlett (1926) — edited by Laurence Binyon

This list omits some significant works. He wrote six novels based on the Icelandic Family sagas, of which only The Light Heart and Thorgils of Treadholt are mentioned above. There is also The Outlaw (based on Gisli's Saga), A Lover's Tale (based on Kormak's Saga), Frey and His Wife (based on Ogmund Dytt's tale), and Gudred the Fair (based on the Greenland sagas).

References

• Allen, James Lane (1900). Maurice Hewlett: A Sketch of His Career and Some Reviews of His Books. New York: Macmillan & Co.
• Bronner, Milton (1910). Maurice Hewlett: Being a Critical Review of His Prose and Poetry. Boston: John W. Luce and Company.
• Cooper, Frederic Taber (1912). Some English Story Tellers. New York: Henry Holt & Company.
• Hale, L.C. (1902). "Hewlett's Italy" The Bookman, Vol. XVI, pp. 134–49.
• Harris, George William (1909). "The Work of Maurice Hewlett," The American Review of Reviews, Vol. XL, pp. 251–252.
• Mabie, H.W. (1907). "Maurice Hewlett: An Appreciation," The Bookman, Vol. XXVI, pp. 360–61.
• Marsh, E.C. (1907). "Mr. Hewlett and His Work," The Forum, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 266–69.
• Marsh, E.C. (1907). "Maurice Hewlett, Meredithian" The Bookman, Vol. XXVI, pp. 361–62.
• Muir, Percival Horace (1977). A Bibliography of the First Editions of Books by Maurice Henry Hewlett (1861–1923). Philadelphia: R. West.
• O'Reardon, Barrington (1913). "Maurice Hewlett," The Sewanee Review, Vol. XXI, No. 1, pp. 99–107.
• Wilkins, Ernest H. (1905). "Maurice Hewlett on Tuscan Literature," Modern Language Notes, Vol. XX, No. 6, pp. 172–177.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Works by Maurice Hewlett at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Maurice Hewlett at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Maurice Hewlett at Hathi Trust
• Maurice Hewlett at Find a Grave