Roberts, Morley

Morley Roberts (29 December 1857 – 8 June 1942) was an English novelist and short story writer, best known for The Private Life of Henry Maitland.

[edit] Early life

Roberts was born in London, the son of a superintending inspector of income tax.^[1] He was educated at Bedford School, and Owens College, Manchester, England.

[edit] Travels

Near the end of 1876 Roberts took a steerage passage to Australia and landed at Melbourne in January 1877. The next three years were spent in obtaining colonial experience, mostly on sheep stations in New South Wales, and Roberts then returned to London. For a time he worked in the war office and other government departments, but again went on his travels and had varied occupations in the United States and Canada between 1884 and 1886. He later travelled in Oceania, Australia, South Africa, amongst other parts of the world.

[edit] Literary career

Roberts used his experiences freely in his books, the first being The Western Avernus(1887). Roberts began his long series of novels and short stories in 1890. Of his novels, Rachel Marr (1903) was highly praised by William Henry Hudson, and The Private Life of Henry Maitland (1912), based on the life of George Gissing the novelist, was possibly his best known book. Roberts also wrote essays, biography, drama and verse, and did some competent work in biology. He married Alice, daughter of the playwright Angiolo Robson Slous,^[2][3] and died in London aged 84 on 8 June 1942.

Approximately 80 of Roberts' books are recorded in E Morris Miller's Australian Literature. He was only a few years in Australia, but there are many Australian references both in his novels and his short stories.

Short Stories include:

• King Billy of Ballarat and Other Stories, Lawrence & Bullen (London), 1892 (including: "Father and Son")
• Red Earth, Lawrence & Bullen (London), 1894 (including: "Wide Bay Bar".)
• The Keeper of the Waters, Skeffington & Son (London), 1898 (including: "The Anticipator".)
• Midsummer Madness, Eveleigh Nash (London), 1909 (including: "The Bood Fetisch")^[4]

[edit] References

Serle, Percival (1949). "Roberts, Morley". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogR.html#roberts1. 

1. "ROBERTS, Morley". Who's Who, vol. 59: pp. 1495-1496. 1907. http://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1495. 
2. Nicola Barton's family tree
3. Slous, Angiolo Robson (1866). True to the Core: A Story of the Armada. London: Tinsley Brothers. http://books.google.com/books?id=zaxK907LE3cC. 
4. R.B. Russell, ed. "Morley Roberts". A Guide to Supernatural Fiction. http://homepages.pavilion.co.uk/users/tartarus/r9.htm. 

[edit] External links

• Works by Morley Roberts at Project Gutenberg
• THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY MAITLAND by MORLEY ROBERTS at Flinders University
• Bibliography of works by Morley Roberts at Freeread