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= W._W._Jacobs =
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Introduction
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William Wymark Jacobs (8 September 1863 - 1 September 1943) was an
English author of short fiction and drama. He is best known for his
story "The Monkey's Paw".
Early life
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He was born in 1863 at 5, Crombie's Row, Mile End Old Town (not
Wapping, as is often stated),Crombie’s Row was north of the Commercial
Road, in Mile End Old Town, between present-day Sidney Street and
Jubilee Street. Jacobs was baptised at Christchurch, Watney Street,
which was just across the Commercial Road in Shadwell. Those places
have been demolished, but can be located in and Edward Weller's map
of 1868. Jacobs himself accurately gave his birthplace as "Middlesex,
Mile End E" in the 1911 census, and it is so recorded in the England
and Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 (General Register
Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London,
England).
The "Wapping" version, though stated in the Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography, is unsupported, and may derive from his childhood
play in the docks of east London. London, to William Gage Jacobs,
wharf manager, and his wife Sophia. His father managed the South Devon
wharf in Lower East Smithfield, by the St Katherine Docks and,
according to the 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography', "the young
Jacobs spent much time on Thames-side, growing familiar with the life
of the neighbourhood" and "ran wild in Wapping". Jacobs and his
siblings were still young when their mother died. Their father then
married his housekeeper and had seven more children, including
illustrator Helen Jacobs. Jacobs attended a private London school
before Birkbeck College (Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution,
now part of the University of London), where he befriended William
Pett Ridgcap.
Early work
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In 1879, Jacobs began work as a clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank.
By 1885 he had his first short story published, but success came
slowly. Yet Arnold Bennett in 1898 was astonished to hear that Jacobs
had turned down £50 for six short stories. He was financially secure
enough to be able to leave the Post Office in 1899.
Literature
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Jacobs is remembered for a macabre tale, "The Monkey's Paw",
(published 1902 in a short-story collection, 'The Lady of the Barge')
and several other ghost stories, including "The Toll House" (from the
1909 collection 'Sailors' Knots') and "Jerry Bundler" (from the 1901
'Light Freights'). Most of his work was humorous. His favourite
subject was marine life - "men who go down to the sea in ships of
moderate tonnage", said 'Punch', reviewing his first collection, 'Many
Cargoes', which gained popular success on publication in 1896.
Michael Sadleir has said of Jacobs's fiction, "He wrote stories of
three kinds: describing the misadventures of sailor-men ashore;
celebrating the artful dodger of a slow-witted village; and tales of
the macabre."
'Many Cargoes' was followed by the novel 'The Skipper's Wooing' in
1897, and another collection of short stories, 'Sea Urchins' (1898),
confirmed his popularity. Other titles included 'Captains All',
'Sailors' Knots', and 'Night Watches'. The title of the last reflects
the popularity of an enduring character: the night-watchman on the
wharf in Wapping, recounting the preposterous adventures of his
acquaintances Ginger Dick, Sam Small, and Peter Russet. These three
characters, pockets full after a long voyage, took lodgings together,
set on enjoying a long spell ashore, but the crafty inhabitants of
dockland London soon relieved them of their funds, assisted by their
own fecklessness and credulity. Jacobs showed a delicacy of touch in
his use of the coarse vernacular of the East End of London, which
attracted the respect of P. G. Wodehouse, who mentions Jacobs in his
autobiographical work 'Bring on the Girls!', written with Guy Bolton
and published in 1954.
The stories in 'Many Cargoes' had varied previous serial publication,
while those in 'Sea Urchins' were for the most part published in
Jerome K. Jerome's 'Idler'. From October 1898, Jacobs's stories
appeared in 'The Strand', which provided him with financial security
almost up to his death.
John Drinkwater described Jacobs's fiction as "in the Dickens
tradition".
Dramatic work
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Jacobs's short-story output declined somewhat around the time of the
First World War. His literary efforts thereafter were mainly
adaptations of his own short stories for the stage. His first stage
work, 'The Ghost of Jerry Bundler', opened in London in 1899, was
revived in 1902, and was eventually published in 1908. He wrote 18
plays altogether, some in collaboration with other writers.
Adult life
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Jacobs married Agnes Eleanor Williams in 1900 at West Ham, Essex.
Agnes was later a noted suffragette. The 1901 Census records their
living with a first child, a three-month-old daughter, at Kings Place
Road, Buckhurst Hill, Essex. Also recorded in the household were his
journalist sister Amy, his sister-in-law, Nancy Williams, a cook, and
an additional domestic servant. Altogether the Jacobses had two sons
and three daughters.
Jacobs went on to set up home in Loughton, Essex, first at the Outlook
in Park Hill, and then at Feltham House in Goldings Hill, which bears
a blue plaque to him. Loughton is the "Claybury" of some of the
stories; Jacobs's love for the local forest scenery features in "Land
Of Cockaigne". Another blue plaque appears on Jacobs's central London
residence at 15 Gloucester Gate, Regents Park (later held by the
Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture).
Jacobs stated that after his youthful left-wing opinions, his
political position in later years was "Conservative and
Individualistic".
On 7 January 1914, in King's Hall, Covent Garden, Jacobs was a member
of the jury in the mock trial of John Jasper for the murder of Edwin
Drood. At this all-star event G. K. Chesterton was Judge and George
Bernard Shaw appeared as foreman of the jury.
In 1928 he was involved in the creation of films of his works. The
first film made was titled 'The Bravo'. Fifty actresses were
auditioned and Jacob was said to be impressed by Paddy Naismith who
was chosen to play the lead role.
Jacobs died on 1 September 1943 at Hornsey Lane, Islington, London, at
the age of 79. An obituary in 'The Times' (2 September 1943) described
him as "quiet, gentle and modest ... not fond of large functions and
crowds." Ian Hay remarked, "He invented an entirely new form of
humorous narrative. Its outstanding characteristics were compression
and understatement."
Novels
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*'The Skipper's Wooing' (novel) and 'The Brown Man's Servant'
(novella), 1897
*'A Master of Craft', 1900
*'At Sunwich Port', 1902
*'Dialstone Lane', 1904
*'Salthaven', 1908
*'The Castaways', 1916
Short Story Collections
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*'Many Cargoes', 1894
*'More Cargoes', 1897 (released as 'Sea Urchins' in US, 1899)
*'Light Freights', 1901
*'The Lady of the Barge', 1902 contains 'The Monkey's Paw'
*'Odd Craft', 1903 contains 'The Money Box'
*'Captains All', 1905
*'Short Cruises', 1906
*'Sailors' Knots', 1909 contains 'The Toll House'
*'Deep Waters', 1911
*'Night Watches', 1911
*'Ship's Company', 1911
*'Sea Whispers', 1926
Drama
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'The Ghost of Jerry Bundler' (1899)
Short stories
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*"Mrs Bunker's Chaperon", 'Henry's Christmas Annual', 1895
*"Contraband of War", 'The Idler', February 1896
*"In Borrowed Plumes", 'The Minster Magazine', February 1896
*"A Benefit Performance", 'To-Day', August 1896
*"A Love Passage", 'The Idler', February 1896
*"The Brown Man's Servant", 'Pearson's Magazine', December 1896
*"Wapping-on-Thames", 'Windsor Magazine', June 1897
*"Rule of Three", 'The Graphic', 1 July 1897
*"The Skipper's Wooing", 'Windsor Magazine', July 1897
*'Jerry Bundler', 'Windsor Magazine', December 1897
*"The Lady of the Barge", 'Harper's Magazine', August 1900
*"The Monkey's Paw", 'Harper's Magazine', September 1902
Film adaptations
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*'The Monkey's Paw' adaptations in 1915, 1923, 1933, 1948, 2008 and
2013
*1922 'A Master of Craft'
*1936 'Our Relations', a Laurel and Hardy feature film with a
"suggested by" credit to Jacobs's "The Money Box"
*1937 'Beauty and the Barge'
*1955 'Footsteps in the Fog', from the short story "The Interruption"
See also
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*List of adaptations of The Monkey's Paw
*Olwen Wymark (granddaughter)
*Jane Wymark (great-granddaughter)
External links
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*[
https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00563 W.
W. Jacobs Collection] at the Harry Ransom Center
*[
https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078941
William Wymark Jacobs letters] at Columbia University
*
*
*
*
*[
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Jacobs,%20W.%20W.%201863-1943.%22&type=author&inst=
Works by W. W. Jacobs], at Hathi Trust
*[
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jacobs/SS/TheMonkeysPaw.html 'The
Monkey's Paw'] can be read online at [
http://www.amlit.com/ American
Literature]
*[
http://www.scaryforkids.com/tollhouse/ 'The Toll House"'] Full text.
*
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._W._Jacobs
