M. P. Shiel
Encyclopedia
Matthew Phipps Shiel was a prolific British
writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name.
He is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud
(1901; 1929) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.
in the West Indies. His mother, Priscilla Ann Blake, was most likely the daughter of freed slaves, while his father, Matthew Dowdy Shiell, was most likely the illegitimate child of an Irish Customs Officer and a slave woman. Shiell was educated at Harrison College
in Barbados
.
and other magazines. His early literary reputation was based on two collections of short stories influenced by Poe
published in the Keynote series by John Lane
, Prince Zaleski (1895) and Shapes in the Fire (1896), considered by some critics to be the most flamboyant works of the English decadent movement. His first novel was The Rajah's Sapphire (1896), based on a plot by William Thomas Stead
, who probably hired Shiel to write the novel.
The Empress of the Earth ran weekly in Short Stories from 5 February – 18 June 1898. The early chapters incorporated actual headline events as the crisis unfolded, and proved wildly popular with the public. Pearson responded by ordering Shiel to double the length of the serial to 150,000 words, but Shiel cut it back by a third for the book version, which was rushed out that July as The Yellow Danger.
Some contemporary critics described this novel as a fictionalization of Charles Henry Pearson
's National Life and Character: A Forecast (1893). Shiel's Asian villain, Dr. Yen How, has been cited as a possible basis for the better-known Dr. Fu Manchu
. Dr. Yen How was probably based on the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen
(1866–1925), who had first gained fame in England in 1896 when he was kidnapped and imprisoned at the Chinese embassy in London until public outrage pressured the English government to demand his release. Similar kidnapping incidents occurred in several of Shiel's subsequent novels.
The Yellow Danger was Shiel's most successful book during his lifetime, going through numerous editions, particularly when the Boxer Rebellion
of 1899-1901 seemed to confirm his fictional portrayal of Chinese hostility to the West. Shiel himself considered the novel hackwork, and seemed embarrassed by its success. It was a likely influence on H. G. Wells
in The War in the Air (1908), Jack London
in The Unparalleled Invasion (1910), and others.
His next novel was another serial contracted by Pearson to tie into the Spanish-American War
. Contraband of War ran in Pearson's Weekly 7 May—9 July 1898, again incorporating headline events into the serial as the war progressed. It was published as a book the following year.
in his introduction to the Gregg Press edition of The Purple Cloud
as possibly the first future history
series in science fiction
. Each was linked by similar introductory frame purporting to show that the novels were visions of progressively more distant (or alternative?) futures glimpsed by a clairvoyant in a trance. Notebook I of the series had been plotted at least by 1898, but would not see print until published as The Last Miracle (1906). Notebook II became The Lord of the Sea (1901), which was recognized by contemporary readers as a critique of private ownership of land based on the theories of Henry George
.
Shiel's lasting literary reputation is largely based on Notebook III of the series which was serialized in The Royal Magazine
in abridged form before book publication that autumn as The Purple Cloud
(1901). The novel tells the tale of Adam Jeffson, who, returning alone from an expedition to the North Pole, discovers that a worldwide catastrophe has left him as the last man alive.
Shiel had married a young Parisian-Spaniard, Carolina Garcia Gomez in 1898, who was the model for a character in Cold Steel (1900) and several short stories. (The Welsh author and mystic Arthur Machen
and decadent poet Theodore Wratislaw were among the wedding guests.) They separated around 1903 and his daughter was taken to Spain after Lina's death around 1904. Shiel blamed the failure of the marriage on the interference of his mother-in-law, but money was at the heart of their problems. Shiel was caught between his desire to write high art and his need to produce more commercial fare. When his better efforts did not sell well, he was forced to seek more journalistic work, and began to collaborate with Louis Tracy
on a series of romantic mystery novels, some published under Tracy's name, others under the pseudonyms Gordon Holmes and Robert Fraser. The last of their known collaborations appeared in 1911.
themes which had dominated his early serial novels and began a series which have been described as his middle period romantic novels. The most interesting was the first, serialized as In Love’s Whirlpool in Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 14 May—3 September 1902, and published in book form as The Weird o’It (1902). Shiel later described it as a "true Bible or Holy Book" for modern times, in which he had attempted to represent "Christianity in a radical way." This novel was far from hackwork, and besides apparent autobiographical elements (including a minor character based on Ernest Dowson
with whom Shiel is rumored to have roomed briefly in the 1890s), contains some of his finest writing, but it was not reprinted in England, nor formally published in America.
Shiel returned to contemporary themes in The Yellow Wave (1905), an historical novel about the Russo-Japanese War
of 1904-1905. The novel was a recasting of Romeo and Juliet
into the on-going war with leading families of the two nations standing in for the feuding
Capulets and Montagues of Shakespeare's play. Shiel modeled his hero on Yoshio Markino
(1874–1956), the Japanese artist and author who lived in London from 1897-1942. In February 1904 Shiel had offered to Peter Keary to go to the front as a war correspondent with letters of introduction from Markino. He may have met Markino through Arthur Ransome
who dedicated Bohemia In London (1907) to Shiel and used him as the model for the chapter on "The Novelist."
Faced with declining sales of his books, Shiel tried to recapture the success of The Yellow Danger when China and Sun Yat-sen
returned to the headlines during the Chinese Revolution of 1911-1912. Though a better novel in most respects, The Dragon (1913), serialized earlier that year as To Arms! and revised in 1929 as The Yellow Peril, failed to catch the public's interest. As the hero of the story had oddly predicted, Shiel turned away from novels for ten years.
for 'indecently assaulting and carnally knowing' his 12 year old de facto stepdaughter. Unrepentant, Shiel served sixteen months hard labour in prison, complaining to the Home Secretary about the law, though he assured his publisher Grant Richards in a letter that he had been treated well. Shiel's discussion of his crime is disingenuous; he conceals from Richards the identity of his victim in addition to misleading him about her age. Instead he refers to 'love-toyings' with an older girl on the cusp of maturity. Nor does Shiel mention the fact that he had known both the girl and her mother's sisters long before his conviction, perhaps intimately, as contemporary letters from one of the sisters to Shiel suggests. Court records described Shiel as a 'clerk and metal worker', though one of the witnesses was a metal worker and the records may have transposed some information. He appealed the conviction unsuccessfully.
It is too early to assess whether this new revelation about Shiel will have an impact upon his literary legacy. However, as Macleod argues in her essay, young heroines abound in Shiel's novels, where they are romanticised, idealised and sexualised through the eyes of the male author. She cites the example of the two thousand-year-old Rachel in 'This Above All' (1933), who is portrayed as part “child,” part “harlot,” part “saint”, since she still inhabits the young girl's body she possessed when raised from the dead and thus rendered immortal by the Biblical Christ. Lazarus (also a 2,000 year old immortal for the same reason) is warned ruefully against her: “If Rachel and you co-habit without some marriage-rite, you may see yourself in prison here in Europe, since it cannot be believed that she is as old as fourteen.”
. In 1919 he married his second wife, Esther Lydia Furley (1872–1942). They traveled in Italy in the early 1920s, probably living largely off her income, and separated amicably around 1929, but do not seem to have divorced.
He returned to writing around 1922 and between 1923 and 1937 published a further ten or so books, as well as thorough revisions of five of his older novels. Shiel spent most of his last decade working on a "truer" translation of the Gospel of Luke
with extensive commentary. He finished it, but half of the final draft was lost after his death in Chichester
.
In 1931 Shiel met a young poet and bibliophile, John Gawsworth
, who befriended him and helped him obtain a Civil List Pension. Gawsworth talked Shiel into allowing him to complete several old story fragments, sometimes roping literary friends like Oswell Blakeston
into helping. The results were largely unsuccessful, but Gawsworth used them as filler in various anthologies with his name prominently listed as co-author.
, a small uninhabited rocky island in the West Indies, situated a short distance northwest of the island of Montserrat, where Shiel was born.
The Redonda legend
was probably created out of whole cloth by Shiel himself, and was first mentioned publicly in a 1929 booklet advertising the reissue of four of his novels by Victor Gollancz
. According to the story Shiel told, he was crowned King of Redonda on his 15th birthday in 1880. However, there is little evidence that Shiel took these claims seriously, and his biographer, Harold Billings, speculates that the story may have been an intentional hoax
foisted on the gullible press. At this late date, proving or completely discrediting the story may turn out to be impossible either way.
On his death John Gawsworth
became both his literary executor and his appointed heir to the "kingdom". Gawsworth took the legend of Redonda to heart. He never lost an opportunity to further elaborate the tale and spread the story to the press.
issued two posthumous collections, Xelucha and Others
(1975) and Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk
(1977). The Purple Cloud
remains his most famous and often reprinted novel. It has been variously described as both a neglected masterpiece and the best of all Last Man novels. It was credited as the loose inspiration for the 1959 MGM film, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, starring Harry Belafonte
, Inger Stevens
, and Mel Ferrer
. Stephen King
cited it as an influence on his novel The Stand
.
A number of the short stories continue to be reprinted,
but many of his other novels, including the middle period romantics, have been nearly forgotten.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name.
He is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud
The Purple Cloud
The Purple Cloud is a "last man" novel by the British writer M. P. Shiel. It was published in 1901. H. P. Lovecraft later praised the novel as exemplary weird fiction, "delivered with a skill and artistry falling little short of actual majesty." Frank Belknap Long deemed it "the most unutterably...
(1901; 1929) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel.
Caribbean background
Matthew Phipps Shiel, (originally spelled Shiell), was born on the island of MontserratMontserrat
Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...
in the West Indies. His mother, Priscilla Ann Blake, was most likely the daughter of freed slaves, while his father, Matthew Dowdy Shiell, was most likely the illegitimate child of an Irish Customs Officer and a slave woman. Shiell was educated at Harrison College
Harrison College
Harrison College may refer to:* Harrison College , a higher education institution based in Indiana with campuses online and in Columbus, Ohio* Harrison College , a secondary school in Bridgetown, Barbados...
in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
.
Early years in the UK
Shiell moved to England in 1885, eventually adopting Shiel as his pen name. After working as a teacher and translator he broke into the fiction market with a series of short stories published in The StrandStrand Magazine
The Strand Magazine was a monthly magazine composed of fictional stories and factual articles founded by George Newnes. It was first published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950 running to 711 issues, though the first issue was on sale well before Christmas 1890.Its immediate...
and other magazines. His early literary reputation was based on two collections of short stories influenced by Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
published in the Keynote series by John Lane
John Lane (publisher)
-Biography:Originally from Devon, where he was born into a farming family, Lane moved to London already in his teens. While working as a clerk at the Railway Clearing House, he acquired knowledge as an autodidact....
, Prince Zaleski (1895) and Shapes in the Fire (1896), considered by some critics to be the most flamboyant works of the English decadent movement. His first novel was The Rajah's Sapphire (1896), based on a plot by William Thomas Stead
William Thomas Stead
William Thomas Stead was an English journalist and editor who, as one of the early pioneers of investigative journalism, became one of the most controversial figures of the Victorian era. His 'New Journalism' paved the way for today's tabloid press...
, who probably hired Shiel to write the novel.
Serial publication
Shiel's popular reputation was made by another work for hire. This began as a serial contracted by Peter Keary (1865–1915), of C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, to capitalize on public interest in a crisis in China (which became known as the Scramble for Concessions.)The Empress of the Earth ran weekly in Short Stories from 5 February – 18 June 1898. The early chapters incorporated actual headline events as the crisis unfolded, and proved wildly popular with the public. Pearson responded by ordering Shiel to double the length of the serial to 150,000 words, but Shiel cut it back by a third for the book version, which was rushed out that July as The Yellow Danger.
Some contemporary critics described this novel as a fictionalization of Charles Henry Pearson
Charles Henry Pearson
Charles Henry Pearson was a British-born Australian historian, educationist, politician and journalist. According to John Tregenza, "Pearson was the outstanding intellectual of the Australian colonies...
's National Life and Character: A Forecast (1893). Shiel's Asian villain, Dr. Yen How, has been cited as a possible basis for the better-known Dr. Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...
. Dr. Yen How was probably based on the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
(1866–1925), who had first gained fame in England in 1896 when he was kidnapped and imprisoned at the Chinese embassy in London until public outrage pressured the English government to demand his release. Similar kidnapping incidents occurred in several of Shiel's subsequent novels.
The Yellow Danger was Shiel's most successful book during his lifetime, going through numerous editions, particularly when the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
of 1899-1901 seemed to confirm his fictional portrayal of Chinese hostility to the West. Shiel himself considered the novel hackwork, and seemed embarrassed by its success. It was a likely influence on H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
in The War in the Air (1908), Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
in The Unparalleled Invasion (1910), and others.
His next novel was another serial contracted by Pearson to tie into the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
. Contraband of War ran in Pearson's Weekly 7 May—9 July 1898, again incorporating headline events into the serial as the war progressed. It was published as a book the following year.
Genre innovator
Around 1899-1900 Shiel conceived a loosely linked trilogy of novels which were described by David G. HartwellDavid G. Hartwell
David Geddes Hartwell is an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He has worked for Signet , Berkley Putnam , Pocket , and Tor Books David Geddes Hartwell (b. July 10, 1941) is an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He has worked for Signet (1971–1973), Berkley Putnam...
in his introduction to the Gregg Press edition of The Purple Cloud
The Purple Cloud
The Purple Cloud is a "last man" novel by the British writer M. P. Shiel. It was published in 1901. H. P. Lovecraft later praised the novel as exemplary weird fiction, "delivered with a skill and artistry falling little short of actual majesty." Frank Belknap Long deemed it "the most unutterably...
as possibly the first future history
Future history
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors in the subgenre of speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction...
series in science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
. Each was linked by similar introductory frame purporting to show that the novels were visions of progressively more distant (or alternative?) futures glimpsed by a clairvoyant in a trance. Notebook I of the series had been plotted at least by 1898, but would not see print until published as The Last Miracle (1906). Notebook II became The Lord of the Sea (1901), which was recognized by contemporary readers as a critique of private ownership of land based on the theories of Henry George
Henry George
Henry George was an American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "single tax" on land...
.
Shiel's lasting literary reputation is largely based on Notebook III of the series which was serialized in The Royal Magazine
The Royal Magazine
The Royal Magazine was a monthly British literary magazine that was published between 1898 and 1939. Its founder and publisher was Sir Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet....
in abridged form before book publication that autumn as The Purple Cloud
The Purple Cloud
The Purple Cloud is a "last man" novel by the British writer M. P. Shiel. It was published in 1901. H. P. Lovecraft later praised the novel as exemplary weird fiction, "delivered with a skill and artistry falling little short of actual majesty." Frank Belknap Long deemed it "the most unutterably...
(1901). The novel tells the tale of Adam Jeffson, who, returning alone from an expedition to the North Pole, discovers that a worldwide catastrophe has left him as the last man alive.
Shiel had married a young Parisian-Spaniard, Carolina Garcia Gomez in 1898, who was the model for a character in Cold Steel (1900) and several short stories. (The Welsh author and mystic Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
and decadent poet Theodore Wratislaw were among the wedding guests.) They separated around 1903 and his daughter was taken to Spain after Lina's death around 1904. Shiel blamed the failure of the marriage on the interference of his mother-in-law, but money was at the heart of their problems. Shiel was caught between his desire to write high art and his need to produce more commercial fare. When his better efforts did not sell well, he was forced to seek more journalistic work, and began to collaborate with Louis Tracy
Louis Tracy
Louis Tracy was a British journalist, and prolific writer of fiction. He used the pseudonyms Gordon Holmes and Robert Fraser, which were at times shared with M. P. Shiel, a collaborator from the start of the twentieth century....
on a series of romantic mystery novels, some published under Tracy's name, others under the pseudonyms Gordon Holmes and Robert Fraser. The last of their known collaborations appeared in 1911.
Edwardian times
In 1902 Shiel turned away from the more dramatic future war and science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
themes which had dominated his early serial novels and began a series which have been described as his middle period romantic novels. The most interesting was the first, serialized as In Love’s Whirlpool in Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 14 May—3 September 1902, and published in book form as The Weird o’It (1902). Shiel later described it as a "true Bible or Holy Book" for modern times, in which he had attempted to represent "Christianity in a radical way." This novel was far from hackwork, and besides apparent autobiographical elements (including a minor character based on Ernest Dowson
Ernest Dowson
Ernest Christopher Dowson , born in Lee, London, was an English poet, novelist and writer of short stories, associated with the Decadent movement.- Biography :...
with whom Shiel is rumored to have roomed briefly in the 1890s), contains some of his finest writing, but it was not reprinted in England, nor formally published in America.
Shiel returned to contemporary themes in The Yellow Wave (1905), an historical novel about the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
of 1904-1905. The novel was a recasting of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
into the on-going war with leading families of the two nations standing in for the feuding
Capulets and Montagues of Shakespeare's play. Shiel modeled his hero on Yoshio Markino
Yoshio Markino
was a Japanese artist and author who spent much of his life in London. He was born at the town of Toyota in Japan, at birth being named Heiji Makino....
(1874–1956), the Japanese artist and author who lived in London from 1897-1942. In February 1904 Shiel had offered to Peter Keary to go to the front as a war correspondent with letters of introduction from Markino. He may have met Markino through Arthur Ransome
Arthur Ransome
Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; other common subjects...
who dedicated Bohemia In London (1907) to Shiel and used him as the model for the chapter on "The Novelist."
Faced with declining sales of his books, Shiel tried to recapture the success of The Yellow Danger when China and Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
returned to the headlines during the Chinese Revolution of 1911-1912. Though a better novel in most respects, The Dragon (1913), serialized earlier that year as To Arms! and revised in 1929 as The Yellow Peril, failed to catch the public's interest. As the hero of the story had oddly predicted, Shiel turned away from novels for ten years.
Scandal
It had been popularly believed that Shiel had spent time in prison for fraud. However, it was discovered in 2008 that in 1914 Shiel had actually been convicted under the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1885)Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 , or "An Act to make further provision for the Protection of Women and Girls, the suppression of brothels, and other purposes", was the latest in a 25-year series of legislation in the United Kingdom beginning with the Offences against the Person Act 1861 that...
for 'indecently assaulting and carnally knowing' his 12 year old de facto stepdaughter. Unrepentant, Shiel served sixteen months hard labour in prison, complaining to the Home Secretary about the law, though he assured his publisher Grant Richards in a letter that he had been treated well. Shiel's discussion of his crime is disingenuous; he conceals from Richards the identity of his victim in addition to misleading him about her age. Instead he refers to 'love-toyings' with an older girl on the cusp of maturity. Nor does Shiel mention the fact that he had known both the girl and her mother's sisters long before his conviction, perhaps intimately, as contemporary letters from one of the sisters to Shiel suggests. Court records described Shiel as a 'clerk and metal worker', though one of the witnesses was a metal worker and the records may have transposed some information. He appealed the conviction unsuccessfully.
It is too early to assess whether this new revelation about Shiel will have an impact upon his literary legacy. However, as Macleod argues in her essay, young heroines abound in Shiel's novels, where they are romanticised, idealised and sexualised through the eyes of the male author. She cites the example of the two thousand-year-old Rachel in 'This Above All' (1933), who is portrayed as part “child,” part “harlot,” part “saint”, since she still inhabits the young girl's body she possessed when raised from the dead and thus rendered immortal by the Biblical Christ. Lazarus (also a 2,000 year old immortal for the same reason) is warned ruefully against her: “If Rachel and you co-habit without some marriage-rite, you may see yourself in prison here in Europe, since it cannot be believed that she is as old as fourteen.”
Georgian times
Over the next decade Shiel wrote five plays, dabbled in radical politics and translated at least one, though probably more, pamphlets for the Workers Socialist FederationWorkers Socialist Federation
The Workers' Socialist Federation was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom, led by Sylvia Pankhurst. Under many different names, it gradually broadened its politics from a focus on women's suffrage to eventually become a left communist grouping....
. In 1919 he married his second wife, Esther Lydia Furley (1872–1942). They traveled in Italy in the early 1920s, probably living largely off her income, and separated amicably around 1929, but do not seem to have divorced.
He returned to writing around 1922 and between 1923 and 1937 published a further ten or so books, as well as thorough revisions of five of his older novels. Shiel spent most of his last decade working on a "truer" translation of the Gospel of Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
with extensive commentary. He finished it, but half of the final draft was lost after his death in Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
.
In 1931 Shiel met a young poet and bibliophile, John Gawsworth
John Gawsworth
John Gawsworth , a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong , was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. He also used the pseudonym Orpheus Scrannel...
, who befriended him and helped him obtain a Civil List Pension. Gawsworth talked Shiel into allowing him to complete several old story fragments, sometimes roping literary friends like Oswell Blakeston
Oswell Blakeston
Oswell Blakeston was the pseudonym of Henry Joseph Hasslacher , a British writer and artist who also worked in the film industry, made some experimental films, and wrote extensively on film theory...
into helping. The results were largely unsuccessful, but Gawsworth used them as filler in various anthologies with his name prominently listed as co-author.
Redonda: the legend of the kingdom
As King Felipe, Shiel was purportedly the king of RedondaKingdom of Redonda
The Kingdom of Redonda is a name for the micronation aspect of the tiny uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda.This islet is situated between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat, within the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain, in the West Indies. The island is currently legally a dependency of...
, a small uninhabited rocky island in the West Indies, situated a short distance northwest of the island of Montserrat, where Shiel was born.
The Redonda legend
Kingdom of Redonda
The Kingdom of Redonda is a name for the micronation aspect of the tiny uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda.This islet is situated between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat, within the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain, in the West Indies. The island is currently legally a dependency of...
was probably created out of whole cloth by Shiel himself, and was first mentioned publicly in a 1929 booklet advertising the reissue of four of his novels by Victor Gollancz
Victor Gollancz
Sir Victor Gollancz was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.-Early life:Born in Maida Vale, London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; after being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking...
. According to the story Shiel told, he was crowned King of Redonda on his 15th birthday in 1880. However, there is little evidence that Shiel took these claims seriously, and his biographer, Harold Billings, speculates that the story may have been an intentional hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
foisted on the gullible press. At this late date, proving or completely discrediting the story may turn out to be impossible either way.
On his death John Gawsworth
John Gawsworth
John Gawsworth , a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong , was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. He also used the pseudonym Orpheus Scrannel...
became both his literary executor and his appointed heir to the "kingdom". Gawsworth took the legend of Redonda to heart. He never lost an opportunity to further elaborate the tale and spread the story to the press.
Legacy
Excluding the collaborations with Tracy, Shiel published over 30 books, including 25 novels and various collections of short stories, essays and poems. Arkham HouseArkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
issued two posthumous collections, Xelucha and Others
Xélucha and Others
Xélucha and Others is a collection of stories by author M. P. Shiel. It was released in 1975 by Arkham House in an edition of 4,283 copies. It was the author's first book published by Arkham House and was first announced in Arkham's 1948 catalog...
(1975) and Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk
Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk
Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk is a collection of supernatural detective short stories by author M. P. Shiel. It was released in 1977 by Mycroft & Moran in an edition of 4,036 copies. The first three Prince Zaleski stories had appeared in Shiel's first published work, Prince Zaleski...
(1977). The Purple Cloud
The Purple Cloud
The Purple Cloud is a "last man" novel by the British writer M. P. Shiel. It was published in 1901. H. P. Lovecraft later praised the novel as exemplary weird fiction, "delivered with a skill and artistry falling little short of actual majesty." Frank Belknap Long deemed it "the most unutterably...
remains his most famous and often reprinted novel. It has been variously described as both a neglected masterpiece and the best of all Last Man novels. It was credited as the loose inspiration for the 1959 MGM film, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, starring Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Inger Stevens
Inger Stevens
Inger Stevens was a Swedish-American movie and TV actress.- Early life :Inger Stevens was born Inger Stensland in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an insecure child and was often ill. When she was nine, her parents divorced and she moved with her father to New York City...
, and Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.-Early life:Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Catalan and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer , was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St....
. Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
cited it as an influence on his novel The Stand
The Stand
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf...
.
A number of the short stories continue to be reprinted,
but many of his other novels, including the middle period romantics, have been nearly forgotten.
Novels
- The Rajah's Sapphire (1896), with W. T. Stead
- The Yellow Danger (1898)
- Contraband of War (1899)
- Cold Steel (1899, revised, 1929)
- The Man-Stealers (1900)
- Lord of the Sea (1901, revised, 1924)
- The Purple CloudThe Purple CloudThe Purple Cloud is a "last man" novel by the British writer M. P. Shiel. It was published in 1901. H. P. Lovecraft later praised the novel as exemplary weird fiction, "delivered with a skill and artistry falling little short of actual majesty." Frank Belknap Long deemed it "the most unutterably...
(1901, revised, 1929) - The Weird o' It (1902)
- Unto the Third Generation (1903)
- The Evil That Men Do (1904)
- The Lost Viol (1905)
- The Yellow Wave (1905)
- The Last Miracle (1906, revised, 1929)
- The White Wedding (1908)
- The Isle of Lies (1909)
- This Knot of Life (1909)
- The Dragon (1913), revised as The Yellow PerilYellow PerilYellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
(1929) - Children of the Wind (1923)
- How the Old Woman Got Home (1927)
- Dr. Krasinski's Secret (1929)
- The Black Box (1930)
- Say Au R'Voir But Not Goodbye (1933)
- This Above All (1933), reissued as Above All Else (1943)
- The Young Men Are Coming! (1937)
- The New King (1981), alternately entitled The Splendid Devil, written c. 1934-45
Short story collections
- Prince Zaleski (1895)
- Shapes in the Fire (1896)
- The Pale Ape and Other Pulses (1911)
- Here Comes the Lady (1928)
- The Invisible Voices (1935)
- The Best Short Stories of M. P. Shiel (1948)
- Xelucha and OthersXélucha and OthersXélucha and Others is a collection of stories by author M. P. Shiel. It was released in 1975 by Arkham House in an edition of 4,283 copies. It was the author's first book published by Arkham House and was first announced in Arkham's 1948 catalog...
(1975) - Prince Zaleski and Cummings King MonkPrince Zaleski and Cummings King MonkPrince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk is a collection of supernatural detective short stories by author M. P. Shiel. It was released in 1977 by Mycroft & Moran in an edition of 4,036 copies. The first three Prince Zaleski stories had appeared in Shiel's first published work, Prince Zaleski...
(1977) - The Works of M. P. ShielThe Works of M. P. ShielThe Works of M. P. Shiel is a bibliography of works by British author M. P. Shiel. The bibliography was compiled by A. Reynolds Morse. It was first published by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc...
, Volume I (1979) - The House of Sounds and Others (2005)
Miscellaneous works
- Richard's Shilling Selections from Edwardian Poets -- M. P. Shiel (1936)
- Science, Life and Literature (1950), essays, with a Foreword by John GawsworthJohn GawsworthJohn Gawsworth , a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong , was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. He also used the pseudonym Orpheus Scrannel...
See also
- Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fictionApocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fictionApocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...
- Kingdom of RedondaKingdom of RedondaThe Kingdom of Redonda is a name for the micronation aspect of the tiny uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda.This islet is situated between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat, within the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain, in the West Indies. The island is currently legally a dependency of...
- Yellow PerilYellow PerilYellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
- A. Reynolds Morse & Eleanor R. MorseA. Reynolds Morse & Eleanor R. MorseAlbert Reynolds Morse was an American businessman and philanthropist. His wife, Eleanor Reese Morse was also an American philanthropist. They founded the Salvador Dalí Museum in St.Petersburg, Florida.-Early life:Reynolds Morse was born in Denver, Colorado to Bradish P. and Anna Morse...
External links
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- The Yellow Danger, and Other "Yellow Peril" Fiction by David L. Vineyard.
- Xelucha