Kellow Chesney (3 March 1914 – July 2004) was a journalist, publisher's reader, editor and writer.
His most notable book was ''The Victorian Underworld'', first published in 1970. The writer
William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...
has stated that his depiction of the criminal society in ''
Neuromancer
''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. Considered one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre, it is the only novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and ...
'' (1984) was strongly influenced by this popular work: "I literally had ''The Victorian Underworld'' on my desk constantly, throughout the writing of ''Neuromancer'', and for years after."
[Gibson, William]
Guestbook entry
April 16, 2009, GoodReads (online).
Life
He was born in
Whimple
Whimple is a village and civil parish in East Devon in the English county of Devon, approximately due east of the city of Exeter, and from the nearest small town, Ottery St Mary. It has a population of 1,642, recounted to 1,173 for the vill ...
,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
shire, the son of Kellow and Vera Moule Chesney. He married Anne M. H. Thackeray, a social worker, on 19 March 1951. They had one daughter, Charlotte Chesney.
He attended
Haileybury and Imperial Service College
Haileybury is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) near Hertford in England. It is a member of the Rugby Group and, though originally a major boys' public school in the Victorian era, it is now co-educational, enrol ...
, a boarding school situated between
Hertford and
Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon () is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River.
Hoddesdon ...
, about 20 miles north of central London. He then studied at
Wadham College
Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road.
Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...
, Oxford, from 1928 to 1933. He served in the British Army from 1940 to 1946, retiring as a lieutenant. He then entered journalism, eventually becoming a full-time writer.
Publications
Body on the Bench(Translator), b
Hammond, 1953
(Editor & Translator), by Rene Roussin, Hammond, 1960
Crimean War Reader Muller, 1960, revised edition, Severn House, 1975
The Victorian Underworld M.T. Smith, 1970
References
* ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2003
Notes
British writers
1914 births
2004 deaths
{{england-writer-stub