Ernest George Henham (1870–1948) was a Canadian-British author who wrote novels at the beginning of the 20th century about

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

and

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England. He also published literary works under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

John Trevena.

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part ...

,
Henham, Ernest G
in ''

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (''SFE'') is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus and BSFA Award, British SF Awards. Two print editions appea ...

''. Retrieved 25 January 2018.

General background

Thomas Ernest George Henham, otherwise Ernest George was born on 14 December 1870 The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: Rg 101/6969g and his writings include a series of novels based on

, the moorland in Devon, England, where he lived much of his life. He created a pseudonym, John Trevena, for many of his books. It was probably no coincidence that the surname he chose was the original name for

Tintagel Tintagel () or Trevena (, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle ...

, the legendary location of

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

's castle. Henham wrote more than two dozen books, which were published between 1897 and 1927. He was considered a recluse, but often used people he encountered in real life for the characters in his work. In addition to the United Kingdom, his books were also published in the United States.

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

reviewed his books twice, on 21 March 1908 and 23 August 1914. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy: ''Furze the Cruel'', ''Heather'', and ''Granite''. As stated by the author in his introductory remarks to ''Furze the Cruel'':

Almost everywhere in Dartmoor are furze, heather and granite. The furze seems to suggest cruelty, the heather endurance, and the granite strength. The furze is destroyed by fire, but grows again; the granite is worn away imperceptively by the rain....

In his introduction to ''Heather'', Trevena writes: "Heather, which flourishes only in pure air and sunshine, and blossoms again though it is torn by winds, seems to represent the spirit of Endurance." According to one American commentator,

...only
Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...
and
George Augustus Moore George Augustus Moore (24 February 1852 – 21 January 1933) was an Ireland, Irish novelist, Short story, short-story writer, poet, Art, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a landed family of Catholics who lived at Moore Hall, C ...
among contemporary novelists rival his art at its best. ... Trevena's novels are the expression of a passionate feeling for Nature, regarded as the sum of human personality and experience, in all its moods,--benign and malign, as man is benign and malign, and faithful to life in the stone as well as the flower...(John Trevena. ''By Violence'' with an Introduction by Edward J. O'Brien (Boston 1918)).

The natural world of the moor is important to many of his works and Trevena's themes are often about opposing ideas, such as educated vs. uneducated people; clean rural vs. dirty city living; and secular vs. religious philosophies. Trevena's personal perspective on the value of reading and writing is perhaps best captured in ''Sleeping Waters'' where he states:

"You can learn without reading, and you can live without writing... The state of ignorance may be a happy one; but when you die you leave a world which you have never really discovered, you depart from a life which you have never shared in, and you abandon for ever a wealth of beauty which has never been revealed to you. The reward of ignorance is a dull kind of self-conceit. If you were to read a dozen of the best books, you would talk less, my friend, and think more... ."

Henham also wrote some novels with fantastic content. ''Tenebrae'' (1898) features an enormous, menacing spider. ''The Feast of Bacchus: A Study in Dramatic Atmosphere'' (1907) is a supernatural horror novel. ''The Reign of the Saints'' (1911), (as John Trevena) is a science fiction novel set in a future Britain.

List of published works

He published the following works under his real name: * ''God, Man and the Devil'' (1897) * ''Menotah: A Tale of the Riel Rebellion'' (1897) * ''Tenebrae'' (1898) * ''Pete Barker's Shanty'' (1898) * ''Bonanza: A Tale of the Outside'' (1901) * ''Scud'' (1902) * ''The Plowshare and the Sword: A Tale of Old Quebec'' (1903) * ''Krum: A Study in Consciousness'' (1904) * ''A Pixy in Petticoats'' (1906) * ''The Feast of Bacchus'' (1907) * ''Bracken'' (1910) * ''The Reign of the Saints'' (1913) The following works were published under his pseudonym, John Trevena: * ''Arminel of the West'' (1907) * ''Furze the Cruel'' (1907) * ''Heather'' (1908) * ''Granite'' (1909) * ''The Dartmoor House That Jack Built'' (1909) * ''Written in the Rain'' (1910) * ''Bracken'' (1910) * ''The Reign of the Saints'' (1911) * ''Wintering Hay'' (1912) * ''No Place Like Home'' (1913) * ''Sleeping Waters'' (1913) * ''Adventures Among Wild Flowers'' (1914) * ''Moyle Church-Town'' (1915) * ''The Captain's Furniture'' (1916) * ''Raindrops'' (1920) * ''The Vanished Moor'' (1923) * ''The Custom of the Manor'' (1924) * ''Off the Beaten Track'' (1925) * ''Typet's Treasure'' (1927). Henham also published dozens of short stories in various magazines both under his own name and his pseudonym.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Henham, Ernest George 1870 births 1948 deaths 20th-century English novelists Canadian emigrants to England Writers from Devon People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford English male novelists 20th-century English male writers English horror writers English science fiction writers English male non-fiction writers