Hugh Stowell Scott (9 May 1862 – 19 November 1903) was an English novelist who wrote under the pseudonym of Henry Seton Merriman. His best known novel, ''The Sowers'' went through thirty UK editions.
Life
Born in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
,
he became an
underwriter
Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liability ...
at
Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...
, but then took to travel and writing novels, many of which had great popularity. Scott visited India as a tourist in 1877–1878 and set his novel ''Flotsam'' (1896) there. He was an enthusiastic traveller, many of his journeys being made with his friend and fellow author
Stanley J. Weyman.
Scott married Ethel Frances Hall (1865–1943) on 19 June 1889. They had no children. Scott was unusually modest and retiring in character. He died of appendicitis in 1903, aged 41, at
Melton, Suffolk
Melton is a village in Suffolk, England, located approximately one mile northeast of Woodbridge. The 2001 census recorded a population of 3,718, the population increasing to 3,741 at the 2011 Census. The village is served by Melton railway stat ...
.
[ Scott left £5000 in his will to ]Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Evelyn Beatrice Hall (28 September 1868 – 13 April 1956),Sources which date Hall's death to 1919, such aFred R. Shapiro's ''The Yale Book of Quotations'' are in error. The confusion may have arisen because Hall published no further written wor ...
, his sister-in-law and a fellow writer, best known for a biographical work, '' The Friends of Voltaire''. Scott explained the legacy as a "token of my gratitude for her continued assistance and literary advice, without which I should never have been able to have made a living by my pen."
He worked with great care, and his best books held a high place in Victorian fiction. His book ''The Sowers'' was made into a silent film
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
in 1916.
Novels
His first novel, ''Young Mistley'' was published anonymously in 1888.[ His other novels include: ''The Phantom Future'' (his only novel set entirely in England, 1888), ''Suspense'' (1890), ''The Slave of the Lamp'' (1892), ''From One Generation to Another'' (1892), ''With Edged Tools'' (a bestseller in 1894), ''The Sowers'' (generally considered his best, set in Russia, where it was ]banned
A ban is a formal or informal prohibition of something. Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some bans in commerce are referred to as embargoes. ''Ban'' is also used as a verb similar in meaning ...
, 1896), ''The Grey Lady'' (1897), ''In Kedar's Tents'' (1897),
Bibliography
References
External links
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*For short accounts of many of the novels see the Preface o
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Hugh Stowell
1903 deaths
1862 births
Writers from Newcastle upon Tyne
People educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh
Deaths from appendicitis
English male novelists
19th-century English novelists
19th-century English male writers
Victorian novelists
19th-century English short story writers
English male short story writers
19th-century pseudonymous writers