Herman Knickerbocker Vielé (January 31, 1856 – December 14, 1908), was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet.
Biography
Herman Knickerbocker Vielé was born in New York City on January 31, 1856, the son of Teresa (Griffin) Viele (author of a memoir of army life, ''Following the Drum'') and
Egbert Ludovicus Viele, a Union Army officer and later U.S. Representative from New York.
His paternal grandfather
John L. Viele was a New York politician, and his brother
Francis Vielé-Griffin
Francis Vielé-Griffin (pseudonym of Egbert Ludovicus Viélé, 26 May 186412 November 1937), was a French symbolist poet. He was born at Norfolk, Virginia, USA, the son of General Egbert Ludovicus Viele, and moved to France with his mother (the ...
and sister
Emily Vielé Strother were both writers.
[ He married Mary Wharton on September 1, 1887.][
The writer ]Thomas Allibone Janvier
Thomas Allibone Janvier (July 16, 1849 – June 18, 1913) was an American story-writer and historian, born in Philadelphia of Provençal descent.
Early life and marriage
Janvier received a public school education, then worked in Philadelphi ...
considered his first book, ''The Inn of the Silver Moon'', his best work.[ In his second novel, ''The Last of the Knickerbockers'' (1901), Vielé — himself a descendant of the Knickerbockers of Schagticoke, New York — celebrated and mythologized the Dutch-descended families of New York, especially the idea that they represented a kind of surviving "old stock" that was nobler than other more recently arrived Americans.][
His last book, a story collection entitled ''On the Lightship'', was published posthumously. Among the ten stories, "The Girl from Mercury: An Interplanetary Love Story" stands out as a piece of early ]science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
.[ Vielé introduced it thus: "Being the interpretation of certain phonic vibragraphs recorded by the Long’s Peak Wireless Installation, now for the first time made public through the courtesy of Professor Caducious, Ph.D., sometime secretary of the Boulder branch of the association for the advancement of interplanetary communication."][
His books were popular in Europe, and ''Heartbreak Hill'' (1908) was translated into German.][
Herman Knickerbocker Vielé died from heart disease in New York on December 14, 1908.][
]
Books
*''The Inn of the Silver Moon'' (novel, 1901)
*''The Last of the Knickerbockers: A Comedy Romance'' (novel, 1901)
*''Myra of the Pines'' (novel, 1902)
*''Random Verse'' (poems, 1903)
*''Heartbreak Hill: A Comedy Romance'' (novel, 1908)
*''On the Lightship'' (story collection, 1909)
References
External links
*
"The Girl from Mercury"
(story by Vielé)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vielé, Herman Knickerbocker
1856 births
1908 deaths
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American poets
Novelists from New York (state)
Poets from New York City