Edward James Mortimer Collins (29 June 1827 – 28 July 1876) was an English

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while othe ...

, journalist and poet. Some of his lyrics, with their "light grace, their sparkling wit and their airy philosophy", were described in the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as "equal to anything of their kind in modern English".

Biography

He was born at

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

, where his father, Francis Collins, was a solicitor. He was educated at a private school, and after some years spent as mathematics master at

Elizabeth College, Guernsey The Royal College of Elizabeth, better known as Elizabeth College, is a co-educational independent school in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. One of the earliest members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), it is a public schoo ...

, he relocated to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Collins devoted himself to

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

written from the Conservative Party perspective, mainly for

periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also exampl ...

s. He also wrote occasional and humorous verse, and several

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s. Soon after his second marriage, to Frances Collins in 1868, he settled at Knowl Hill,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Be ...

and from this time he rarely left his home for a day and published several novels.

Writings

In 1855, he published his ''Idyls and Rhymes''; and in 1865 his first story, ''Who is the Heir?'' was published. A second volume of lyrics, ''The Inn of Strange Meetings'', was issued in 1871; and in 1872 he produced his longest and best sustained poem, ''The British Birds, a communication from the Ghost of

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his fo ...

''. He also wrote several novels, including ''Sweet Anne Page'' (1868), ''Two Plunges for a Pearl'' (1872), ''Miranda'' (1873), ''Mr. Carrington'' (1873, under the name of R. T. Cotton), ''Squire Silchester's Whim'' (1873, set in Devon), ''Sweet and Twenty'' (1875), and ''A Fight with Fortune'' (1876). His

three-volume novel The three-volume novel (sometimes three-decker or triple decker) was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern novel as a form of popular literat ...

''Transmigration'' (1873) is "a fantasy of multiple incarnations of which the middle one is set on a

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmos ...

."George Locke, "Wells in Three Volumes? A Sketch of British Publishing in the 19th Century," ''Science Fiction Studies'', Volume 3 No. 3 (November 1976), p. 283. Collins is credited by the ''

New English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

'' with introducing the word "psithurism" to the English language. Derived from the Ancient Greek for "whisper," it was applied specifically to the whispering of the wind. This was observed (inaccurately) by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' newspaper in an editorial of 30 September 1909 - reprinted on 30 September 2006 but not available online.

Notes

References

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External links

* * *Archival material at {{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Mortimer 1827 births 1876 deaths Writers from Plymouth, Devon English male poets English male novelists 19th-century English poets 19th-century English novelists 19th-century English male writers Occasional poets