Robert Barr (16 September 1849 – 21 October 1912) was a
Scottish-Canadian
Scottish Canadians () are people of Scottish descent or heritage living in Canada. As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and amongst the first Europeans to settle in the country, Scottish people have made a large impact on Canadian cultur ...
short story writer and novelist who also worked as a newspaper and magazine editor.
Early years in Canada
Barr was born in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, Scotland to Robert Barr and Jane Watson.
In 1854, he emigrated with his parents to
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...
. His family settled on a farm near the village of Muirkirk. Barr assisted his father with his work as a carpenter and builder and was a teacher in
Kent County, then in 1873 entered the
Toronto Normal School
The Toronto Normal School was a teachers college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1847, the normal school was located at Church and Gould streets in central Toronto (after 1852), and was a predecessor to the current Ontario Institute for ...
.
After graduating, he taught in
Walkerville and in 1874 became headmaster of the Central School at
Windsor in 1874.
During the 1870s, he wrote humorous pieces for various publications, including the Toronto ''Grip'', under the pseudonym "Luke Sharp",
which he took from an
undertaker
A funeral director, also known as an undertaker or mortician (American English), is a professional who has licenses in funeral arranging and embalming (or preparation of the deceased) involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks o ...
's sign. After the ''
Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...
'' serialized his account of a boating trip on
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...
, in 1876 he changed careers and became a reporter there, then a columnist. Two of his brothers followed him to the newspaper.
London years

In 1881, by which time he was exchange editor of the ''Free Press'', Barr decided to "vamoose the ranch" and relocated to London to continue his fiction writing career while establishing a weekly English edition of the newspaper. The magazine was very successful.
In 1892 he founded the magazine ''
The Idler'', choosing
Jerome K. Jerome as his collaborator (wanting, as Jerome said, "a popular name").
This was also very successful. Barr stepped down as co-editor in 1894, but in 1902 became the sole proprietor and returned as editor.

In London in the 1890s, Barr began writing crime novels and became more prolific, publishing a book a year. He also wrote stories of the supernatural.
Detective stories were much in vogue because of the popularity of
Conan Doyle's
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
stories; Barr published the first Sherlock Holmes parody, "Detective Stories Gone Wrong: The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs" (also known as "The Great Pegram Mystery") in ''The Idler'' in 1892, and followed it in 1894 with "The Adventure of the Second Swag". His 1906 novel ''The triumphs of Eugène Valmont'' parodies Holmes and other "gentleman detectives" whose pompous sleuth is a possible antecedent of
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...
's
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...
.
Barr socialized widely with other best-selling authors. In 1903, despite initial reservations about taking on the project, he completed ''The O'Ruddy'', a novel left unfinished by his recently deceased friend
Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
.
Despite his Holmes satires, he remained on very good terms with Conan Doyle, who described him in the 1920s in his memoir ''Memories and Adventures'' as "a volcanic Anglo—or rather Scot-American, with a violent manner, a wealth of strong adjectives, and one of the kindest natures underneath it all". Barr himself wrote several humorous articles about being a writer, including in 1899 “Literature in Canada” , where he described it as a country whose “average citizen ... loves whiskey better than books".
Writing style
Barr's short stories usually feature a witty narrator and an ironic twist. His novels tend to be episodic, the chapters often linked only by the central character. His work featured a wide range of protagonists, but his characters are often stereotyped. His narration often includes moral and other asides.
Personal life and death
In August 1876, when he was 27, Barr married Ontario-born Eva Bennett, who was 21.
They had either two
or three children.
The 1911 census places Robert Barr, "a writer of fiction", at Hillhead,
Woldingham, Surrey, a village southeast of London, living with his wife, Eva, their son William, and two female servants. He died there from heart disease on 21 October 1912.
[''The New York Times''. 23 October 1912.][''Who's Who 1914'', xxi]
Honors
In 1900, Barr was awarded an honorary degree by the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
.
Works
* ''In a Steamer Chair and Other Stories'' (13 short stories, 1892)
Gutenberg LibraryLibrivox* "The Face And The Mask" (24 short stories, 1894):
Gutenberg Library* ''In the Midst of Alarms'' (a story of the 1866 attempted
Fenian invasion of Canada, 1893)
Gutenberg Library* ''From Whose Bourne'' (novel, 1896
Gutenberg LibraryInternet Archive* ''One Day's Courtship'' (1896
Gutenberg Library* ''Revenge!'' (20 short stories, 1896
Gutenberg LibraryLibrivox*''The Strong Arm'
Gutenberg Library* ''A Woman Intervenes'' (novel, 1896
Gutenberg Library* ''The Mutable Many'' (1896)
* ''Tekla: A Romance of Love and War'' (1898
Gutenberg Library* ''Jennie Baxter, Journalist'' (1899
Gutenberg Library* ''The Unchanging East'' (1900)
* ''The Victors'' (1901)
* ''A Prince of Good Fellows'' (1902
Gutenberg Library* ''Over The Border: A Romance'' (1903)
* ''The O'Ruddy, A Romance'', with
Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
(1903
Gutenberg Library* ''A Chicago Princess'' (1904)
* ''The Speculations of John Steele'' (1905)
* ''The Tempestuous Petticoat'' (1905–12)
* ''A Rock in the Baltic'' (1906
Gutenberg Library* ''The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont'' (1906
Gutenberg Library* ''
The Measure of the Rule'' (1907)
* ''Young Lord Stranleigh'' (1908)
* ''Stranleigh's Millions'' (1909)
* ''The Sword Maker'' (historical novel, 1910
Gutenberg LibraryInternet Archive* ''The Palace of Logs'' (1912)
* "The Ambassador's Pigeons" (1899)
* "And the Rigor of the Game" (1892)
* "Converted" (1896)
* "Count Conrad's Courtship" (1896)
* "The Count's Apology" (1896)
* "A Deal on Change" (1896)
* "The Exposure of Lord Stanford" (1896)
* "Gentlemen: The King!"
* "The Hour-Glass" (1899)
* "An invitation" (1892)
* "A Ladies Man"
* "The Long Ladder" (1899)
* "Mrs. Tremain" (1892)
*" Transformation" (1896)
* "The Understudy" (1896)
* " The Vengeance of the Dead" (1896)
* "The Bromley Gibbert's Story" (1896)
* " Out of Thun" (1896)
* "The Shadow of Greenback" (1896)
* "Flight of the Red Dog" (fiction)
* "Lord Stranleigh Abroad" (1913)
* "One Day's Courtship and the Heralds of Fame" (1896)
* ''Cardillac''
Sources
*
References
External links
Works by or about Robert Barrat
HathiTrust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...
*
Electronic editions
*
*
*
*
Works by or about Robert Barra
The Literature NetworkSony Reader e-book version of ''The Triumph of Eugene Valmont''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barr, Robert
1849 births
1912 deaths
19th-century Canadian novelists
19th-century Canadian short story writers
19th-century British male writers
19th-century British writers
19th-century Scottish novelists
20th-century Canadian male writers
20th-century Canadian novelists
20th-century Canadian short story writers
20th-century Scottish novelists
Canadian male novelists
Canadian male short story writers
Canadian science fiction writers
Detroit Free Press people
Scottish male novelists
Scottish science fiction writers
Scottish short story writers
Scottish emigrants to Canada
Writers from Glasgow