Silas Kitto Hocking (24 March 1850 – 15 September 1935) was a Cornish novelist and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

preacher. He is known for his novel for youth called '' Her Benny'' (1879), which was a best-seller.

Biography

Hocking was born at

St Stephen-in-Brannel St Stephen-in-Brannel (known locally as ''St Stephen's'' or ''St Stephen'') () is a civil parish and village in mid Cornwall, England. The village is four miles (6.5 km) west of St Austell on the southern edge of Cornwall's china clay dis ...

, Cornwall, to James Hocking, part owner of a tin mine, and his wife Elizabeth, née Kitto. His brother was Joseph Hocking (1860–1937), also a novelist and Methodist minister, and his sister, Salome Hocking (1859–1927), who was also a novelist. As a youngster he read

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

. Although intended to follow his father into the tin business, he felt called to the Methodist ministry. He attended

Owens College Owens may refer to: Places in the United States * Owens Station, Delaware * Owens Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota * Owens, Missouri * Owens, Ohio * Owens, Texas * Owens, Virginia People * Owens (surname), including a list of people with ...

and the Crescent Range Theological College of Manchester. In 1870 he was ordained as a minister. He worked in different parts of England over the next few years, showing himself to be a brilliant preacher, and he married in 1876. He resigned in 1896 to devote his time to writing, Liberal politics and journalism. Hocking wrote many novels aimed at children with a

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

bent. He wrote his first novel, ''Alec Green'', while living in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

in 1878. It was, however, with his second novel that he won great fame; '' Her Benny'' (1879), a story of the street children of Liverpool. It sold over a million copies and with it Hocking become one of the most popular authors in England. The novel was adapted to silent film in 1920 as '' Her Benny''. In 1894 Hocking became editor of ''Family Circle'' and two years later helped establish '' Temple Magazine'', a Sunday magazine in the style of ''

Good Words ''Good Words'' was a 19th-century monthly periodical established in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consist ...

''. His novel ''The Strange Adventures of Israel Pendry'' (1899) is autobiographical of his Cornish youth. Other works include ''God's Outcast'' (1898) which reflects on the nature of guilt; and, ''To Pay the Price'' (1900), a morality story of theft and redemption. His autobiography ''My Book of Memory'' was published in 1923. In all he wrote fifty books. Hocking was also politically active, for the

Liberal party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

and unsuccessfully contested the January 1906 General Election at

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

and January 1910 General Election at

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

. He died in

Highgate Highgate is a suburban area of N postcode area, north London in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden, London Borough of Islington, Islington and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey. The area is at the north-eastern corner ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, and was survived by his wife, Esther Mary, to whom he had been married since 1876. They had two sons and two daughters.Although both the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' and ''Who Was Who'' state that Hocking had one son and two daughters, in his ''My Book of Memory'' he at one point refers to having 'a wife and four children dependent on me' (p. 164), names the sons as Ernest and Vivian (who predeceased him) (p.280–81), and mentions 'My two daughters' (p. 282). Silas Hocking is buried in

St Pancras and Islington Cemetery St Pancras and Islington Cemetery is a cemetery in East Finchley, North London. Although it is situated in the London Borough of Barnet, it is run as two cemeteries, owned by two other London Boroughs, London Borough of Camden, Camden (formerl ...

, along with his son, who died of

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

in 1919, and his wife.

Bibliography

*''Alec Green'' (1878) *'' Her Benny'' (1879) *''His Father'' (1880) *''Reedyford'' (1880) *''Chips: A Story of Manchester Life'' (1881) *''Ivy'' (1881) *''Poor Mike'' (1882) *''Sea Waif'' (1882) *''Dick’s Fairy'' (1883) *''Caleb Carthew'' (1884) *''Cricket: A Tale of Humble Life'' (1885) *''Our Joe'' (1885) *''Tregeagles Head'' (1886) *''Up the Rhine and Over the Alps'' (1886) *''Real Grit'' (1887) *''Crookleigh'' (1888) *''For Abigail'' (1889) *''’Chips’, ‘Joe’ and ‘Mike’'' (1890) *''For Light and Liberty'' (1890) *''Rex Raynor'' (1890) *''Where Duty Lies'' (1891) *''One in Charity'' (1893) *''A Son of Reuben'' (1894) *''Sweethearts Yet'' (1894) *''The Blindness of Madge Tyndall'' (1894) *''Doctor Dick and Other Tales'' (1895) *''The Heart of Man'' (1895) *''For Such is Life'' (1896) *''In Spite of Fate'' (1897) *''God’s Outcast'' (1898) *''Tales of a Tin Mine'' (1898) *''The Culture of Manhood'' (1898) *''The Day of Recompense'' (1899) *''The Strange Adventures of Israel Pendray'' (1899) *''The Fate of Endilloe'' (1901) *''To Pay the Price'' (1900) *''When Life is Young'' (1900) *''The Awakening of Anthony Weir'' (1901) *''Gripped'' (1902) *''The Wizard’s Light'' (1902) *''Adventures of Latimer Field, Curate'' (1903) *''A Bonnie Saxon'' (1903) *''The Tempter’s Power'' (1903) *''The Scarlet Clue'' (1904 (2nd edn)) *''Smoking Flax'' (1904) *''Meadowsweet and Rue'' (1904) *''Chapters in Democratic Christianity'' (1904) *''Pioneers'' (1905) *''The Conquering Will'' (1905) *''The Earnest Life'' (1905) *''The Flaming Sword'' (1905) *''A Gamble with Life'' (1906) *''A Human Face'' (1906) *''The Silent Man (1906) *''The Squire’s Daughter'' (1906) *''A Modern Pharisee'' (1907) *''St Gwynifer'' (1907) *''The Shadow Between'' (1908) *''Yours and Mine'' (1908) *''A Desperate Hope'' (1909) *''Who Shall Judge?'' (1910) *''The Quenchless Fire'' (1911) *''The Third Man'' (1911) *''Smuggler’s Keep'' (1913) *''A Woman’s Love'' (1913) *''The Wrath of Man'' (1913) *''In Self-Defence'' (1914) *''Sword and Cross'' (1914) *''Uncle Peter’s Will'' (1914) *''The Angel of the Desert'' (1915) *''The Great Hazard'' (1915) *''When He Came to Himself'' (1915) *''The Beautiful Alien'' (1916) *''A Man’s Work'' (1916) *''His Own Accuser'' (1917) *''Camouflage'' (1918) *''The Moral Aspect of the League of Nations'' (n.d. – 1918?) *''Nancy'' (1919) *''Without the Gate'' (1919) *''Watchers in the Dawn'' (1920) *''An Interrupted Romance'' (1921) *''The Greater Good'' (1922) *''Where the Roads Cross'' (1922) *''The Lost Lode'' (1923) *''My Book of Memory'' (1923) *''The Guarded Way'' (1924) *''The Crooked Trail'' (1925) *''Lonehead Farm'' (1925) *''The Sinister Shadow'' (1926) *''Miss Ann’s Lodger'' (1927) *''The Broken Fence'' (1928) *''The Winds of Chance'' (1928) *''The Exile’s Return'' (1929) *''The Mystery Man'' (1930) *''The Perplexities of Peter'' (1933) *''Gerry Storm'' (1934)

References

External links

* * *
Biography at Star-Dot-Star

Catalogue of Hocking's papers
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collect ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hocking, Silas Kitto 1850 births 1935 deaths 19th-century British Methodist ministers Burials at St Pancras and Islington Cemetery Cornish Methodists Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Novelists from Cornwall People from St Stephen-in-Brannel

Biography

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links