Author Birthday 11/14 Robert Hichens

Tweet

Robert Smythe Hichens Birthplace: Speldhurst, Kent, England, UK Date of birth: 14 November 1864 Date of death: 20 July 1950 Language: English Today is the 151th birthday of English journalist and novelist, Robert Hichens. He studied music and journalism. In 1895, he published anonymously a book called “The Green Carnation,” with two character based on Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. Since it depicted the character based on Wilde—whom Hichens knew personally—as a homosexual, it was withdrawn the next year. It was used as evidence in the trial against him for homosexuality. Wilde was convicted and imprisoned. He was also friends with another horror writer, E. F Benson, who wrote such stories as “The Room in the Tower,” “The Bus-Conductor,” and “Caterpillars.” As Benson probably was and Wilde definitely was, Hichens was gay. Hichens’ most enduring story is perhaps “How Love Came to Professor Guildea.” I haven’t read it, but according to Wikipedia, it involves a supernatural visitation. The story that I have read of Hichens’ is “The Face of the Monk,” (link to text below) about a libertine writer (hmmm…) who is haunted by a doppelganger in a monk’s cowl. He decides to go on a journey to a warmer climate. He and his servant and guide stay the night at a monastery high in the mountains. And one of the monks sees him and curses him as his own demon— Not long before his death in 1950, he wrote his memoirs. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1014205 http://vickysands.com/01/03/291.htm