E. C. Vivian
Pen nameJack Mann, Charles Henry Cannell, A.K. Walton, Sydney Bingdom
GenreFantasy, Supernatural, Detective

Evelyn Charles Henry Vivian (( 1882-10-19)19 October 1882 – ( 1947-05-21)21 May 1947) was the pseudonym of Charles Henry Cannell, a British editor and writer of fantasy and supernatural, detective novels and stories. [1]

Biography

Prior to becoming a writer, Cannell was a former soldier in the Boer War and journalist for The Daily Telegraph. Cannell began writing novels under the pen-name "E. Charles Vivian" in 1907. Cannell started writing fantastic stories for the arts magazine Colour and the aviation journal Flying (which Cannell edited after leaving the Telegraph) in 1917–18, sometimes publishing them under the pseudonym "A.K. Walton".[2] Vivian is best known for his Lost World fantasy novels such as City of Wonder [3] and his series of novels featuring supernatural detective Gregory George Gordon Green or "Gees" which he wrote under his "Jack Mann" pseudonym.[1] Vivian also wrote several science-fiction stories, including the novel Star Dust about a scientist who can create gold.[4] Influences on Vivian's work included Rider Haggard, H.G. Wells, Arthur Machen and the American novelist Arthur O. Friel.[2] Vivian also published fiction under several other pseudonyms, including Westerns as "Barry Lynd". Adrian has noted that some of the pseudonyms Cannell used "will never now be identified".[2] For younger readers, Vivian wrote Robin Hood and his Merry Men, a retelling of the Robin Hood legend.

Vivian also edited three British pulp magazines. From 1918 to 1922 Vivian edited The Novel Magazine, and later, for the publisher Walter Hutchinson (1887–1950), Hutchinson's Adventure-Story Magazine (which serialised three of Vivian's novels) and Hutchinson's Mystery-Story Magazine.[5] In addition to UK writers, Vivian often reprinted fiction from American pulp magazines such as Adventure and Weird Tales in the Hutchinson publications.[2]

Outside the field of fiction, Vivian wrote for the book A History of Aeronautics.[2]

Some of the popular errors about his life are now corrected in the first and only full-length biography, The Shadow of Mr Vivian: The Life of E. Charles Vivian (1882-1947) by Peter Berresford Ellis, PS Publishing Ltd, Hornsea, UK, 2014.

Reception

Critic Jack Adrian has praised Cannell's lost-world stories as "bursting with ideas and colour and pace", and "superb examples of a fascinating breed".[2]

Works

The Ninth Life, under the "Jack Mann" byline, was reprinted in the April 1950 issue of A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine
Another "Jack Mann" novel, Her Ways Are Death, was reprinted in the June 1952 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries

Gees Series

  1. Gees First Case (1936)
  2. Grey Shapes (1937)
  3. Nightmare Farm (1937)
  4. The Kleinart Case (1938)
  5. Maker of Shadows (1938)
  6. The Ninth Life (1939)
  7. The Glass Too Many (1940)
  8. Her Ways Are Death (1940)

Rex Coulson

  1. Coulson Goes South (1933)
  2. Reckless Coulson (1933)
  3. Dead Man's Chest (1934)
  4. Egyptian Nights (1934)
  5. Coulson Alone (1936)
  6. Detective Coulson (1936)

Fields of Sleep

Fields of Sleep was reprinted in the August 1949 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries, under the title "The Valley of Silent Men"
  1. Fields of Sleep (Fantasy, 1923)
  2. People of the Darkness (Fantasy, 1924)

Terence Byrne

  1. Girl in the Dark (1933)
  2. The Man With the Scar (1940)
  3. Vain Escape (1952)

Jerry Head

  1. Accessory After (1934)
  2. Shadow on the House (1934)
  3. Seventeen Cards (1935)
  4. Cigar for Inspector Head (1935)
  5. Who Killed Gatton? (1936)
  6. With Intent to Kill (1936)
  7. 38 Automatic (1937)
  8. Tramp's Evidence/The Barking Dog Murder Case (1937)
  9. Evidence in Blue/The Man in Grey (1938)
  10. The Rainbow Puzzle (1938)
  11. Problem by Rail (1939)
  12. Touch and Go (1939)

Robin Hood

  1. Adventures of Robin Hood (1906)
  2. Robin Hood and His Merry Men (1927)

Others

Westerns

(as Barry Lynd)

Non-fiction

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Shadows in the Attic, pp. 346-347
  2. ^ a b c d e f St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers, p. 577-80.
  3. ^ Encyclopedia of Fantasy, p. 988.
  4. ^ Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, pp. 1286–87
  5. ^ Encyclopedia of Fantasy, pp. 448–49.

References

External links

Authority control databases
Categories