Arthur Morrison, 1863-1945
Biographical note
English author and journalist known for his realistic novels about London’s East End and for his detective stories.
Morrison was born in Poplar, in the East End of London, on 1 November 1863. Little is known about his childhood and education, though he was probably educated in the East End. By 1886 he was working as a clerk at the People’s Palace, in Mile End. In 1890 he left this job and joined the editorial staff of the Globe newspaper. The following year he published a story entitled A Street which was subsequently published in book form in Tales of Mean Streets. The volume was a critical success, but a number of reviewers objected to the violence portrayed in one story, Lizerunt.
Around this time Morrison was also producing detective short stories which emulated those of Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes. Morrison’s Martin Hewitt was an imitation of Sherlock Holmes, but inverted: he was ordinary, short, and good tempered and gladly cooperated with the police. The twist was that he played both ends against the middle, sometimes as crooked as the criminals. Three volumes of Hewitt stories were published before the publication of the novel for which Morrison is most famous: A Child of the Jago (1896). The novel described in graphic detail living conditions in the East End, including the permeation of violence into everyday life (it was a barely fictionalised account of life in the Old Nichol Street Rookery). Other, less well-received novels and stories followed, until Morrison effectively retired from writing fiction, around 1913.
Works
The Martin Hewitt stories
Martin Hewitt,
Investigator [1894]
- “The
Lenton Croft Robberies” [March 1894, The Strand]
- “The
Loss of Sammy Crockett” [April 1894, The Strand]
- “The
Case of Mr Foggatt” [May 1894, The Strand]
- “The
Case of the Dixon Torpedo” [June 1894, The Strand]
- “The
Quinton Jewel Affair” [July 1894, The Strand]
- “The
Stanway Cameo Mystery” [July 1894, The Strand]
- “The
Affair of the Tortoise” [September 1894, The Strand]
- The Chronicles
of Martin Hewitt [1895]
- “The
Ivy Cottage Mystery” [January 1895, The Windsor Magazine]
- “The
Nicobar Bullion Case” [Febuary 1895, The Windsor Magazine]
- “The
Holford Will Case” [March 1895, The Windsor Magazine]
- “The
Case of the Missing Hand” [April 1895, The Windsor Magazine]
- “The
Case of Laker, Absconded” [May 1895, The Windsor Magazine]
- “The
Case of the Lost Foreigner” [June 1895, The Windsor Magazine]
-
The Adventures of Martin Hewitt [1896]
- The Red Triangle : being some further
chronicles of Martin Hewitt, Investigator [1903]
- “The Affair of
Samuel’s Diamonds” [November 1902, The Harmsworthy London Magazine]
- “The Case of Mr. Jacob
Mason” [December 1902, The Harmsworthy London Magazine]
- “The Case of the Lever
Key” [January 1903, The Harmsworthy London Magazine]
- “The Case of the Burnt
Barn” [February 1903, The Harmsworthy London Magazine]
- “The Case of the
Admiralty Code” [March 1903, The Harmsworthy London Magazine]
- “The Adventure of
Channel Marsh” [April 1902, The Harmsworthy London Magazine]
Other Detective fiction
- The Dorrington Deed Box [1897]
- The Narrative
of Mr. James Rigby
- The Case of
Janissary
- The Case of
“The Mirror of Portugal”
- The Affair of
the “Avalanche Bicycle & Tyre Co., Ltd.”
- The Case of Mr.
Loftus Deacon
- Old Cater’s
Money
- — — The Green Diamond (The Green Eye of Goona) [1904]
Working class fiction
- Tales of Mean Streets [1894]
- Lizerunt
- Without Visible Means
- To Bow Bridge
- That Brute Simmons
- Behind the Shade
- Three Rounds
- In Business
- Iou
- The Red Cow Group
- On the Stairs
- Squire Napper
-
“A poor stick”
- A Conversion
-
“All that messuage”
- A Child of the Jago [1896]
- — — To London Town [1899]
- — — Cunning Murrell [1900]
-
The Hole in the Wall [1902]
- — — Divers Vanities [1905]
-
A “Burgling” Incident
Miscellaneous
- The Shadows Around Us
- Zig-Zags at the Zoo
- — — Green Ginger [1909]
- “The Absent Three”
- “Arts and Crafts”
- “Captain Jollyfax’s Gun”
- “The Chamber of Light”
- “The Copper Charm”
- “Dobb’s Parrot”
- “The Drinkwater Romance”
- “The House of Haddock”
- “A Lucifo Match”
- “Mr. Bostock’s Backsliding”
- “The Rodd Street Revolution”
- “The Seller of Hate”
- “A Skinful of Trouble”
- “Snorkey Timms, His Mark”
- “The Stolen Blenkinson”
- “Wick’s Waterloo”
- Fiddle O’Dreams and More [1933]
- “Billy Blenkin’s Radium”
- “Brothers at Bay”
- “Bylestones”
- “The East a’Calling”
- “Fiddle o’Dreams”
- “The Four-Want Way”
- “Frenzied Finance”
- “Infantry at the Double”
- “Lies Unregistered”
- “Mr. Walker’s Aeroplane”
- “Myxomycetes”
- “A Professional Episode”
- “A Return to the Fancy”
- “Sports of Mugby”
- “The Thing In the Upper Room”
-
The Thing in the Upper Room