Guy Boothby

Guy Newell Boothby, (13 October 1867 – 26 February 1905), was an Australian novelist and writer.

Boothby was born in Adelaide, son of Thomas Wilde Boothby, who for a time was a member of the South Australian Legislative Assembly. Guy Boothby's grandfather was Benjamin Boothby (1803-1868), judge of the supreme court of South Australia from 1853 to 1867. Guy Boothby was educated at Salisbury, near Adelaide, and Christ's Hospital, London.

In 1890 Boothby wrote the libretto for a comic opera, Sylvia, which was published and produced at Adelaide in December 1890, and in 1891 appeared The Jonquil: an Opera. The music in each case was written by Cecil James Sharp.

Boothby worked as secretary to the mayor of Adelaide. In 1894 he published "On the Wallaby or Through the East and Across Australia", an account of the travels of himself and his brother, including a description of their journey across Australia from Cooktown to Adelaide. In the same year his first novel, "In Strange Company", was published in London and was quickly successful. Boothby moved to the United Kingdom in 1894. He wrote over 50 books over the course of a decade, before dying of pneumonia in Bournemouth.

Writing

Some of Boothby's earlier works relate to stories of Australian life, but later he turned to genre fiction. He was once well known for his series of five novels about "Doctor Nikola", an occultist anti-hero seeking immortality and world domination.

Bibliography

Doctor Nikola

# "A Bid for Fortune: or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta" (1895) (AKA "Enter, Dr Nikola")
# "Dr Nikola" (1896) also as "Dr. Nikola Returns"
# "The Lust of Hate" (1898)
# "Dr Nikola's Experiment" (1899)
# "Farewell, Nikola" (1901)

Other works

Other books written by Guy Boothby include:
* "On the Wallaby: or, Through the East and Across Australia" (1894)
* "A Lost Endeavour" (1895)
* "The Marriage of Esther: a Torres Straits Sketch" (1895)
* "In Strange Company: a Story of Chili and the Southern Seas" (1896)
* "The Beautiful White Devil" (1897)
* "Bushigrams" (1897)
* "The Fascination of the King" (1897)
* "The Phantom Stockman" (1897)
* "Sheila McLeod: a Heroine of the Back Blocks" (1897)
* "The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds" (1897)
* "Across The World For a Wife" (1898)
* "Billy Binks, Hero: and Other Stories" (1898)
* "Love Made Manifest" (1899)
* "Pharos, The Egyptian" (1899)
* "The Red Rat's Daughter" (1899)
* "A Sailor's Bride" (1899)
* "Long Live the King!" (1900)
* "A Maker of Nations" (1900)
* "A Prince of Swindlers" (1900) (AKA "The Viceroy's Protegé")
* "The Woman of Death" (1900)
* "The Boundary Rider: a Play in One Act" (1901)
* "A Cabinet Secret" (1901)
* "The Jonquil" (1901)
* "A Millionaire's Love Story" (1901)
* "My Indian Queen: Being a Record of Sir Charles Verrinder, Baronet, in the East Indies" (1901)
* "The Mystery of the Clasped Hands" (1901)
* "The Rickshaw: a Farce in Two Acts" (1901)
* "My Strangest Case" (1901)
* "The Childerbridge Mystery" (1902)
* "The Curse of the Snake" (1902)
* "The Kidnapped President" (1902)
* "Uncle Joe's Legacy: and Other Stories" (1902)
* "Connie Burt" (1903)
* "The Countess Londa" (1903)
* "The League of Twelve" (1903)
* "A Queer Affair" (1903)
* "A Two-fold Inheritance" (1903)
* "A Bid for Freedom" (1904)
* "A Bride from the Sea" (1904)
* "A Consummate Scoundrel" (1904)
* "A Desperate Conspiracy" (1904)
* "The Lady of the Island" (1904) ("A Professor of Egyptology", "The Black Lady of Brin Tor", "A Strange Goldfield")
* "An Ocean Secret" (1904)
* "A Brighton Tragedy" (1905)
* "A Crime of the Under-seas" (1905)
* "For Love of Her" (1905)
* "In Spite of the Czar" (1905)
* "A Lost Endeavor" (1905)
* "The Race of Life" (1906)
* "A Royal Affair: and Other Stories" (1906)
* "A Stolen Peer" (1906)
* "The Man of the Crag" (1907)
* "In the Power of the Sultan" (1908)

References

External links

*gutenberg author|id=Guy_Boothby|name=Guy Boothby
* [http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#boothby ebooks of works by Guy Boothby] at [http://gutenberg.net.au Project Gutenberg Australia]
* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Guy_Boothby.htm Bibliography]
*isfdb name
* [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070352b.htm Entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography]