William Clark Russell

William Clark Russell (February 24, 1844 – November 8, 1911) was a popular American writer of nautical novels and horror stories.

William Clark Russell from Who-When-What Book, 1900

Born in New York City, he gained his experience of sea life during eight years' service as a sailor. Then he was a journalist on the staff of the Daily Chronicle before he took to writing his many novels, only a few of which are listed here.

As a testament to the popularity of Russell's novels in his day, one can read about him at the beginning of the Sherlock Holmes story The Five Orange Pips, where Doctor Watson is shown 'deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea stories'.

According to modern scholar John Sutherland, The Wreck of the Grosvenor (1877) was "the most popular mid-Victorian melodrama of adventure and heroism at sea."^[1] It remained popular and widely read in illustrated editions well into the first half of the 20th century.^[2] It was Russell best selling and most well known novel.^[2] Russell noted in a preface, the novel 'found its first and best welcome in the United States.'^[1]

William Clark Russell was the son of composer Henry Russell, the brother of impresario Henry Russell, and the half brother of conductor Landon Ronald. His horror work has similarities to the nautical horror stories of William Hope Hodgson.

Works

• As Innocent as a Baby (1874)
• John Holdsworth, Chief Mate (1875)
• Captain Fanny (1876)
• The Wreck of the Grosvenor (1877)
• Auld Lang Syne (1878)
• An Ocean Free-Lance (1882)
• The Sea Queen (1884)
• The Frozen Pirate (1887)
• The Death Ship or The Flying Dutchman (1888)
• A Voyage To The Cape (1889)
• The Romance Of Jenny Harlowe (1889)
• Marooned (1891)
• Master Rockafellar's Voyage (1891)
• List, Ye Landsmen! (1892)
• Strange Elopement (1892)
• The Emigrant Ship (1893)
• The Tragedy Of Ida Noble (1893)
• Romance Of A Transport (1893)
• A Three-Stranded Yarn (1894)
• Little Loo (1894)
• The Convict Ship (1895)
• The Honour of the Flag (1895; short stories)
• The Phantom death (1895; collected horror stories)
• The Good Ship Mohock (1895)
• The Copsford Mystery (1896)
• What Cheer! (1896)
• The Lady Maud (1896)
• A Noble Haul (1897)
• The Two Captains (1897)
• Rose Island(1899)
• Captain Jackman or A Tale Of Two Tunnels (1899)
• A Voyage At Anchor (1899)
• The Romance Of A Midshipman (1900)
• The Cruise Of The Pretty Polly (1900)
• The Captain's Wife (1903)
• Overdue (1903)
• The Yarn Of Old Harbour Town (1905)
• The Tale Of The Ten (1907)
• The Golden Hope
• The Book Of Authors
• Abandoned
• An Ocean Tragedy
• The Danish Sweetheart
• A Marriage At Sea

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Sources

1. ^ ^{a b} John Sutherland. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Literature. 1989. pg. 681
2. ^ ^{a b} William Russell obituary, New York Times, Nov 9, 1911.

• Author and Book Info.com

External links

Works

• Works by or about William Clark Russell at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
• Works by William Clark Russell at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML)
• Works by William Clark Russell at LibriVox (audiobooks)

Misc

• The W. Clark Russell home, bio, biblio etc..

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

Persondata
Name	Russell, William Clark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 24, 1844
Place of birth
Date of death	November 8, 1911
Place of death