Figure 1.--This illustration is from Meredith Fletcher's "Jefferson Junior". The school uniform was an Eton suit and collar. Pictured here is a new boy who for some reason wears a sailor suit and curls. The illustrator was J.R. Burgess, one of the classic illustrator of school stories. The caption read, "If you don't drop it, I'll thrash you before these kids." Image courtesy of the MA collection. |
There are several English authors that are especially noted for their school stories. The classic school authors were those who wrote about the English public school in the late 19th and early 20th century, but there are several other authors who wrote about schools. Enid Blyton wrote a lot of stories set in schools, including two series the Famous Five and Secret Seven. Anthony Buckeridge created Jennings, perhaps the most famous English school boy. Jennings as he was usually referred to is a prep school boy. Meredith Fletcher wrote Jefferson Junior and several other school stories. Captain W.E. Johns wrote 80 books about Biggles and his airplane adventures. The Biggles saga begins in India and at about age 15, Biggles is sent home to England and begins at Malton Hall boarding school. Soon the Biggles books move away from the school story. Thomas Hughes wrote Tom Brown' Schooldays, considered by many to be the first of the genre. Rudyard Kipling wrote Stalky and Co. (1899), one of the most famous school story. Stanley Morries wrote: The Penalty Area (1929) and The Senior Perfect (1932). Frank Richards wrote one of the most famous school series--the Billy Bunter stories. Bunter's teacher was Mr. Quelch (Kynaston Reeves) and Harry Wharton, Bob Cherry, Inky, Ram Singh, Frank Nugent, Mauly, and the bully Coker were his schoolchums at Greyfriars School. He loved jam tarts particularly.
Enid Blyton wrote a lot of stories set in schools, including two series the Famous Five and Secret Seven. Enid Blyton is probably the most successful children's author of all time--although not the most famous. She published an amazing number of children's or juvenile books, 600 by one account. She certainly was the most prolific author of all time, and with over 700 books and 10,000 short stories to her name, she is likely to remain so for years to come. Her importance is that she wrote books that children loved to read and attracted them to books--much like J.D. Rowlings. Blyton's most famous series was The Famous Five. Blyton's works painted an idyllic vision of rural England and hearty Englishness and in recent years she has been criticized for this. It is interesting that Rowlings who also attracts children to books has been criticized for just the opposite--a dangerous forbidding world of wizardry.
Anthony Buckeridge created Jennings, perhaps the most famous English school boy. Jennings as he was usually referred to is a prep school boy. Anthony Buckeridge was often asked where his ideas came from. In fact, he had a lot of material to work from, considering that he went to boarding school himself (as did Jennings) and then became a master at one. Anthony Buckeridge was born on June 20, 1912 in London. His father was a bank clerk who, like too many of his generation, was tragically killed during World War I when Anthony was very young. Anthony like many boys from affluent families was sent to a preparatory boarding school at age 8. It was a virtual rite of passage for boys of his class. His prep school was in Sussex near London. He then went on to a Public school wherevhe also boarded until finish school at 18. So like Jenning's, Buckeridge was educated at private boarding schools. Buckeridge was the first writer to use Prep Schools as a story setting. His first audience were the boys at his Ramsgate prep school in St. Laurence's and Buckeridge developed Jennings from one of the characters at the school. The boys would clamor for "another Jennings story, please sir," at bedtime before lights out. Jennings himself soon took control and it was not long before all his creator had to do was to outline a situation and leave it to Jenning's peculiar method of reasoning to work things out to their logical conclusion.
Collins in 1966 produced an omnibus edition, entitled A Bookful of Jennings, which was re-released in 1972 as The Best of Jennings. Buckeridge kept writing the
books at a rate of around one a year, and he said that he always considered his last book to be his best. He claimed that "I receive so much enjoyment from
re-reading all the Jenning's books, and I hope that others have received the same enjoyment". Anthony Buckeridge has published a autobiography While I Remember.
Florence Coombe published Boys the Priory School in 1914. It was illustrated by Harold Copping.
Meredith Fletcher wrote several school stories. Jefferson Junior (19??) was illustrated by J.R. Burgess. Every Inch a Briton was illustrated by Sydney Cowell. We also note stories he published in The British Boy's Annual (1910). Unfortunately, we have not been able to find any additional information on this author. Hopefully our British readers will be able to find some additional information.
A British reader tells us that Gunbay Hadath wrote several important school books. We have no information on him at this time.
Another author who wrote school stories was Frederick Harrison. We have virtually no information on him at this time. One of his books was The Boys of Wynport College: A Story of School Life. Like many chool stories, it was published by Blackie and Son Limited. There is no date but in the book's
opening pages, it's dedicated to 'Tully', 1922. Harrison also wrote The Choir School of St. Bede's'.
B. Heldman wrote a number of school stories. We do not know a great deal about the author or his books. As fr as we cn tell, they were rather formalistic, low budget printings. One book we have noted is Expelled, no publication date indicatd but probably about 1906. It was not illustrated and does not appear to have any references to clothing or school uniform. The author also wrote Dorrincourt: The Story of a Term There" and Boxall School: A Story of Schooboy life. As with books that were printed around the time of "Expelled", there is no publication date. The books weren't illustrated apart from the cover. They were low-budget printings from James Nisbet. In fact the same cover drawing was used for the different books, only the title was changed.
Thomas Hughes wrote Tom Brown' Schooldays, considered by many to be the first of the genre. Thomas Hughes published Tom Brown's School Days in 1857. It has become a classic in English literature. The sequal Tom Brown in Oxford
which was published in 1857 described Tom when he moved on to univerity. It proved less populr. Hughes was a lawyer who became a judge. He was a Member
of Parliament for the Liberal Party. He was an advocate for social reform in Victorian England.
Captain W.E. Johns wrote 80 books about Biggles and his airplane adventures. The Biggles saga begins in India and at about age 15, Biggles is sent home to England and begins at Malton Hall boarding school. Soon the Biggles books move away from the school story. James Bigglesworth, or Biggles as he is better known, was created by Captain W.E. Johns. Jones was born in 1893. Jones was born in Norfolk where he, like Biggles, received his flight traing. He flew for the RAF in World War I. The Germans shot him down twice. German air ace Ernst Udet hot him down the secnd time. (Udet became an important Luftwaffe functionary, but but was not a committed NAZI. He committed suicide when he saw that the war could not be won and was apauled by the German atrocities in the East.) Johns managed to land, but had five bullets in him. The Germans sentenced him to death for dropping bombs on cities, but Johns escape. He was ventually recaptured and spent the rest of the War in a Bavarian prison camp. With his knowledge of aircraft
and drawing abilities, after the War he began working as an illustrator and writer for various air publications. He eventually founded his own magazine, Popular Flying. He also wrote two adventure novels about a fighter pilot. Over lunch with a RAF
officer, named Bigglesworth the idea for Biggles was born. Johns died in 1968
Ethel Lindsay published A Schoolboy's Honour in 1913. There were five illustrations by H.L. Bacon.
Rudyard Kipling wrote Stalky and Co. (1899), one of the most famous school story. The author was decidedly British--Ruyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay on December 30, 1865, in the J. J. School of Arts, of which, his father,
Lockwood Kipling, was then head. At the age of 6 years, he was left in a foster home in England. He was extremely unhappy at his foster home, but stayed there until 1878, when he entered a boarding school in England. His later writings indicate that he was happy at school, where he started writing. He returned to India in 1882 and joined his parents in Lahore where he worked as a journalist with Civil and Military Gazette. In 1887 he joined The Pioneer in Allahabad as an assistant editor and overseas correspondent. Before he went back to England and settled in London in 1889, he had already become famous for his verses and satirical writings such as Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) and Soldiers Three (1892). By the last decade of the 19th century Rudyard Kipling had become enormously successful as a poet and writer, and was seen as a successor to Charles Dickens. He married Caroline Starr Balestier in 1892. His two novels, The Jungle Book (1894-5) have now become widely translated classics. His other novels include Kim (1901) and Just So Stories (1902). There are some school scenes in Kim. Of course Kim himself didn't much care for school. Kipling also wrote about an American boy, Harvey Cheney, in Captain's Courageous. He received the Nobel Prize for literature
in 1907. Rudyard Kipling died on January 18, 1936 in London. He was buried in the Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey. His autobiography Something of Myself appeared in 1937.
Stanley Morries wrote: The Penalty Area (1929) and The Senior Perfect (1932).
Frank Richards wrote one of the most famous school series--the Billy Bunter stories. Bunter's teacher was Mr. Quelch (Kynaston Reeves) and Harry Wharton, Bob Cherry, Inky, Ram Singh, Frank Nugent, Mauly, and the bully Coker were his schoolchums at Greyfriars School. He loved jam tarts particularly. The series first
appeared in 1908. Actually, Frank Richards was not his real name, it was
actually Charles Harold St John Hamilton. To further complicate matters,
not all the Billy Bunter stories were written by Frank Richards. Someties
substitute writers were used for the many Bunter stories. Even so, they
were all published under the mame of Frank Richards.
We note a 1910 list from the The British Boy's Annual ( Cassell and Company) of authors. The list included: Olaf Baker, Harry Collingwood, John Comfort, Escott Lynn, Alexander Macdonald, Robert Macdonald, Ernest Protheroe, Captain Frank H. Shaw, Ralph
Simmonds, S. Walkey, E. Keble Chatterton, F. S. Hartnell, John G. Rowe, Percy F. Westerman, Alfred Judd, F. S. Hartnell, G. Hansby Russell, Uncle Jim, Ernest
Protheroe, S. Walkey, ronald Sturary, Walter M. Gullichan, Meredith Fletcher, B. Hanley, Harold Avery, Alec G. Pearson and Walter M. Gallichan. Many of these authors, but not all, wrote school stories.
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