MP Shiel

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MP Shiel

Matthew Phipps Shiel (author mostly MP Shiel ; born July 20, 1865 in Plymouth , Montserrat , British West Indies ; died February 17, 1947 in Chichester , West Sussex ) was a British writer. His best-known work is the science fiction The purple cloud .

Life

Shiel was the tenth child and the only son of Irish merchant and Methodist lay preacher Matthew Dowdy Shiell - Shiel omitted the second "l" in the family name when he began publishing - and Priscilla Ann Blake, a mulatto , and grew up the British Caribbean island of Montserrat. On his 15th birthday he was portrayed as Filipe I as King of Santa Maria Redonda , a small, uninhabited island near Antigua that his father allegedly claimed for himself in 1865.

He first studied at Harrison College in Barbados and then graduated from the translation school at King's College in London . He appears to have been gifted with languages ​​and is said to have mastered several languages, including Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish and Polish. After graduating, he taught mathematics for a while. Shiel is said to have attended medical lectures at the Medical School of St Bartholomew's Hospital afterwards , but was not enthusiastic about medicine.

In 1895 Shiel began a series of short stories about the protagonist Prince Zaleski. He had been enthusiastic about Edgar Allan Poe's stories since he was 17, while Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories caused a sensation in those years . Accordingly, the Prince Zaleski stories are characterized by Sam Moskowitz as "Sherlock Holmes in the House of Usher ". This was followed by the novel The Rajah's Sapphire in 1896 and, the following year, the collection of short stories Shapes in the Fire, with some of the most bizarre examples of Shiel's expansive, baroque, ornate prose overloaded with extravagant terminology.

To give an impression of the style of these stories, the first paragraph of Phorfor (1896) can serve as an example of Shiel's purple prose :

"At that more sombre season called Opora, which fills the interval between the rising of Sirius and the rising of Arcturus, when the cycled year dying as the phœnix, forest-leaves glow red-reflective of the conflagration, and birds fly migratory from the world-wide majesty of the pyre — I passed on horse-back over the blue and high-surging undulations of the Orchat Mountains, whose broad swell is as the Eastern heave of a jeweled bosom; thence through lower-lying slopes, and delicious groves of citron, almond, and maple; and then through a seine of streams, over-waved by that bulbous Nile-lily which the Greeks called "lotus"; till, entering the domain of Phorfor, I drew up, as night fell, at the entrance of the far-reaching castle by the sea. "

The collection did not include a better-known story by Shiels, Huguenin's Wife ( Huguenin's wife in German ), published in Pall Mall Magazine in 1895 , which bears considerable similarities to Poe's House of Usher , with the dwelling that went up in flames at the end of the story a labyrinthine building on the legendary Greek island of Delos is where the protagonist Huguenin lives. His wife, the reincarnation of an ancient seer, perhaps a goddess, died after Huguenin raised her hand in horror and disgust when she showed him her painting of a mythical beast. She dies with the words “And yet you may see it [the monster] in the flesh!” The curse comes true and a kind of feathered panther jumps out of the grave of Huguenin's wife and tears it apart.

The Empress of the Earth was published in 1898, initially in sequels, and in the same year as a book with the more memorable title The Yellow Danger . Previously there had been a number of books on a future war in Europe, the first and best known of which was George Chesney's The Battle of Dorking . In Shiel's version, however, the Germans are not the opponents in the future war, but the powers of Asia that are overruning Europe, directed by the Chinese Dr. Yen How, a recognized forerunner of Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu . Not all of Europe, however, Britain resists and ultimately prevails by using a biological weapon that destroys the yellow hordes. It was later claimed that the term " yellow danger " was based on Shiels' book title.

Another book about a future war was The Lord of the Sea (1901), in which Sam Moskowitz seeks to recognize an anti-Semitism comparable to Hitler's Mein Kampf , while Gary K. Wolfe sees the depiction of the Jews in the novel in a more nuanced way. The protagonist of the novel is himself a Jew, is imprisoned through the machinations of another Jew, is able to escape prison and, like Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Christo , comes into possession of enormous fortunes that allow him to build huge floating sea fortresses he secures the rule over the oceans and thus becomes the Lord of the Sea ("Lord of the Sea") and finally also the ruler of Britain. As such, he forced the Jews to emigrate to Palestine, where he finally went himself in a role as the Messiah of the Jews. According to Wolfe, there are some anti-Semitic stereotypes in the novel that are not atypical for the time, but on the other hand Shiels sees the Jews as the embodied "spirit of justice" and, with his protagonist, portrays a kind of Jewish superman in a positive way.

1901 then Shiels' most famous book was published The Purple Cloud (German The purple cloud ), ever since reissued and beside the German also translated into French and Italian. It is the subject of the "last man", previously dealt with in Mary Shelley's The Last Man and now in a number of books from Richard Matheson's Ich bin Legende to Herbert Rosendorfer's Great Solo for Anton as well as films, TV series and comics is wiped out by an epidemic or other catastrophe and the protagonist finds himself in an uninhabited world.

For Shiels, it's Adam Jeffson, a participant in an expedition to the North Pole and the only survivor after he killed the rest of the expedition. When he wanted to return to civilization with the riches of the North Pole - the latter magnetically attracts diamond-containing meteorites - he realizes that the rest of mankind has fallen victim to a purple gas pouring out of crevices in the earth. This is followed by Jeffson's notes on a twenty-year odyssey through the extinct cities of the world, some of which he sets on fire and some of which he appropriates their art treasures. Finally, he finds a survivor in Istanbul , a girl who was a child at the time of the disaster and was locked in an underground dungeon, therefore knows neither people nor human language, and is therefore in the innocent state of tabula rasa . By being with the girl, Jeffson escapes the madness he was increasingly falling for and the couple set out to repopulate the earth. The novel was enthusiastically praised by HG Wells , Hugh Walpole and Arthur Make , with Gary K. Wolfe ("the novel may not quite deserve the lavish praise heaped on it") and Sam Moskowitz question the justification for such enthusiasm.

Shiels with his first wife, Caroline, in 1901

Shiel was married twice, first with Carolina García Gomez in 1898, with whom he had a daughter. In 1903 he left the family in Paris. Shortly afterwards his wife died. In 1919 Shiels married Esther Lydia Furley, who in turn left him in 1929.

Flag of the "Kingdom of Redonda"

Towards the end of his life, Shiel was impoverished and largely forgotten. During these years the island of Redonda, of which his father made him king at the age of 15, regained importance. Shiel had never actively pursued this claim like his father, who had fought for 15 years with the British authorities to enforce it, but he used his "royal dignity" to give his friends and acquaintances titles and dignities. The publisher Victor Gollancz was Grand Duke of Redonda, Alfred A. Knopf, Ellery Queen and Dylan Thomas became dukes. According to Nick Middleton, lower dignities were much cheaper: old Shiel was a regular at the Alma Tavern , Westbourne Grove, in the London borough of Notting Hill, and whoever bought him a beer could be rewarded with a certificate scribbled on a napkin, the made him Knight of the Isle of Redonda. Whether as a tacit compensation for lost income as a guano king - guano was Redonda's only product, it was mined there and shipped to Germany as fertilizer - or as recognition for a well-deserved author, the British government gave him an annual pension of 60 pounds in 1938 which was later increased.

In 1947 Shiel died at the age of 82. After Shiel's death, his friend and administrator, John Gawsworth as Juan I, succeeded him as King of Redonda. This established a "literary dynasty" that extends to Javier Marías . The main duty of each king is to take care of the dissemination of the work of M. P. Shiel. The succession to the throne is controversial after Gawsworth's death in 1967, so there are currently at least three rival pretenders for the throne.

Collections on Shiels are in the Olin Library at Rollins College in Winter Park , Florida and the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin . Both collections go back to the collections of A. Reynolds Morse, who wrote a comprehensive bibliography on Shiel. The sum of these materials and archives is said to document Shiels' life and work more completely than any other science fiction writer with the exception of Verne and Wells .

bibliography

Cummings King Monk (short stories)
  • He Defines "Greatness of Mind" (1911)
  • He Meddles With Women (1911)
  • He Wakes an Echo (1911, also called Monk Wakes an Echo , 1948)
Prince Zaleski (short stories)
  • The Race of Orven (1895)
  • The SS (1895)
  • The Stone of the Edmundsbury Monks (1895)
  • The Return of Prince Zaleski (1955)

Collections:

  • Prince Zaleski (1895)
  • Prince Zaleski (2002, extended version)
    • German: Prince Zaleski. Translated by Joachim Körber. Edition Phantasia, Bellheim 2017, ISBN 978-3-924959-98-2 .
Novels
  • The Rajah's Sapphire (1896)
  • An American Emperor (1897, with Louis Tracy, as Gordon Holmes)
  • The Empress of the Earth (1898, also called The Yellow Danger )
  • Cold Steel (1899)
  • Contraband of War (1899)
  • The Man-Stealers (1900, revised version 1927)
  • The Lord of the Sea (1901)
  • The Purple Cloud (1901)
    • English: The purple cloud. Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy # 3859, 1982, ISBN 3-453-30789-5 .
  • The Weird o 'It (1902)
  • Unto the Third Generation (1903)
  • The Evil That Men Do (1904)
  • The Lost Viol (1905)
  • The Yellow Wave (1905)
  • The Last Miracle (1906)
  • The Late Tenant (1907, with Louis Tracy, as Gordon Holmes)
  • The Isle of Lies (1908)
  • The White Wedding (1908)
  • This Knot of Life (1909)
  • By Force of Circumstances (1909, with Louis Tracy, as Gordon Holmes)
  • The House of Silence (1911, also as The Silent , 1911, with Louis Tracy, as Gordon Holmes)
  • The Dragon (1913, also called The Yellow Peril , 1929)
  • Children of the Wind (1923)
  • How the Old Woman Got Home (1928)
  • Dr. Krasinski's Secret (1929)
  • The Black Box (1930)
  • This Above All (1933)
  • Say Au R'voir, But Not Goodbye (1933)
  • The Young Men Are Coming! (1937)
  • The New King (1980)
Collections
  • Shapes in the Fire (1896)
  • The Pale Ape: and Other Pulses (1911)
  • Here Comes the Lady (1928)
  • The Invisible Voices (1935)
  • The Best Short Stories of MP Shiel (1948)
  • Xelucha and Others (1975)
  • Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk (1977, compilation of Zaleski and Monk stories)
  • The Empress of the Earth 1898; The Purple Cloud 1901; Some Short Stories (1979)
  • The House of Sounds and Others (2005)
  • Haunts & Horrors: Strange & Supernatural Fiction by MP Shiel (2012)

German compilation:

  • Huguenin's wife: Fantastic stories. Edited and with a foreword by Javier Marías . From the English by Wolfgang Krege, from the Spanish by Carina von Enzenberg. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-608-93631-9 (underlying Spanish compilation: La mujer de Huguenin ).
Short stories

If only the title and year are given as sources for short stories, the complete information can be found under collections .

  • Huguenin's Wife (1895)
    • German: Huguenins Weib. In: Huguenin's wife . 2006. Also in: Frank Rainer Scheck , Erik Hauser (Ed.): When I Was Dead, Volume 2. Blitz (Blitz Masterpieces of Dark Fantasticism # 2), 2008, ISBN 978-3-89840-272-9 .
  • The Case of Euphemia Raphash (1895)
  • Maria in the Rose-Bush (1896)
  • Phorfor (1896)
  • Premier and Maker (1896)
  • The Serpent-Ship (1896)
  • Tulsah (1896)
    • German: Tulsa. In: Frank Rainer Scheck, Erik Hauser (Ed.): When I Was Dead, Volume 2. Blitz (Blitz Masterpieces of Dark Fantasticism # 2), 2008, ISBN 978-3-89840-272-9 .
  • Vaila (1896)
  • Xelucha (1896)
  • The Specter-Ship (1896)
  • Page from First Edition of The Lord of the Sea (1901)
  • The Last Man Alive (1901)
  • The Bride (1902)
    • German: The bride. In: Huguenin's wife . 2006.
  • Many a Tear (1908)
  • A Bundle of Letters (1911)
  • Cummings King Monk (1911)
  • The Great King (1911)
  • The House of Sounds (1911)
    • German: The house in the storm. In: Frank Festa (ed.): Lovecraft's dark idols. Blitz (HP Lovecraft's Library of Secrets # 1), 1999, ISBN 3-932171-98-5 .
  • The Pale Ape (1911)
    • English: The pale monkey. In: Huguenin's wife . 2006.
  • Dark Lot of One Soul (1912)
    • English: The wretched lot of a certain Saul. In: Huguenin's wife . 2006.
  • The Place of Pain (1914)
  • Page from Revised Edition of The Lord of the Sea (1924)
  • No. 16 Brooke Street (1928)
  • The Bell of St. Sepulcher (1928)
  • The Corner in Cotton (1928)
  • The Primate of the Rose (1928)
    • English: The primate of the rose. In: Huguenin's wife . 2006.
  • The Tale of Adam and Hannah (1928)
  • The Tale of Charley and Barbara (1928)
  • The Tale of Gaston and Mathilde (1928)
  • The Tale of Henry and Rowena (1928)
  • The Tale of Hugh and Agatha (1928)
  • The Tale of One in Two (1928)
  • The Future Day (1928)
  • A Night in Venice (1932)
  • The Flying Cat (1932)
  • How Life Climbs (1934)
  • The Globe of Gold-Fish (1934)
  • At The Eleventh Hour (1935)
  • The Death Dance (1935)
  • The Purchester Instrument (1935)
  • The 'Master' (1936, with John Gawsworth, as MP Shiel and Fytton Armstrong)
  • The Falls Scandal (1936, with John Gawsworth, as MP Shiel and Fytton Armstrong)
  • First Proclamation of Juan R., King of Redonda (1948)
  • Manuscript Page from Jesus (1948)
  • Manuscript Page of the Revised Yellow Danger (1948)
  • A Shot at the Sun (1979)
  • The Hargen Inheritance (2002, with John Gawsworth)
  • The Missing Merchants (2002, with John Gawsworth)
  • The Murena Murder (2002, with John Gawsworth)
Non-fiction
  • Science, Life and Literature (1950)

literature

Monographs and Articles
  • Harold Billings: MP Shiel: A Biography of His Early Years. Roger Beacham, Austin 2005, ISBN 0-9766044-1-8 .
  • Harold Billings: MP Shiel: The Middle Years 1897-1923. Roger Beacham, Austin 2010, ISBN 978-0-9766044-4-0 .
  • A. Reynolds Morse: The Works of MP Shiel. Fantasy, Los Angeles 1948. New edition: The Works of MP Shiel: the Shielography Updated. Morse Foundation, Cleveland 1979, ISBN 0-934236-00-3 .
  • A. Reynolds Morse: The Quest for MP Shiel's Realm of Redonda. Morse Foundation, Cleveland 1979.
  • A. Reynolds Morse (Ed.): Shiel in Diverse Hands: A Collection of Essays by Twenty-nine Students of MPShiel. Morse Foundation, Cleveland 1983.
  • Monique R. Morgan: Madness, Unreliable Narration, and Genre in “The Purple Cloud”. In: Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 36, No. 2 (July 2009), pp. 266-283, JSTOR 40649959 .
  • Sam Moskowitz : The World, the Devil, and MP Shiel. In: (ders.): Explorers of the Infinite. Hyperion 1974, ISBN 0-88355-130-6 , pp. 142-156.
  • Charlesworth Ross: The First West Indian Novelist. In: Caribbean Quarterly. Vol. 14, No. 4 (December 1968), pp. 56-60, JSTOR 40653474 .
  • Richard Shiell, Dorothy Anderson: The Shiell Family of the Caribbean Island of Montserrat. Richard Shiell, Sandringham 2005.
  • John D. Squires, Steve Eng: Shiel and His Collaborators: Three Essays on William Thomas Stead, Louis Tracy, and John Gawsworth. Vainglory Press, Kettering, OH 2004, OCLC 60345958 .
  • William L. Svitavsky: From Decadence to Racial Antagonism: MP Shiel at the Turn of the Century. In: Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 31, No. 1 (March 2004), pp. 1-24, JSTOR 4241226 .
Lexicons and reference works

Web links

Commons : MP Shiel  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Matthew Phipps Shiel  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Derived from his middle name "Phipps".
  2. ↑ Everett Franklin Bleiler: MP Shiel. In: (ders.) Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror: Vol. 1. Scribner, 1985, p. 361. According to Moskowitz, the coronation took place on July 21st.
  3. ↑ Sam Moskowitz: Explorers of the Infinite. 1974, p. 143.
  4. ↑ Sam Moskowitz: Explorers of the Infinite. 1974, p. 146.
  5. ↑ Gary K. Wolfe: Shiel, M (atthew) P (hipps) . In: Noelle Watson, Paul E. Schellinger: Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. St. James Press, Chicago 1991, p. 722.
  6. ↑ Sam Moskowitz: Explorers of the Infinite. 1974, p. 150 f.
  7. ^ Alan Gullette: MP Shiel: Poet and Prophet. 1996 (accessed August 16, 2018).
  8. ^ A b Nick Middleton: An Atlas of Countries That Don't Exist. Macmillan, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-4472-9527-3 , Redonda section .
  9. ^ Charlesworth Ross: The First West Indian Novelist. In: Caribbean Quarterly. Vol. 14, No. 4 (December 1968), pp. 56-60, JSTOR 40653474 .
  10. ^ The Shiel Collections at Rollins and Houston. In: Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 19, No. 3 (November 1992), p. 441, JSTOR 4240206 .
personal data
SURNAME Shiel, MP
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shiel, Matthew Phipps (full name); Shiell, Matthew Phipps (maiden name); Holmes, Gordon (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Plymouth , Montserrat , British West Indies
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1947
Place of death Chichester , West Sussex