Percival Christopher Wren

Percival Christopher Wren

Percival Christopher Wren (born November 1, 1875 in Deptford , South London , † November 22, 1941 in Amberley , Gloucestershire ) was a British soldier and writer.

Life

Wren was the son of a teacher. He attended St Catherine's College in Oxford and then enlisted in the Royal Navy . He later moved to the 2nd Dragoon Guards ( cavalry ).

During this time he married Alice Lucille Shovelier and had a daughter with her, Estelle (1901 – around 1910). He and his family signed up for the Indian Education Service in 1903 and was sent to a school in Karachi as a teacher . At the same time he helped to train teachers for the Educational Inspectorate in Sindh until 1907 . November 1917, Wren resigned from office and returned to Britain.

From England, Wren undertook extensive trips to North Africa and began his first literary attempts at this time.

In 1927 Wren married Isabel Graham-Smith for the second time and had a son with her, Percival Rupert Christopher Wren (* 1904) .; He adopted her son from his first marriage, Richard A. Graham-Smith (1901-2006) at the wedding.

Wren died three weeks after his 66th birthday on November 22, 1941 in Amberley, Gloucestershire, and was buried there.

reception

According to his own admission, Wren was mainly influenced by authors such as Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894), H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925), George Alfred Henty (1823-1902). Wren was a very closed person and the current state of research sees his stay in the Foreign Legion more as a myth. Probably through the acquaintance of legionnaires in Africa he had a precise picture of the legion. In addition, Erwin Rosens appeared in the Foreign Legion with great success during this time and Wren wanted (and was able to) use the sensation for his first works.

He had his greatest success with his trilogy about the adventurer and legionnaire John Geste ; "Beau Geste", "Beau Sabreur" and "Beau Ideal". These novels were made into films several times and Wren later added the books "Good Gestes" and "Spanish Maine".

Works

author

Fiction

• Father Gregory or lures and failure. A tale of Hindustan . Longmans, London 1926 (reprint of the London 1913 edition).
• The snake and the sword . Stokes, New York 1926 (reprint of the London 1914 edition).
• The wages of virtue . Murray, London 1917.
• Driftwood Spars . Stokes, New York 1927.
• Stepsons of France. Short stories . Longman Green, London 1917.
• The young stagers. Being further faites and gestes of the Junior Carlton Club of Karabad, India. A novel . Stokes, New York 1926.
• Cupid in Africa or the making of Bertram in love and war . Heath Cranton, London 1920.
• John gesture cycle

1. Three brothers. Roman ("Beau Geste", 1924). Knaur, Berlin 1927 (translated by Carl Ehrenstein ).
2. Beau Sabreur. A novel . New edition Murray, London 1959.
3. Legionnaire Vanbrugh. Adventure novel ("Beau Ideal", 1928). Neuenfels & Henius, Berlin 1932 (translated by Edmund T. Kauer).
4. Good gestes. Stories of Beau Geste, his brothers, and certain of their comrades in the French Foreign Legion . Grosset, New York 1929.
5. Spanish Maine . New edition Tom Stacey Books, London 1972.

• Dew and mildew. A loose-knit tale of Hindustan . Murray, London 1928 (reprint of the London 1912 edition).
• Soldiers of misfortune. The story of Otho Bellême . Murray, London 1931.
• Mysterious Waye. The story of "The unsetting sun" Murray, London 1930.
• The mammon of righteousness. The story of Coxe and the box . Longman Green, London 1930.
• Valiant dust . Murray, London 1932.
• Action and Passion. Murray, London 1933/35.

1. Action and Passion. A sea novel . 1933
2. Sindbad, the soldier . 1935.

• Flawed blades. Tales from the Foreign Legion . Stokes, New York 1933.
• Beggars' Horses . Murray, London 1934.
• Port o'missing men. Strange tales of the stranger regiment . Macrae-Smith, Philadelphia 1943.
• Explosion. A novel . Murray, London 1935.
• Fort in the jungle. The extraordinary adventures of Sindbad Dysart in Tonkin . Longman Green, New York 1936.
• Bubble reputation . Murray, London 1936.
• The man of a ghost . Ramploy Press, London 1973, ISBN 0-7066-0416-4 (reprint of the London 1937 edition).
• Worth while . Murray, London 1937.
• Cardboard Castle . Murray, London 1938.
• Rough shooting. True tales and strange stories . Macrae-Smith, Philadelphia 1944.
• Paper prison . Murray, London 1939.
• The disappearance of General Jason . Murray, London 1940.
• Two feet from heaven . Murray, London 1940.
• Odd, but even so. Stories stranger than fiction . Macrae-Smith, Philadelphia 1942.
• The uniform of glory. Being the true story of a free frenchman's night-out . Murray, London 1941.
• Stories of the Foreign Legion . Windrow & Greene, London 1985, ISBN 1-85915-056-X (reprint of the London 1947 edition).

Non-fiction

• The Indian Teacher's Guide to the theory and practice of mental, moral, and physical education . Longmans, London 1910.
• Indian school organization, management, discipline, tone, and equipment, being the Indian headmaster's guide . Longmans, London 1911.
• The "Direct" teaching of English in Indian Schools . Longmans, London 1911.
• Chemistry and first aid for standard VII . Longmans, London 1913 (with Hubert E. Pratt).
• Physics ans mechanics . Longmans, London 1914 (with Niel B. Macmillan).
• With the Prince through Canada, New Zealand and Australia . Atheneum Press, Bombay 1922.

editor

• The world and India . Longmans, Calcutta 1905 (with Andrew J. Herbertson).
• Longman's Science series for Indian Schools . Longmans, London 1913/14 (11 vol.).
• First Lessons in English Grammar. Based on a simple English grammar . Cooper Books, Bombay 1961
• Walter Scott : Ivanhoe . Henry Frowsde Books, London 1912.
• Mary Ambree: Sowing glory. Memoirs of Mary Ambree, an English woman-legionary. Murray, London 1931.
• Ernest Frederick Row: Work, wealth and wages. Cooper Books, London 1950.
• Jonathan Swift : Gulliver's Travels . OUP, Hong Kong 1987, ISBN 0-19-414225-6 .

literature

• Christopher P. Stephens: A checklist of Percival Christopher Wren. Ultramarine Publ., Hastings-on-Hudson 1992.
• Eric Thompson: PC Wren. In: George M. Johnson (Ed.): Late-Victorian and Edwardian British novelists, Vol. 1 (Dictionary of literary biography; Vol. 153). Gale Research, Detroit, Mich. 1995, ISBN 0-8103-5714-3 .

Adaptations

Movies

• Herbert Brenon (Director): Blood Brotherhood ("Beau Geste"). 1926 (based on the novel of the same name).

Remake 1939: William A. Wellman (Director): Three Foreign Legionaries (1939) .

Remake 1966: Douglas Heyes (Direction): Three Foreign Legionaries (1966) .

Remake 1967: Gerald Thomas (Director): It's crazy - no water flows in the desert .

Remake 1977: Marty Feldman (Director): Three Foreign Legionnaires. 1977

Remake 1982: Douglas Camfield (Director): Beau Geste (TV series in 8 parts for the BBC).

• Herbert Brenon (Director): Beau Ideal. 1931 (based on the novel of the same name).
• John S. Waters (Director): The White Harem. 1928 (based on the novel Beau Sabreur ).
• Allan Dwan (Director): Daughter of the Foreign Legion ("Wages of virtue"). 1924 (based on the novel of the same name).

theatre

• Basil Dean (Director): Beau Geste . London 1929.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ UU his wife had died because the return journey home can only be proven for him.
3. ↑ PRC Wren later married the American actress Judith Smith (1906-2002)
4. ↑ For the US market under the title The desert heritage .
5. ↑ for the US domestic market under the title The dark woman .
6. ↑ For the US domestic market under the title The Cortenay Treasure .
7. ↑ For the US domestic market under the title The spur of pride .
8. ↑ For the US domestic market under the title To the hilt .
9. ↑ For the US internal market under the title The man the devil didn't want .
10. ^ A commission for Edward, Duke of Windsor (1894–1972).
11. ↑ Wren is the publisher, but is to be regarded as an author.
12. ↑ also known under the title Carmelita .