William Le Queux

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Le Queux

William Tufnell Le Queux (born July 2, 1864 in London , England , † October 13, 1927 in Knokke , West Flanders ) was an English journalist , writer and diplomat of French descent.

Life

Le Queux was the son of a French cloth merchant from London and his British wife. He spent his school days in England and then studied art; u. a. with Ignace Spiridon (1860-1900). After successfully completing his studies, Le Queux embarked on a grand tour which took him - mostly on foot - through Germany, Italy and France.

In the autumn of 1898 he returned to London and founded the magazines “Gossip” and “Picadilly” there, which, however, ceased to appear after only a few issues. From 1891, Le Queux reported exclusively from parliament for the newspaper "The Globe". He resigned this task in 1893 and devoted himself only to his own literary work.

From the First World War , Le Queux worked very intensively on the new medium of radio and its possibilities. From 1924 he took part in various experiments; u. a. he assisted John Logie Baird in his experiments in the Swiss mountains. Le Queux became a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers and was elected the first President of the newly formed Hastings, St. Leonard's and District Radio Society that same year .

William Le Queux died in Knokke (Belgium) at the age of 63 and was buried there.

reception

Le Queux 'oeuvre spans a wide range from detective novels and thrillers to mystery and spy novels ; but also non-fiction books, some of which sparked controversial discussions, come from his pen. Many of his works were created in collaboration with his publisher Alfred Harmscliff . Many of Le Queux's stories first appeared as sequels in various tabloids before being republished (sometimes in revised form) in book form. The 1910 Invasion is still considered one of his most successful novels .

In the spy novel Damned Germans! by Gerhard Seyfried , Le Queux's books Spies of the Kaiser and The Incursion of the Germans in England, as well as his person, play an important role: The novel shows how these books lead to the popular belief in England that the German Empire has over 5,000 spies in England entertained, which leads even the English secret service to grapple with these apparently fictitious claims.

Works (selection)

Fiction

  • The eye of Istar. A romance of the land of no return . Long Press, London 1921 (reprint of the London 1897 edition)
  • The German invasion of England ("The invasion of 1910"). Concordia Verlag, Berlin 1914 (former title Die Invasion von 1910 ).
  • The Stretton Street poisoner ("The Stretton Street Affair"). Safe publishing house, Berlin 1933.
  • # 7 Saville Square. Detective novel ("No. 7 Saville Square"). Publishing house Payne, Leipzig 1938.
  • A woman's fault. Detective novel ("A woman's debt"). Eden-Verlag, Berlin 1928 (Ehrlichs Kriminalbücherei; 58).
  • The black owl. A novel of surprises ("The Black owl"). Glöckner Verlag, Berlin 1929.
  • SOS. A cry of distress from the ether. Detective novel ("The marked man"). Oldenburg Verlag, Leipzig 1929 (master of the crime novel; 2).

Non-fiction

  • The Near East. The present situation in Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Turkey and Macedonia . London 1907.
  • Plotting the downfall of England . Cassell, London 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4278-9 (formerly Spies of the Kaiser ).
  • Further secrets of Potsdam . London 1917.
  • Love intrigues of the Kaiser's Sons . London 1918.
  • The minister of evil. The secret history of Rasputin 's betrayal of Russia . London 1917.
  • Rasputinism in London. Revelations of the secret cult of Beauty and Happiness established by the monk Grichtaka . London 1919.
  • Things I know about kings, celebrities and crooks . London 1923 ( autobiography ).

literature

  • Clive Bloom: Bestsellers. Popular fiction since 1900 . Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2008, ISBN 978-0-230-53688-3 , p. 181.
  • Russell W. Burns: John Logie Baird. Television Pioneer . IET, London 2000, ISBN 0-85296-797-7 (History of Technology Series; 287).
  • Niall Ferguson: The Wrong War. The First World War and the 20th century ("The pity of war"). Dtv, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-423-30808-7 .
  • Chris Patrick, Stephen Baister: William Le Queux. Master of Mystery . Patrick & Baister Books, Purley, Surrey 2007, ISBN 978-0-9554791-0-6 .
  • Norman S. Sladen: The real Le Queux. The official biography . Nicholson & Watson, London 1938.
  • John Sutherland: The Longman companion of victorian fiction . 2nd ed. Pearson Books, Harlow 2009, ISBN 978-1-4082-0390-3 , pp. 372-373.

Web links

Commons : William Le Queux  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Honorary Consul of San Marino
  2. ↑ Title of the US edition: The eye of Ishtar
personal data
SURNAME Le Queux, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Le Queux, William Tufnell (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English journalist, writer and diplomat of French descent
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1927
Place of death Knokke , West Flanders