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Capes, Bernard (Bernard Edward Joseph), 1854-1918

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Bernard Edward Joseph Capes, one of eleven children, was born in London, England, on August 30, 1854. As a young man he was brought up as a Roman Catholic because his grandfather, John Capes, had become a Roman Catholic, but he rapidly 'gave this up' (Source: Renalt Capes, son). Bernard was educated at ‘Beaumont', a famous Catholic college.

Capes was a prolific Victorian author, publishing more than forty volumes - romances, mysteries, poetry, history - together with many articles for the magazines of the day. His early writing career was as a journalist, later becoming editor of a paper called ‘The Theatre’, which was well known in late nineteenth century London. He finally committed to full-time writing, taking around four months for each novel. (Source: Renalt Capes, son)

On several occasions he had two or three novels published in the same year - and even four in 1910. In passing, his elder sister, Harriet Capes (1849-1936), was a noted translator and author of more than a dozen children's books (Source: Hugh Lamb, 'The Black Reaper' 1998).

His first success came in 1897, when he entered a $30,000 competition for new authors sponsored by the Chicago Record. He was awarded second prize for The Mill of Silence, published by Rand, McNally that year. The following year the Chicago Record ran the competition again, and this time Capes won it with The Lake of Wine, published by Heinemann. (Source: Hugh Lamb, 'The Black Reaper' 1998).

He died in the 1918 ’flu epidemic, on November 2.

Known Capes publications (source: author):

  • 1888 The Haunted Tower (as ‘Bevis Cane’)
  • 1889 The Missing Man (as ‘Bevis Cane’), Eglington & Co
  • 1897 The Mill of Silence, Rand, McNally & Company, Chicago
  • 1897 The Lake of Wine, Heinemann,
  • 1898 Adventures of the Comte de Muette, William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh,
  • ? The Mysterious Singer, J.W. Arrowsmith,
  • 1898 Our Lady of Darkness, Wm Blackwood
  • 1899 At a Winter’s Fire, Arthur Pearson (Re-issued, 1978, by Ayer Co Publishing (USA),
  • 1900 From Door to Door, Wm Blackwood,
  • 1901 Love Like a Gypsy, Archibald Constable & Co, Westminster,
  • 1902 Plots, Methuen & Co, London,
  • 1903 A Castle in Spain, Smith, Elder & Co, London,
  • 1903 The Secret in the Hill, Smith, Elder & Co, London,
  • ? The Extraordinary Confessions of Diana Please,
  • 1905 A Jay of Italy, Methuen,
  • 1906(?) The Romance of Lohengrin, Dean and Son,
  • 1906 Bembo: A Tale of Italy, Dutton & Co., NY,
  • 1906 Loaves and Fishes (2nd edition 1906),
  • 1907 The Great Skene Mystery, Methuen,
  • ? The House of Many Voices,
  • 1908 The Green Parrot, Smith, Elder & Co,
  • 1908 Amaranthus: A Book of Little Songs, T. Fisher Unwin,
  • 1910 ? The Love Story of St Bel,
  • 1910 Why Did He Do It?,
  • 1910 Historical Vignettes, 1st Series, T. Fisher Unwin,
  • 1910 Jemmy Abercraw, Methuen,
  • 1911 Gilead Balm, T. Fisher Unwin ,
  • 1912 Jessie Bazley, Constable and Company, London,
  • 1912 Historical Vignettes, 2nd Series, Sidgwick & Jackson,
  • 1913 The Pot of Basil, Constable and Company,
  • 1913 Bag and Baggage, Constable,
  • 1914 The Story of Fifine, Constable (re-issued 1919),
  • 1915 The Fabulists,
  • 1916 Moll Davis, George Allen & Unwin,
  • 1916 If Age Could, Duckworth and Co, London,
  • ? Where England Sets Her Feet,
  • ? The Will and the Way,
  • ? A Fool’s Passion and Other Poems,
  • 1919 The Skeleton Key, W. Collins Sons, London,

Magazines:

Blackwood, Butterfly, Cassell’s, Cornhill, Hutton’s Magazine, Illustrated London News, Lippincott’s, Macmillan’s, Literature, New Witness, Pall Mall, Pearson’s, Theatre (ed.), The Idler, The New Weekly, The Queen.

Other:

  • 1989 The Black Reaper, ed Hugh Lamb, Equation, Wellingborough,
  • 1998 The Black Reaper, ed Hugh Lamb, Ash-Tree Press, Ashcroft, British Columbia

External links


This biographical information was gathered from the Bernard_Capes page, courtesy of the Wikipedia project.

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