Arthur Stringer (writer) - Life

Life

Stringer was born in Chatham, Ontario, the son of Sarah Mary Delmage and Hugh Stringer. "He was a high spirited boy who spent his childhood days fishing, swimming, raiding orchards and manning a pirate ship." In 1884 the family moved to London, Ontario, where Charles attended London Collegiate Institute. At the Institute he founded and edited a school magazine called Chips. He then attended University College, University of Toronto from 1892 to 1894 and later studied at Oxford University. His first book of poetry, Watchers of Twilight and Other Poems, was published in 1894.

In 1895 he worked for the Montreal Herald. At this time he was also publishing in Saturday Night and the Canadian Magazine. In 1898 he got a job with the American Press Association, moved to New York City, and was soon publishing in The Atlantic and Harper's. His first poem in Harper's, "Remorse", appeared in February 1899. His first novel, The Silver Poppy, came out in 1903. In the same year he bought a farm on the shore of Lake Erie. and married actress Jobyna Howland, known as the original Gibson girl. They divorced in 1914, and Stringer married his cousin, Margaret Arbuthnott. They had three sons: Arthur John Arbuthnott Stringer (John), Hugh Arbuthnott Stringer (Barney), and Robert Arthur Stringer.

Stringer was popular in his day for his crime fiction and his wilderness adventures, but he wrote in many genres, from social realism (his "Prairie" trilogy, 1915–1921) to psychological fiction (The Wine of Life (1921). He even wrote early science fiction novels, The Story Without a Name (1924) with Russell Holman, and The Woman Who Couldn't Die (1929).

Much of his writing was for films. Film scripts on which he worked include The Perils Of Pauline (1914), The Hand Of Peril (1916), The House Of Intrigue (1919), Unseeing Eyes (1923), Empty Hands (1924), The Canadian (1926), The Purchase Price (1932), The Lady Fights Back (1937), Buck Benny Rides Again (1940) and The Iron Claw (1941).

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