Career
In 1882 Chambers moved to England, he had no friends there and had to try various occupations in order to make a living. Chambers wrote letters from London for The Bulletin. In 1884 his first story was accepted, and other work appeared in popular magazines of the time like Society and Truth. In 1886 a one-act play, One of Them, was acted in London and another curtain-raiser, The Open Gate, was played at the Comedy Theatre in 1887. His first real success was Captain Swift, which was produced by Beerbohm Tree at the Haymarket Theatre in the autumn of 1888. This had a good run and was played all over England, in America, and in Australia. He had another success with The Idler (1890). His next three plays The Honourable Herbert, The Old Lady, and The Pipes of Peace did not achieve success, but John-O-Dreams, first played in 1894, was successful. Also in 1894, he had some success with The Fatal Card. In 1899 possibly his best play, The Tyranny of Tears, was produced by Charles Wyndham and was frequently revived. Among his later plays Passers By (1911) and The Saving Grace (1917) are possibly the best.
The famous London-based Australian operatic soprano, Dame Nellie Melba, was his mistress for a number of years. The relationship ended in 1904 for reasons which remain unclear.
Read more about this topic: Charles Haddon Chambers
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