Guy Boothby - Biography

Biography

Boothby was born in Adelaide, son of Thomas Wilde Boothby, who for a time was a member of the South Australian Legislative Assembly. Guy Boothby's grandfather was Benjamin Boothby (1803-1868), judge of the supreme court of South Australia from 1853 to 1867. When Boothby was six he travelled to England with his mother, and thus was educated at Salisbury, Lord Weymouth's Grammar (now Warminster School) and Christ's Hospital, London.

In 1890 Boothby wrote the libretto for a comic opera, Sylvia, which was published and produced at Adelaide in December 1890, and in 1891 appeared The Jonquil: an Opera. The music in each case was written by Cecil James Sharp. Around this time Boothby accepted a role as private secretary to the mayor of Adelaide, Lewis Cohen, but was "not contented" with the work. There was little opportunity for Boothby to progress in the Adelaide Corporation: thus, with the support of Chohen, Boothby moved to Brisbane where he believed that he would find "a wider opening for his talents". From Brisbane Boothby made his way to England, arriving in London in 1894.

In 1894 he published On the Wallaby or Through the East and Across Australia, an account of the travels of himself and his brother, including a description of their journey across Australia from Cooktown to Adelaide. In the same year his first novel, In Strange Company, was published in London and was quickly successful. Boothby moved to the United Kingdom in 1894. He wrote over 50 books over the course of a decade, before dying of pneumonia in Bournemouth.