Crockett, S R
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1859-1914) Scottish minister and author, who later added his middle name Rutherford; remembered primarily for a large number of novels set in the Scottish Lowlands, which established him as perhaps the least sentimental of the "Kailyard" novelists, though less well known than J M Barrie (1860-1937). Some of these tales have some supernatural elements; Mad Sir Uchtred of the Hills (1894) is a Gothic romance, and The Grey Man (1896) features a cannibal. Crockett is of some sf interest for The White Pope, Called "The Light Out of the Past" (1920; vt The Light Out of the East 1920), whose protagonist, reviled by his Church, applies precepts out of early Christianity to establish what seems to be a Near Future Utopia; the tale may have appeared anonymously years before the author's death, and is not easy to pin down as to the time in which it is set.
Sweetheart Travellers (coll 1895) and The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion, with those of General Napoleon Smith (1897) [for full titles see below] are children's books, with sprightly moments. [JC]
Samuel Crockett
born Balmaghie, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland: 24 September 1859
died Tarascon, near Avignon, France: 16 April 1914
works (highly selected)
- Mad Sir Uchtred of the Hills (London: T Fisher Unwin, 1894) [in the publisher's Antonym Library series: hb/]
- Sweetheart Travellers: A Child's Book for Children, for Women, and for Men (London: Wells Gardner Darton and Company, 1895) [coll: illus/hb/Gordon Browne and others]
- The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion, with those of General Napoleon Smith: An Improving History for Old Boys, Young Boys, Good Boys, Bad Boys, Big Boys,Little Boys, Cow Boys, and Tom Boys (London: Wells Gardner Darton and Company, 1897) [illus/hb/Gordon Browne]
- The Grey Man (London: T Fisher Unwin, 1896) [hb/]
- The Black Douglas (London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1899) [hb/]
- The White Pope, Called "The Light Out of the Past" (Liverpool, England: Books Limited, 1920) [hb/]
- The Light Out of the East (New York: George H Doran, 1920) [vt of the above: hb/]
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