Arthur Scaife

{{Infobox writer

| name = Arthur Scaife

| image = File:Arthur Scaife.jpg

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_name = Arthur Hodgkin Scaife

| birth_date = c. 1855

| birth_place = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

| death_date = {{death date|1934|4|2}}

| death_place = Chiswick, London, England

| pseudonym = {{flatlist|

Kim Bilir

}}

|occupation = {{flatlist|

Writer
editor
insurance broker

}}

|genres = {{flatlist|

Fiction
poetry
non-fiction
journalism

}}

Arthur Hodgkin Scaife ({{circa|1855}}–1934) was an Australian-born English writer, editor, and insurance broker. Educated in England, he worked as an insurance agent in Constantinople for 18 years before moving to Canada in 1892, settling in the city of Victoria. He became the founding editor of the weekly newspaper The Province. Scaife was the author of two volumes of short stories and a novel which were the first works of fiction to be published in British Columbia. After a short period in Toronto, he moved to England where in 1900 he published two more books, an account of the Second Boer War and a satirical poem. Scaife took up positions in the insurance field again before his death in Chiswick in 1934.

Biography

Arthur Hodgkin Scaife was born circa 1855 in Melbourne, Australia, the only son of Reginald and Amy Scaife.{{Cite web| title=Australian birth index, 1788-1922| website=Ancestry.ca| url=https://www.ancestry.ca/| access-date=14 July 2024}}{{Cite news| title=Mr. A. H. Scaife, J. P.| type=obituary| newspaper=Chelsea News| date=6 April 1934| page=8| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chelsea-news-obituary-of-arthur-hodgkin/151083630/| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714104428/https://www.newspapers.com/article/chelsea-news-obituary-of-arthur-hodgkin/151083630/| archive-date=14 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }} He was educated in England at Bradfield College, in Berkshire. Scaife chose banking and insurance as a career. He held an appointment in Constantinople for 18 years, rising to general manager of the New York Life Insurance Company.{{Cite news| title=Visiting Insurance Men| newspaper=Daily News Advertiser| location=Vancouver| date=4 October 1892| page=8| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-advertiser-visiting-insurance/151290820/| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=

https://web.archive.org/web/20240714105801/https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-advertiser-visiting-insurance/151290820/| archive-date=14 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }} He also spent time in India and the Far East.Zilm 1981, p. 139. In 1892, he and his wife travelled across North America to Vancouver. Scaife had the intention of setting up a branch of the New York insurance company.

In Victoria, he became in 1894 the first editor of the weekly newspaper The Province, holding that position for three and a half years.{{Cite news| title=Newspaper History and some Old-Time Makers of Vancouver| newspaper=The Province| location=Vancouver| date=15 December 1900| page=31| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-newspaper-history-includin/134328360/| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714113755/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-newspaper-history-includin/134328360/| archive-date=14 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }}{{Cite news| title=Complimentary Dinner| newspaper=The Victoria Daily Times| date=7 October 1897| page=8| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-victoria-daily-times-complimentary-d/134308678/| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714114851/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-victoria-daily-times-complimentary-d/134308678/| archive-date=14 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }} A column on newspaper history wrote that "his caustic style and absolute fearlessness in the puncturing of pretentious bubbles soon won for the new publication a wide circulation." In 1894 as well, Scaife began creating synoptical charts for the teaching of history in schools, the first chart depicting English history.{{Cite news| title=Scaife's Synoptical Chart of English history| newspaper=The Province| location=Victoria| volume=1| number=3| page=15| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-arthur-hodgkin-scaifes-s/134410605/| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714010047/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-arthur-hodgkin-scaifes-s/134410605/| archive-date=14 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }}{{Cite news| title=Men and Things| newspaper=The Province| volume=1| number=37| date=10 November 1894| page=1| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-men-and-things-scaifes-s/151288223/| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714003148/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-men-and-things-scaifes-s/151288223/| archive-date=14 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{ free access}} }} Three years later, he took the position of managing director for the Comparative Synoptical Chart Company in Toronto.Morgan 1898, p. 912. His charts were financially successful, and in 1898, he left Toronto to reside in England.{{Cite news| title=Gone to England| newspaper=Victoria Daily Colonist| date=20 September 1898| page=5| url=https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist18980920uvic/page/n4/mode/1up| access-date=13 July 2024| via=Internet Archive }}

In London, Scaife again became an agent for the New York Life Insurance Company{{Cite news| title=Monmouth Arrives to Take Prince Home| newspaper=Victoria Daily Colonist| date=20 June 1907| page=1| url=https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist19070620uvic/mode/1up| access-date=13 July 2024| via=Internet Archive }} before joining Confederation Life at Bush House. While living at Chertsey, in 1912 he was appointed justice of the peace for Surrey. He assumed a local leadership role in the Liberal party. In the second half of the First World War he lived in Pimlico. Scaife died in a nursing home in Chiswick on 2 April 1934 at the age of 78 years. He was survived by his wife, four sons and two daughtes.

Writing

Image:Three Letters of Credit.jpg

In 1894, writing under the pseudonym Kim Bilir, Scaife published the first work of fiction in British Columbia, Three Letters of Credit and Other Stories.Bringhurst 1984, p. 19.{{refn|group=nb|"Kim Bilir" is Turkish for "Who knows?".{{Cite news| title=September Campaigning in Bulgaria| newspaper=The Standard| date=2 October 1877| page=5| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-standard-september-campaigning-in-bu/151311337/| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714144051/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-standard-september-campaigning-in-bu/151311337/| archive-date=14 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }}}} It contained five stories that had previously appeared in The Province, of which the title story was the longest.Zilm 1981, pp. 138–139. The settings were cosmopolitan, including the inferred location of Constantinople,{{Cite news| last=Dangan (pen name)| title=The Library| newspaper=The Province| location=Victoria| date=29 December 1894| page=7| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-review-by-dangan-of-three-l/134330061/| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714190507/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-review-by-dangan-of-three-l/134330061/| archive-date=14 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }} and also Vienna, the shores of the Black Sea, Winnipeg, and Greece.{{Cite journal| editor-last=Wildman| editor-first=Rounsevelle| title=Three Letters of Credit| journal=Overland Monthly| volume=XXV| number=150| publisher=Overland Monthly Publishing Company| location=San Francisco| page=687| url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510008997757&seq=699| access-date=13 July 2024| via=HathiTrust }} The Overland Monthly, a California magazine, wrote that "the stories are told with much humor, some keen character drawing, and good local color." Another favourable review, by the Toronto magazine The Week, singled out the comic situations of the bank clerk in the lead story.{{Cite journal| title=Recent Fiction| journal=The Week| volume=XII| number=14| publisher=The Week Publishing Company| location=Toronto| date=1 March 1895| page=327| url=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06733_587/15| access-date=13 July 2024| via=Canadiana.ca }}

In 1895, Scaife next published the first novel in British Columbia, As it Was in the Fifties. Not knowing the identity of the author, The Week stated that they wished they knew, "for a stronger story than "As it Was in the Fifties" we have rarely read". The review continued with a detailed summary of the plot, concerning the adventures of a young Englishman named Evan Evans, on his prospective journey to the gold fields of British Columbia.{{Cite journal| title=As it Was in the Fifties| journal=The Week| volume=XIII| number=1| publisher=The Week Publishing Company| location=Toronto| date=29 November 1895| page=15| url=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06733_626/15| access-date=13 July 2024| via=Canadiana.ca }} The Toronto newspaper The Globe had a more guarded opinion. While pronouncing the book to be very readable and reflecting good judgement, it wrote that the grasp of character was fair.{{Cite news| title=Unknown title| newspaper=The Globe| location=Toronto| date=10 October 1896| via=a newspaper clipping in a scrapbook that belonged to Edith Hilda Scaife, the wife of Arthur Scaife, located at the University of British Columbia. Item VF-416.}}

In the same year as his novel, Scaife followed with another book of short stories, Gemini and Lesser Lights. The locations represented were chiefly Turkey, Montenegro, and Bulgaria.{{Cite journal| title=Recent Fiction| journal=The Week| volume=XIII| number=15| publisher=The Week Publishing Company| location=Toronto| date=6 March 1896| page=358| url=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06733_640/18| access-date=15 July 2024| via=Canadiana.ca }} The stories were praised by reviewers.{{Cite news| title=By Book Post| newspaper=The Victoria Daily Times| date=10 March 1896| page=8| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-victoria-daily-times-review-of-gemin/150714040/| access-date=15 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715021319/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-victoria-daily-times-review-of-gemin/150714040/| archive-date=15 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }}

In London, now writing under his own name, Scaife published in 1900 an account of the Second Boer War called The War to Date. Reception was mixed. The periodical The Speaker curtly dismissed it as merely a compilation derived from the newspapers and lacking even limited temporary value.

{{Cite journal| title=War's Alarmists| journal=The Speaker| volume=2| date=28 April 1900| page=112| url=https://archive.org/details/sim_speaker-the-liberal-review_1900-04-28_2/page/112/mode/1up| access-date=13 July 2024| via=Internet Archive }} In contrast, Canadian Magazine reported it as well done and noted its splendid illustrations.{{Cite journal| title=Literary Notes| journal=Canadian Magazine| volume=XV| number=1| date=May 1900| page=91| publisher=The Ontario Publishing Company| location=Toronto| url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044100137926&seq=103| access-date=13 July 2024| via=HathiTrust }}

Also in 1900, Scaife put out his final book, a satirical poem entitled The Soliloquy of a Shadow-Shape on a Holiday from Hades. Written in quatrains, it featured a contemporary version of Omar Khayyam, who has written a new version of his famous Rubaiyat. Khayyam asks the editor to translate his critique of London society, which the editor accepts.{{Cite news| title=Omar at New Tasks| newspaper=The New York Times| volume=49| type=supplement| date=25 August 1900| page=576| url=https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_1900-08-25_49_supplement/page/n15/mode/2up| access-date=13 July 2024| via=Internet Archive }} The New York Times described it as a "delightfully wicked satire." However, in the view of the Spectator, it failed the obligation of the satirist which is to be "superlatively clever".{{Cite journal| title=Soliloquy of a Shadow-Shape| journal=The Spectator| volume=85| issue=3760| date=21 July 1900| page=87| url=https://archive.org/details/sim_spectator-uk_1900-07-21_85_3760/page/87/mode/1up| via=Internet Archive }}

Besides his books, Scaife contributed miscellaneous stories and poems to magazines and newspapers.{{Cite journal| last=Scaife| first=Arthur| title=The Honourable John| journal=The Badminton Magazine| volume=VIII| publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co.| location=London, New York, and Bombay| date=April 1899| page=387| url=https://archive.org/details/badmintonmagazi08unkngoog/page/386/mode/2up| access-date=13 July 2024| via=Internet Archive }}{{Cite news| last=Scaife| first=Arthur H.| title=The Sea| newspaper=Surrey Times and County Express| date=27 April 1912| page=4| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/surrey-times-and-county-express-the-sea/151368024/| access-date=15 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715114757/https://www.newspapers.com/article/surrey-times-and-county-express-the-sea/151368024/| archive-date=15 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }} In the 1910s, he sent journalism to newspapers in England and British Columbia.{{Cite news| last=Scaife| first= Arthur H.| title=First Chertsey Group of Boy Scouts| newspaper=The Surrey Herald and Egham and Staines News| date=20 September 1912| page=5| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/surrey-herald-first-chertsey-troop-of-bo/151367979/| access-date=15 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715115653/https://www.newspapers.com/article/surrey-herald-first-chertsey-troop-of-bo/151367979/| archive-date=15 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }}{{Cite news| last=Scaife| first=Arthur| title=The Price of Speed–Home Rule| newspaper=Victoria Daily Times| date=27 November 1913| page=13| url=https://archive.org/details/victoriadailytimes19131127/page/n13/mode/1up| access-date=13 July 2024| via=Internet Archive }} He was still writing poetry in his final decade.Zilm 1981, pp. 139–140.

Works

=Fiction=

Three Letters of Credit and Other Stories (1894)Watters 1972, p. 387.
As it Was in the Fifties (1895)
Gemini and Lesser Lights (1895)

=Poetry=

The Soliloquy of a Shadow-Shape on a Holiday from Hades (1900)Watters 1972, p. 176.

=Non-fiction=

The War to Date (1900){{Cite news| title=Saturday's New Books| newspaper=The Standard| location=London| date=9 April 1900| page=4| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-standard-saturdays-new-books-the-w/151369726/| access-date=15 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715125228/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-standard-saturdays-new-books-the-w/151369726/| archive-date=15 July 2024| url-status=live| via=Newspapers.com {{free access}} }}

Notes

References

Sources

{{Cite book| last=Bringhurst| first=Robert|author-link1=Robert Bringhurst| title=Ocean, Paper, Stone: The catalogue of an exhibition of printed objects which chronicle more than a century of literary publishing in British Columbia| publisher=William Hoffer| date=1984| isbn=0-919758-07-X}}
{{Cite book| last=Morgan| first=Henry James| title=The Canadian Men and Women of the Time: A Hand-book of Canadian Biography| publisher=William Briggs| location=Toronto| date=1898| page=912| url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=aeu.ark:/13960/t0pr8544d&seq=977| access-date=13 July 2024| via=HathiTrust }}
{{Cite book| last=Watters| first=Reginald Eyre| title=A Checklist of Canadian Literature and Background Materials 1628-1960| publisher=University of Toronto Press| location=Toronto and Buffalo| date=1972| edition=2nd| isbn=0-8020-1866-1}}
{{Cite book| last=Zilm| first=Glennis| title=Early B.C. Books: An Overview of Trade Book Publishing in British Columbia in the 1800s with Checklists and Selected Bibliography Related to British Columbiana| chapter=First Fiction| type= M.A. Thesis| publisher=Simon Fraser University| date=1981| url=https://summit.sfu.ca/item/4064| access-date=14 July 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231008013628/https://summit.sfu.ca/item/4064| archive-date=8 October 2023| url-status=dead}}

External links

[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.16093/1 Three Letters of Credit and Other Stories]
[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.16091/1 As it Was in the Fifties]
[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.16092/1 Gemini and Lesser Lights]

Category:1855 births

Category:1934 deaths

Category:Writers from Istanbul

Category:Writers from Melbourne

Category:Writers from Victoria, British Columbia

Category:Writers from London

Category:19th-century Canadian novelists

Category:19th-century Canadian short story writers

Category:19th-century Canadian poets

Category:Canadian newspaper editors

Category:20th-century Canadian journalists

Category:19th-century English novelists