Charles Gibbon

Charles Gibbon (1843–1890) was a British novelist.

Life

Gibbon was born in the Isle of Man, and moved with his parents to Glasgow at an early age. After receiving elementary education there, he became a clerk, and then before age 17 found a position on a local newspaper. During Charles Kean's visit to Glasgow in 1860, Gibbon wrote an account of his acting, and Kean made his acquaintance. A year or so later Gibbon moved to London.[1]

Ill-health compelled Gibbon to spend his later years on the east coast of England, and he died at Great Yarmouth on 15 August 1890. He was married and left a family.[1]

Works

A three-volume novel Dangerous Connexions was published by Gibbon in 1864, which had a second edition in 1875. The Dead Heart followed in 1865, and Gibbon went on to publish some thirty novels, including were Robin Gray (1869; other editions 1872 and 1877) and For Lack of Gold (1871; other editions 1873 and 1877). Gibbon's Scottish novels have been compared with those of William Black.[1] Ten novels featured "Detective Dier", a character based on Edmund Reid, who was a friend of Gibbon's.[2]

Gibbon also edited The Casquet of Literature (6 vols. 1873-4), and wrote a Life (2 vols. 1878) of George Combe, in whose theories he was interested.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4  Sidney Lee, ed. (1901). "Gibbon, Charles (1843-1890)". Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. Haia Shpayer-Makov (29 September 2011). The Ascent of the Detective: Police Sleuths in Victorian and Edwardian England. Oxford University Press. p. 371 note 81. ISBN 978-0-19-957740-8.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Sidney Lee, ed. (1901). "Gibbon, Charles (1843–1890)". Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 


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