H B Marriott Watson 
Yellow Book by H B Marriott Watson [EPUB ebook] 

Henry Brereton Marriott Watson was born in Caulfield, Melbourne, Australia on 20th December 1863. The first years of his life was spent travelling with his family as his father, an Anglican Priest, moved from one ministry to another.In 1872, at age 9, he moved with his family moved to New Zealand and the next years were happy and settled.He was educated at Christ Church Grammar School and Canterbury College and, in 1885, he left for England in the hope of becoming a journalist.Eventually he worked as an assistant editor for the St. James’s Gazette and in the same capacity for both the Black and White and the Pall Mall Gazette. He was also a staff member of the National Observer under William Ernest Henley.His debut novel was ‘Marahuna’ in 1888 and his friends in the literary circle of The Saturday Review was among the first to review his work and encourage him to pursue life as a professional writer. In 1891 he expanded his talents by co-writing a stage production of Richard Savage with J. M. Barrie which premiered at London’s Criterion Theatre in 1891.In 1894, the English poet Rosamund Tomson left her husband and eloped with Marriott Watson; their only child Richard was born on 6th October 1895. This resulted in a scandal and blighted her career but they remained together until her death.Marriott Watson continued writing novels throughout the 1890s. Many of these were swashbuckling, historical and romance fiction, although he also wrote supernatural and Gothic horror stories many of which were published in the short story collections of ‘Diogenes of London’ (1893) and ‘The Heart of Miranda’ (1898). One of his most memorable was the vampire story ‘The Stone Chamber’ published only a year after Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’.When Rosamund died in 1911, Marriott Watson tried to keep her work alive in the literary world; his novel Rosalind in Arden (1913) contained many references to her poetry. He also published an account of alleged contact with her, via a seance with a medium, and he later converted to spiritualism. Their only son, an officer serving with the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, was killed on 24th March 1918, during the Great War. H B Marriott Watson never recovered from the loss of wife and son, becoming a heavy drinker and he died from cirrhosis of the liver on the 30th October 1921, at the age of 57.He published over forty novels, short story collections and essays between 1888 and 1919.During the Victorian era the publishing of magazines and periodicals accelerated at a phenomenal rate. This really was mass market publishing to a hungry audience eager for literary sustenance. Many of our greatest authors contributed and expanded their reach whilst many fledging authors also found a ready source for their nascent works and careers.Amongst the very many was ‘The Yellow Book’. Although titled as ‘An Illustrated Quarterly’ it was sold as a cloth-bound hardback and within were short stories, essays, poetry, illustrations and portraits. It was edited by the American author Henry Harland, who also contributed, and its art editor was no less that the formidable Aubrey Beardsley, the enfant terrible of illustration.Its yellow cover and name gave it an association with the risque and erotic yellow covered works published in France. It was a visual shorthand for ideas that would push many boundaries of Society to more open interpretations. Being complete in each volume and slightly aloof it stayed away from serialised fiction and advertisements. Within each lavishly illustrated edition were literary offerings that included works by such luminaries as Henry James, H G Wells, W B Yeats, Edith Nesbit, George Gissing and many others from the ascetic and decadent movements of the time. The other notable inclusion was women both as contributors and amongst its editing staff, which was at odds with the then patriarchal gender norms. Although it only survived for 13 issues its reach and influence were second to none.