Arthur Stringer

Arthur Stringer (February 26, 1874 – September 13, 1950) was a Canadian novelist, screenwriter, and poet who moved to the United States.

He published 45 works of fiction and 15 other books and wrote film scripts and articles.

Early life

Stringer was born in Chatham, Ontario. In 1884, the family moved to London, Ontario, where Charles attended the London Collegiate Institute. At the Institute, he founded and edited a school magazine called Chips. He then attended University College, University of Toronto from 1892 to 1894, and later studied at Oxford University.

Career

Stringer’s first book of poetry, Watchers of Twilight and Other Poems, was published in 1894.

In 1895, he worked for the Montreal Herald. He was also published in Saturday Night and the Canadian Magazine. In 1898, he got a job with the American Press Association, moved to New York City, and began publishing in The Atlantic and Harper’s. His first poem in Harper’s “Remorse” appeared in February 1899. His first novel, The Silver Poppy, came out in 1903. In the same year, he bought a farm on the shore of Lake Erie and married actress Jobyna Howland, the original Gibson Girl. They divorced in 1914, and Stringer married his cousin, Margaret Arbuthnott.

In 1921, the Stringers moved to Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, where Arthur Stringer continued to write.

Stringer wrote crime fiction and wilderness adventures, mainly using conventional formulae. He wrote as well in many other genres, from social realism (his “Prairie” trilogy, 1915–1921) to psychological fiction (The Wine of Life (1921). He wrote early science fiction novels The Story Without a Name (1924) with Russell Holman and The Woman Who Couldn’t Die (1929).

Much of his writing was for films. Film scripts on which he worked include The Perils Of Pauline (1914), The Hand Of Peril (1916), The House Of Intrigue (1919), Unseeing Eyes (1923), Empty Hands (1924), The Canadian (1926), The Purchase Price (1932), The Lady Fights Back (1937), Buck Benny Rides Again (1940) and The Iron Claw (1941).

Stringer remained a resident of New Jersey until he died in 1950, aged 76.