John Oliver Hobbes

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Writing for a brief period at the turn of the twentieth century, the pseudonymous JOH (whose actual married name was Pearl Craigie ) was the author of over a dozen novellas, novels, and several plays, as well as essays on art and colonial India, and letters published after her death. Having made her mark as the author of epigrammatic works during the fin de siècle (a label she never really shook), she inquired in her later works into the place of religion in contemporary life, as well as retaining an interest, often satirical, in London society life. She is seen as an important Catholic novelist.

Milestones

3 November 1867

Pearl Richards (later the writer John Oliver Hobbes ), was born at Chelsea, Massachusetts, USA.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

By late 1877

Pearl Richards (later JOH ) began her literary career at the age of nine by publishing under her own name two stories, Lost, a Dog and How Mark Selby Won His Public House, both in The Fountain.
Harding, Mildred Davis. Air-Bird in the Water. Associated University Presses.
40
The Bookman. Hodder and Stoughton.
12 (September 1900): 30

July 1891

JOH published her first novella (alternatively sometimes called a short novel), Some Emotions and a Moral, with T. Fisher Unwin .
Clarke, Isabel Constance. Six Portraits. Books for Libraries Press.
236

November 1897

JOH published The School For Saints: Part of the History of the Right Honourable Robert Orange, M. P., a historical bildungsroman which was her most ambitious novel to date.
Hobbes, John Oliver. The Life of John Oliver Hobbes. J. Murray.
108
Harding, Mildred Davis. Air-Bird in the Water. Associated University Presses.
519

13 August 1906

JOH was found dead of heart failure at her home at 56 Lancaster Gate, London.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

By October 1906

The Dream and the Business, the last novel by JOH (who died this August), was published in London by T. Fisher Unwin .
Harding, Mildred Davis. Air-Bird in the Water. Associated University Presses.
520
Hobbes, John Oliver. The Dream and the Business. D. Appleton.
front matter

Biography

Early Life and Family

3 November 1867

Pearl Richards (later the writer John Oliver Hobbes ), was born at Chelsea, Massachusetts, USA.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.