A. M. Williamson Explained

Alice Muriel Williamson
Pseudonym:Alice Stuyvesant, John Colin Dane, William Allison, Alice Livingston
Birth Name:Alice Muriel King
Birth Date:8 October 1858
Birth Place:Cleveland, Ohio
Death Place:Bath, England
Resting Place:Bath Abbey
Occupation:Writer
Language:English
Genres:-->
Subjects:-->
Spouse:Charles Norris Williamson m.1894

Alice Muriel Williamson (8 October 1858 – 24 September 1933), who published chiefly under names the "C. N. and A. M. Williamson" and "Mrs. C. N. Williamson," was an American-English author.

Biography

She was born 8 October 1858 to parents Marcus and Jane (Thomas) King in Cleveland, Ohio, where her father was co-founder of the Ohio State and Union Law College. In 1890 she adopted the surname "Livingston" from her maternal great grandfather following separation from her first husband, Lieutenant William Reeve Hamilton, who disapproved of her budding career as an actress. In 1892 she expatriated herself to England (and from her first husband) as foreign correspondent for the Boston Evening Transcript, supplying that paper with approximately 120 "letters" between 1892 and 1897 before devoting herself full-time to fiction, although she remained an occasional freelance journalist for the rest of her life. Two years after arriving in England she married magazine editor Charles Norris Williamson (1857–1920) whom she persuaded to appear as co-author for many of her books, later acknowledging her sole authorship.

Her success as an author, in its early stages, was owing to Alfred Harmsworth who, recognizing her talent, promoted her stories – especially sensational serials – in the Daily Mail and his many other publications. Her first serial, "Confessions of a Stage-Struck Girl," appeared in Forget-Me-Not (August 11-November 17, 1894), partly inspired by her earlier career as an actress in America, as was her first novel, The Barnstormers (1897), written at the suggestion of S. R. Crockett upon hearing her describe some of her theatrical experiences at a dinner party. Her second novel, A Woman in Grey (1898), established her reputation as a worthy successor to Wilkie Collins. A third, The Newspaper Girl (1899), exploited Elizabeth Banks's "stunt" journalism, turning some of the same stratagems to humorous effect. Humor would become one of her most striking characteristics as an author, beginning with The Lightning Conductor (1902), the novel that catapulted her overnight to international fame, selling more than a million copies in America. James Milne, in Memoirs of a Bookman (1934), speaks of a "tradition" that she was "the wittiest girl who ever invaded Fleet Street."

Although best known for her series of motor travel romances, she was a literary polymath adept at a wide variety of genres (detective, mystery, Gothic, spy, adventure, war, ghost, fairy, satire, fictional memoir, muckraking, etc.), often published anonymously or pseudonymously, such as Champion: The Story of a Motor Car (1907) as by John Colin Dane (memoirs narrated by the car itself), and her sensational exposé of German war plans on the eve of World War I, What I Found Out in the House of a German Prince (1915), purporting to be "by an American-English Governess," the latter so realistic that it was accepted as a true account and published serially in the Fortnightly Review.

She died 24 September 1933 under strange circumstances at Bath, where her remains are interred next to those of her husband in the graveyard behind Bath Abbey.

Works

Translations

Her mystery A Woman in Grey (1898) was translated and adapted into Japanese by Kuroiwa Ruiko (黒岩涙香) under the title Yūrei tō (幽霊塔; Ghost Tower) in 1901, and it was adapted by Edogawa Rampo (江戸川乱歩) in 1937–1938. Translations of her novels and newspaper serials appeared throughout Europe, particularly in France, Holland and Switzerland.

Filmography

Further reading

External links

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