| Robert Leighton | |
| Birth Date: | 5 June 1858 |
| Birth Place: | Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland |
| Death Place: | Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England |
| Nationality: | Scottish |
| Years Active: | 1880–1922 |
| Known For: | Writing adventure books for boys |
| Notable Works: | The Complete Book of the Dog |
Robert Leighton (5 June 185811 May 1934) was a Scottish journalist, editor, and writer of boys' fiction. He was an editor of juvenile magazines, and through his work at Young Folks he met his future wife Marie Connor, a prolific author in her own right. Leighton became an expert on dogs and their care and produced many works on this topic.
Leighton was born in the town of Ayr in Scotland on 5 June 1858 to Robert Leighton, a Scottish poet (20 February 182210 May 1869), and Elizabeth Jane Campbell (1820–1914). Some sources, such as the British Library give his year of birth as 1859. Others, including Sutherland, give it at 1858. However, his father only worked in Ayr from 1854 to 1858 for a Liverpool seed merchant, and the only male Leighton born in the District of Ayr from 1854 to 1864 was an unnamed son to Leighton's parents on 5 June 1858.
In the 1861 Census, Leighton was living in Liverpool, where his father was employed by a seed and agricultural supplies merchant. He was educated in the school attached to the Hope Street Unitarian Chapel in Liverpool. He began work as a journalist at age 14, working first for the Liverpool Porcupine, a social and satirical journal.
Leighton moved to London in 1879 and began working for Young Folks magazine as an assistant editor. Young Folks accepted Treasure Island from Robert Louis Stevenson and ran it as a serial from 1881 to1882 while he was first assistant editor. Young Folks also serialised The Black Arrow in JuneOctober 1883. Leighton was the editor from 1884 to 1885.
While he was at Young Folks, he met the tempestuous Marie Connor (February 186628 January 1941), the adopted daughter of James Nenon Alexander Connor, formerly a captain in the 87th Foot, and the daughter of Elizabeth Ann Harris (184916 April 1908), a widow, born Trelawny. Connor, who contributed to the magazine, published her first novel Beauty's Queen, a three-volume melodrama, in 1884 when she was 18. In 1886 Leighton left Little Folks to move to the Bristol Observer, but returned to London in 1887.
In London, he eventually found work with the Harmsworths, and was a director of their Answers Ltd company from 1893 to 1896.
In 1889, Leighton eloped with Marie Connor; they were married at Marylebone in the first quarter of 1889. Marie was an established novelist at this stage, publishing her sixth book in the year of her marriage.
Leighton began to produce books himself, starting with The Pilots of Pomona in 1892, but throughout the marriage, his wife's income from writing far exceeded his. Leighton was the literary editor of the Daily Mail from 1896 to 1899.
The Leightons had four children:
Leighton's day-to-day influence on the household was limited by his deafness. He was so deaf by the time his children were growing up, that he was able to write his adventure books sitting next to his wife while she dictated her next melodrama. Leighton was older and wiser than Marie, and helped Clare's artistic development. His daughter recalls that Leighton adored his wife and that he had something of a cherishing paternal attitude towards her.
Leighton produced four types of output:
In a memoir,[1] Larry McMurtry (American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter) said Leighton's Sergeant Silk: the prairie scout [2] (about a fictional member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), was one of the first books McMurtry ever read. He had been given it by a young relative departing to fight in World War II.
One enormous job Leighton did undertake was the editing of Hall Caine's Life of Christ. When he began this work, the book had some three-million words. Leighton managed to reduce this to some 750,000 before his death in 1934. It was eventually published in 1938, but Leighton's contribution was not mentioned by Caine's sons in their introduction to the work.
The following illustrations by Alfred Pearse (1856–1933) for The Thirsty Sword – a story of the Norse invasion of Scotland (1262–1263) give an idea of the pacing of Leighton's writing in a novel which was meant to teach history as well as entertain.
The following is a list, drawn from the Jisc Library Hub Discover collated catalogue.
| 1 | 1892 | The pilots of Pomona: a story of the Orkney Islands | London: Blackie & Son | ||
| 2 | 1893 | The thirsty sword: a story of the Norse invasion of Scotland (1262–1263) | London: Blackie & Son | ||
| 3 | 1894 | In the Grip of the Algerine. A historical tale, etc. | London: Sunday School Union | ||
| 4 | 1894 | Wreck of the Golden Fleece. The story of a North Sea fisher-boy, etc. | London: Blackie & Son | ||
| 5 | 1895 | Olaf the Glorious: a historical story of the Viking age, etc. | London: Blackie & Son | ||
| 6 | 1896 | Under the Foeman's Flag: a story of the Spanish Armada, etc. | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 7 | 1910 | The golden galleon: being a narrative of the adventures of Master Gilbert Oglander, and of how, in the year 1591 he fought under the gallant Sir Richard Grenville in the great sea-fight off Flores, on board Her Majesty's ship The Revenge | London: Blackie and Son | ||
| 8 | 1898 | Convict 99: a true story of penal servitude | London: Grant Richards | ||
| 9 | 1898 | The splendid stranger: a story of the Monmouth rebellion | London: The Sunday School Union | ||
| 10 | 1901 | In the grip of the Corsair: being the personal narrative of Sir Lester Willoughby, Knight | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 11 | 1901 | In the shadow of guilt: a novel | London: Grant Richards | ||
| 12 | 1902 | Cap'n Nat's Treasure: a tale of Old Liverpool, etc. | London: S. W. Partridge & Co | ||
| 13 | 1902 | The Boys of Waveney, etc. | London: Grant Richards | ||
| 14 | 1903 | Fighting fearful odds, or, The temptations of Jack Rodney | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 15 | 1903 | In the land of the Ju-Ju: a tale of Benin, the city of blood | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 16 | 1903 | The haunted ship: a tale of the Devon smugglers | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 17 | 1903 | The Kidnapping of Peter Cray. A story of the South Seas, etc. | London: Grant Richards | ||
| 18 | 1904 | Hurrah! for the Spanish Main: a tale of Drake's third voyage to Darien, etc. | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 19 | 1904 | The Other Fellow; or, the Heir from the Colonies, etc. | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 20 | 1905 | The boy and his school: what it can and what it cannot give him | London: J. Murray | ||
| 21 | 1905 | The green painted ship | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 22 | 1905 | With Nelson in Command: a story of adventure in the battle of the Baltic, etc. | London: Andrew Melrose | ||
| 23 | 1906 | Gipsy Kit; or the man with the tattooed face | London: S. W. Partridge & Co | ||
| 24 | 1906 | Monitor at Megson's. A master, a schoolboy and a secret | London: Cassell and Company | ||
| 25 | 1907 | A bit of a bounder, or, The surreptitious cigarette | London: Sunday School Union | ||
| 26 | 1907 | The new book of the dog | London: Cassel and Company | ||
| 27 | 1909 | Gildersley's Tenderfoot. A story of Redskin and prairie | London: C. Arthur Pearson | ||
| 28 | 1910 | Dogs and all about them | London: Cassell and Company | ||
| 29 | 1910 | Kiddie of the camp: a story of the western prairies | London: C. Arthur Pearson | ||
| 30 | 1910 | My Memoirs. [With an introduction by Robert Leighton, and with illustrations.] | Princess Caroline Murat | London: Eveleigh Nash | |
| 31 | 1910 | The cleverest chap in the school | London: Jarrold & Sons | ||
| 32 | 1911 | Coo-ee!: a story of peril and adventure in the South Seas | London: C. Arthur Pearson | ||
| 33 | 1911 | The kidnapped regiment: a story of 1745 | London: Pilgrim Press | ||
| 34 | 1911 | The perils of Peterkin: a story of adventure in north-west Canada | London: Jarrold & Sons | ||
| 35 | 1912 | Rattlesnake Ranch. A story of adventure in the great North West | London: C. Arthur Pearson | ||
| 36 | 1912 | The bravest boy in the camp: a story of adventure on the western prairies | London: Jarrold & Sons | ||
| 37 | 1913 | Sergeant Silk: the prairie scout | London: Jarrold & Sons | ||
| 38 | 1915 | The red patrol: a story of the North-West Mounted Police | London: Jarrold & Sons | ||
| 39 | 1916 | Dreadnoughts of the Dogger: a story of the war on the North Sea | London: Ward, Lock & Co | ||
| 40 | 1917 | Woolly of the wilds: a story of pluck and adventure in North-West Canada | London: Ward, Lock & Co | ||
| 41 | 1920 | Kiddie the scout | London: C. Arthur Pearson | ||
| 42 | 1922 | The complete book of the dog | London: Cassell and Company | ||
| 43 | 1922 | The white man's trail: a story of adventure and mystery in the Canadian wilds | London: C. Arthur Pearson | ||
| 44 | 1923 | Sea Scout and Savage, etc. | London: Ward, Lock & Co | ||
| 45 | 1923 | The Black Prince of Africa. A sketch for boys, etc. | London: United Council for Missionary Education | ||
| 46 | 1924 | Kiddie the prairie rider | London: C. Arthur Pearson | ||
| 47 | 1924 | Your dog | London: Cassell and Company | ||
| 48 | 1926 | Softfoot of Silver Creek | London: Ward, Lock & Co | ||
| 49 | 1928 | A jewel of the seas | London: John F. Shaw | ||
| 50 | 1928 | The popular Chow Chow: its history, strains, pedigrees, breeding, character and kennel management | London: Popular Dogs Pub. Co | ||
| 51 | 1929 | Who killed lord Luxmore? | London: C. Arthur Pearson | ||
| 52 | 1930 | The Red Shadow [and other tales] | London: Collins | ||
| 53 | 1932 | The Dalmatian and all about it | James Saunders | Idle, Bradford: Watmoughts Ltd |
Further details on long works. The columns PG, IA, HT, and BL indicate if online texts are available at:
While still set in a historical tale, The Golden Galleon was more of an adventure story than a history lesson. It was illustrated by William Rainey.
Leighton published both short stories and serials in publications such as Cheer, Boys, Cheer, Boys Realm, Boys Herald, Comic Cuts, Chums, and Scout.
Leighton died age 75 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire on 11 May 1934. He was survived by his widow, daughter and a son. His estate was valued at only £286.