William John Locke 2397356 172167785 2007-11-17T23:00:17Z Languagehat 1255426 corrected birthplace, added biography in first para '''William John Locke''' ([[March 20]], [[1863]] - [[May 15]], [[1930]]) was a [[novelist]], [[short story]] writer, and [[playwright]] born in [[Demerara]], in what is now [[Guyana]]. Educated in [[Trinidad]] and at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], he entered on a career as a teacher in 1890, but disliked it; in 1897 he became secretary of the [[Royal Institute of British Architects]], a post he held for a decade. In 1894 he published his first novel, ''At the Gate of Samaria'', but he did not achieve real success for another decade, with ''The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne'' (1905) and ''The Beloved Vagabond'' (1906). [[Chamber's Biographical Dictionary|Chambers Biographical Dictionary]] wrote of his "long series of novels and plays which with their charmingly written sentimental themes had such a success during his life in both Britain and America... His plays, some of which were dramatized versions of his novels, were all produced with success on the London Stage" (p. 836). Five times Locke's books made the [[list of bestselling novels in the United States]] for the year as determined by the [[New York Times]]. His works have been made into twenty-four [[motion picture]]s the most recent of which was ''[[Ladies in Lavender]]'', filmed in 2004 and starring [[Judi Dench|Dame Judi Dench]] and [[Maggie Smith]]. Adapted to the screen by [[Charles Dance]], it was based on Locke's 1916 short story of the same title that had been published in a collection entitled "''Faraway Stories''." Probably the most famous of Locke's books adapted to the screen was the 1918 [[Pickford Film Corporation]] production of ''[[Stella Maris]]'' starring [[Mary Pickford]]. In addition, four of his books were made into [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] plays, two of which Locke wrote and were produced by [[Charles Frohman]]. Locke died in [[Paris, France]] in 1930. Beginning in 2004, twenty-eight of his books were republished by [[Kessinger Publishing]] of [[Whitefish, Montana|Whitefish]], [[Montana]], a publishing house who specializes in publishing out-of-print books; many of his books are also freely available in various digital formats from [[Project Gutenberg]], [[Internet Archive]] and [[Google Books]]. William J. Locke was the uncle of [[Leslie Mitchell]] (1905-1985), an actor and radio and television personality who was the first commentator for the new [[BBC Television Service]] on its inauguration in November of 1936. '''Bibliography:''' *''At the Gate of Samaria'' (1894) *''The Demagogue and Lady Phayre'' (1895) *''Some Women and a Man; A Comedy of Contrasts'' (1896) *''Derelicts'' (1897) *''White Dove'' (1900) *''The Usurper'' (1901) *''Where Love Is'' (1903) *''The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne'' (1905) *''The Beloved Vagabond'' (1906) *''A Study In Shadows'' (1908) *''Septimus'' (1909) No. 10 for the year 1909 in the U.S. *''A Christmas Mystery - The Story of Three Wise Men'' (1910) *''Viviette'' (1910) *''Simon the Jester'' (1910) No. 6 for the year 1910 in the U.S. *''The Glory of Clementina Wing'' (1911) *''Idols'' (1911) *''The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol'' (1912) *''Stella Maris'' (1913) *''The Fortunate Youth'' (1914) No. 5 for the year 1914 in the U.S. *''Jaffrey'' (1915) No. 6 for the year 1915 in the U.S. *''Faraway Stories'' (1916) (short story collection) *''The Wonderful Year'' (1916) *''The Red Planet'' (1917) No. 3 for the year 1917 in the U.S. *''The Rough Road'' (1918) *''The House of Baltazar'' (1920) *''The Apostle'' (1921) *''The Tale of Triona'' (1922) *''The Lengthened Shadow'' (1923) *''Moordius & Co'' (1923) *''The Golden Journey of Mr. Paradyne'' (1924) *''The Coming of Amos'' (1924) *''The Great Pandolfo'' (1925) *''Perella'' (1926) *''The Mountebank'' (1926) *''The Old Bridge'' (1926) *''Stories Near and Far'' (1927) *''The Kingdom of Theophilus'' (1927) *''Joshua's Vision'' (1928) *''Ancestor Jorico'' (1929) *''The Town of Tombarel'' (1930) *''The Shorn Lamb'' (1930) ==References== * D.C. Browning (ed.), ''Everyman's Dictionary of Literary Biography English & American" (1958) * ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'' (rev. ed. 1984) ==External links== *{{imdb name|id= 0516813 |name=William John Locke}} *{{ibdb name|id= 8993|name=William John Locke}} *{{gutenberg author|id=William_John_Locke|name=William John Locke}} *[http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22locke%2C%20william%20john%22%20-contributor%3Agutenberg%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts Works by William John Locke] at [[Internet Archive]] *[http://books.google.com/books?as_brr=1&q=inauthor%3Awilliam+inauthor%3Ajohn+inauthor%3Alocke&btnG=Search+Books Works by William John Locke] at [[Google Books]] [[Category:1863 births|Locke]] [[Category:1930 deaths|Locke]] [[Category:British novelists|Locke]] [[Category:British short story writers|Locke]] [[Category:British dramatists and playwrights|Locke]] {{UK-writer-stub}}