Robert Leighton (author)

Robert Leighton (5 June 1858 – 11 May 1934) was a Scottish journalist, editor, and author 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.

Robert Leighton
Born	5 June 1858 Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland
Died	11 May 1934 (aged 75) Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	Author, Journalist, Editor
Years active	1880 – 1922
Known for	Writing adventure books for boys
Notable work	The Complete Book of the Dog

Early life

Leighton was born in the town of Ayr in Scotland on 5 June 1858 to Robert Leighton, a Scottish poet (20 February 1822 – 10 May 1869),[1] 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.[2]^:370 However, his father only worked in Ayr from 1854 to 1858 for a Liverpool seed merchant,[1] and the only male Leighton born in the District of Ayr from 1854-1864 was an unnamed son to Leighton's parents on 5 June 1858.[3][4]

In the 1861 Census, Leighton was living in Liverpool, where his father was employed by a seed and agricultural supplies merchant.[1] He was educated in the school attached to the Hope Street Unitarian Chapel in Liverpool.[5] He began work as a journalist at age 14, working first for the Liverpool Porcupine, a social and satirical journal.

Moving to London

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 – 1882 while he was first assistant editor. Young Folks also serialised The Black Arrow in June – October 1883. Leighton was the editor from 1884 to 1885.

While he was at Young Folks, he met the tempestuous Marie Connor,[note 1] who contributed to the magazine. She published her first novel Beauty's Queen, a three-volume melodrama, in 1884 when she was 18.[7][8] In 1886 Leighton left Little Folks to move to the Bristol Observer, but returned to London in 1887.[9]

In London, he eventually found work with the Harmsworths, and was a director of their Answers Ltd company[10] from 1893–1896.[9]

Marriage and family

In 1889, Leighton eloped with Marie Connor (February 1866 – 28 January 1941), the adopted daughter of James Nenon Alexander Connor, formerly a captain in the 87th Foot, and the daughter of Elizabeth Ann Harris (1849 – 16 APR 1908), a widow, born Trelawny.[note 2] The couple 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.[2]^:369[8]

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.[6]^:4 Leighton was the literary editor of the Daily Mail from 1896 – 1899.

The Leightons had four children:

• Their first child was accidentally smothered in infancy by a nurse.[11]
• Roland Aubrey Leighton (27 March 1895 – 23 December 1915), a poet who was killed in the First World War. He was Vera Brittain's fiancé and features largely in Testament of Youth, the first instalment of her memoirs. He was his mother's favourite. "He is the only one of my children who is beautiful enough to be worth dressing" her daughter reports her as saying.[6]^:203 Marie was devastated when Roland was killed and published an anonymous memoir of him as Boy of My Heart in 1916.
• Clare Leighton[note 3] (12 April 1898 – 4 November 1989), a writer and artist. She wrote several novels as well as the biography of her mother, and was a noted wood engraver. Marie was dismissive of her looks, ambitions and talents.[13]
• Evelyn Ivor Robert Leighton (31 May 1901 – 21 October 1969) was destined from boyhood for the Navy.[6]^:193 He enjoyed a long naval career, being posted to the Royal Australian Navy for a while, and married an English bride while he was there.[14]

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.[6]^:11 Leighton was older and wiser than Marie, and helped Clare's artistic development.[13] His daughter recalls that Leighton adored his wife and that he had something of a cherishing paternal attitude towards her.[6]^:39

Work

Leighton produced four types of output:

• Adventure stories for boys.
• Melodramas written together with his wife. the most famous of these was Convict 99 (1898).
• Books about dogs starting with Cassell's two-volume New Book of the Dog in 1907.
• Short stories and serials for boys' papers.

One enormous job he did undertake was the editing of Hall Caine's Life of Christ. When he began this work, the book had some three-million words.[5] 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.[15]

Example of illustrations from a historical novel by Leighton

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.[16]

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  Page 87
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  Page 106
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  Page 188
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List of long works

The following is a list, drawn from the Jisc Library Hub Discover collated catalogue.[note 4]

Details of Book full title, secondary authors and publisher

Serial	Year	Title	Other authors	Publisher
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	Marie Connor	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	Marie Connor	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?	Marie Connor	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:

• PG – Project Gutenberg
• IA – The Internet Archive
• HT – The Hathi Trust
• BL – The British Library

Example of illustrations from an adventure story by Leighton

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.[17]

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  Page 73
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Availability of free online copies of works by Leighton

Details of book length, illustration, and the availability of free online copies.

Serial	Year	Title	Illustrator	Pages	PG	IA	HT	BL
1	1892	The pilots of Pomona	John Leighton	352 p., 9 plates ; 18.3 cm.	Yes	Yes	No	No
2	1893	The thirsty sword	Alfred Pearse	vi, 352, 32 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill., maps ; 20 cm.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
3	1894	In the Grip of the Algerine	Maynard Browne	288 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
4	1894	Wreck of the Golden Fleece	Frank Brangwyn	352 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
5	1895	Olaf the Glorious	Ralph Peacock	350 pages ; (8º); eight ill. and map	Yes	No	Yes	No
6	1896	Under the Foeman's Flag		304 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
7	1898	Convict 99	Stanley Llewellyn Wood	vi, 316 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 19 cm.	No	No	Yes	Yes
8	1898	The splendid stranger	Sydney Cowell	190, [4] p. : ill. ; 19 cm.	No	No	No	No
9	1901	In the grip of the Corsair	Maynard Browne	288 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
10	1901	In the shadow of guilt	F. C. Luckhurst	vi, 407 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
11	1902	Cap'n Nat's Treasure	J. B. Greene	422 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
12	1902	The Boys of Waveney, etc.	Gordon Browne	323 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
13	1903	Fighting fearful odds	James Ayton Symington	xi, 270, [6] p. : ill. ; 19 cm.	No	No	No	No
14	1903	In the land of the Ju-Ju	Cecil Scruby	viii, 343 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
15	1903	The haunted ship	James Ayton Symington	viii, 310, [2] p. : 6 ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
16	1903	The Kidnapping of Peter Cray	P. Ebbutt	ix, 324 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
17	1904	Hurrah! for the Spanish Main	James Ayton Symington	viii, 312 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
18	1904	The Other Fellow	S. Lumley	xi, 308 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
19	1905	The boy and his school		97 p. ; 20 cm.	No	Yes	No	No
20	1905	The green painted ship		368, [4] p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
21	1905	With Nelson in Command	H. L. Schindler	viii, 340 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
22	1906	Gipsy Kit		128 pages ; (8º); 6 ill.	No	No	No	No
23	1906	Monitor at Megson's	Gordon Browne	vii, 280 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
24	1907	A bit of a bounder	H. L. Schindler	119, viii p. : ill. ; 19 cm.	No	No	No	No
25	1907	Cassell's new book of the dog		2 vols. viii, 467-624 pages, 21 leaves of plates (some colour) ; 29 cm	No	Yes	No	Yes
26	1909	Gildersley's Tenderfoot		cm.20 256 pp. il.	No	No	No	No
27	1910	Dogs and all about them		viii, 344 p., [17] leaves of plates : ill. (one col.) ; 20 cm.	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
28	1910	Kiddie of the camp		256 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
29	1910	My Memoirs		343 pages ; (8º)	No	Yes	Yes	No
30	1910	The cleverest chap in the school	P. A. Staynes	274 p., 4 p. of plates : ill. ; 19 cm.	No	No	No	No
31	1910	The golden galleon	William Rainey	viii, 352, 16 pages, 8 fp illustrations ; 19 cm	Yes	Yes	No	No
32	1911	Coo-ee!		256 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	Yes	No	No
33	1911	The kidnapped regiment	Watson Charlton	vii, 309 p., [5] leaves of plates : ill. (1 col.) ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
34	1911	The perils of Peterkin	Arthur Twidle	247 p., [5] leaves of plates : 5 ill. (1 col.) ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
35	1912	Rattlesnake Ranch		8⁰ 288 p.	No	No	No	No
36	1912	The bravest boy in the camp	Charles Norman	285 p., [5] leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
37	1913	Sergeant Silk	Charles Norman	239 p., [5] leaves of plates : ill. ; 19 cm.	Yes	Yes	No	No
38	1915	The red patrol	Frank Alcock	348 p., [5] leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No
39	1916	Dreadnoughts of the Dogger		304 pages ; (8º)	Yes	No	No	No
40	1917	Woolly of the wilds		303 p. : ill. ; 19 cm.	No	Yes	No	No
41	1920	Kiddie the scout	Frank R. Grey	224 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm	Yes	Yes	No	No
42	1922	The complete book of the dog		xv, 384 p., [32] leaves of plates : ill. ; 22 cm.	No	Yes	No	Yes
43	1922	The white man's trail	Thomas Sommerfield	256 pages, 8 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations ; 20 cm	No	No	No	No
44	1923	Sea Scout and Savage, etc.		256 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
45	1923	The Black Prince of Africa		14 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
46	1924	Kiddie the prairie rider	Eric R. Parker	224 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 19.5 cm	No	No	No	No
47	1924	Your dog		107 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 18 cm.	No	No	No	No
48	1926	Softfoot of Silver Creek		251 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
49	1928	A jewel of the seas		315 p., [1] leaf of plates : front. ; 20 cm	No	No	No	No
50	1928	The popular Chow Chow		163 p. : ills. ; 19 cm.	No	No	No	No
51	1929	Who killed lord Luxmore?		126 pages ; (8º)	No	No	No	No
52	1930	The Red Shadow (and other tales)		(8º)	No	No	No	No
53	1932	The Dalmatian and all about it		83 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.	No	No	No	No

Shorter Works

Leighton published both short stories and serials in publications such as Cheer, Boys, Cheer, Boys Realm, Boys Herald, Comic Cuts, Chums, and Scout.

Death

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.[18]

Notes

1. Marie's daughter Clare wrote a biography of her mother entitled Tempestuous Petticoat. In this she describes how her mother told her children that she had her first love affair, with a married father of eight children, a window-cleaner, when she was ten years of age (p.39). Her parents packed her off to a convent in France where she fell in love with the Mother Superior and the Priest and became a devout Catholic.[6]
2. Originally spelt Treglown.
3. Baptised Clare Marie Veronica Leighton on 26 May 1898,[12]} she was also known as Clare Ellaline Hope Leighton and Clare Veronica Hope Leighton
4. Library Hub Discover is a database collating 161 UK and Irish academic, national & specialist library catalogues.

References

1. Bayne, T. W.; Couper, Sarah (2009-10-08). "Leighton, Robert (1822–1869)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
2. Sutherland, John (1989). The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Retrieved 2020-08-05 – via The Internet Archive.
3. "Statutory registers - Births - Search results". ScotlandsPeople. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
4. "1858: Leighton Statutory registers - Births - 578/380". ScotlandsPeople. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
5. "Famous Book Romance". Liverpool Echo (Wednesday 30 May 1934): 5. 1934-05-30.
6. Leighton, Clare (1947). Tempestuous Petticoat. New York: Rinehard & Co., Inc. Retrieved 2020-04-08 – via The Internet Archive.
7. "New Novels". The Graphic (Saturday 04 October 1884): 23. 1884-10-04.
8. Kirk, John Foster (1891). "Connor, Marie". A Supplement To Allibone S Critical Dictionary Of English Literature British And American Authors Vol I. I. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. pp. 374. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
9. A. & C. Black Ltd. (1967). "Bell, Nancy R. E.". Who Was Who: Volume III: 1929-1940 (2nd ed.). London: Adam and Charles Black. pp. 798–9. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
10. Howard Cox; Simon Mowatt (March 2014). Revolutions from Grub Street: A History of Magazine Publishing in Britain. OUP Oxford. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-19-960163-9.
11. Mark Bostridge; Paul Berry (2016-02-25). "Two: Roland". Vera Brittain: A Life. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-0-349-00854-7. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
12. London Metropopolitan Archives (2010). "Reference Number: p89/ALL1/065: Baptisms solenmized in the Parish of All Saints', St John's Wood, in the county of London in the year eighteen hunderd and ninety-eight". London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1917. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com. p. 44.
13. Leighton, David (2008-08-08). "Clare Leighton: Her Family Foundations". Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. Archived from the original on 2016-01-30. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
14. "Naval Men to the Fore". Daily Pictorial (Wednesday 25 June 1930): 18. 1930-06-25.
15. Vivien Allen (1 July 1997). Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian Romancer. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 428. ISBN 978-1-84714-168-2.
16. Leighton, Robert (1892). The Thirsty Sword: a story of the Norse invasion of Scotland (1262-1263). London: Blackie and Son.
17. Leighton, Robert (1898). 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.
18. "Wills and Probates 1858-1996: Pages for Leighton and the year of death 1934". Find a Will Service. p. 75. Retrieved 2020-08-06.

External links

• Works by Robert Leighton at Project Gutenberg
• Books by Robert Leighton in the British Library Catalogue.
• Books by Robert Leighton in the Jisc Discover Library Hub.
• Books by Robert Leighton at Hathi Trust.
• Books by Robert Leighton on the Internet Archive.