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Francis Marion Crawford (August 2, 1854 – April 9, 1909) was an Italian writer noted for his many novels, especially those set in Italy, and for his classic weird and fantastic stories.
Crawford was born at Bagni di Lucca, Italy, the only son of Thomas Crawford and Louisa Cutler Ward, the brother of Mary Crawford Fraser (aka Mrs. Hugh Fraser), and the nephew of Julia Ward Howe.
Crawford studied successively at St Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire; Cambridge University; University of Heidelberg; and the University of Rome.
In 1879 he went to India, where he studied Sanskrit and edited in Allahabad The Indian Herald. Returning to America in February 1881, he continued to study Sanskrit at Harvard University for a year and for two years contributed to various periodicals, mainly The Critic.
Early in 1882 he established his lifelong close friendship with Isabella Stewart Gardner.
During this period he lived most of the time in Boston at his Aunt Julia Ward Howe's house and in the company of his Uncle, Sam Ward.
His family was concerned about his employment prospects.
They suggested that he become a professional singer; he had a baritone voice and had entertained friends with recitals of songs by Franz Schubert.
In January 1882, his family asked George Henschel, who was then conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to assess whether Crawford was capable of a professional singing career.
Henschel told Crawford and his family that he would "never be able to sing in perfect tune".
Crawford was distraught by the news; after a long silence, his uncle Sam then asked him, "Why don't you write down that little story you told me some time ago of that strange experience you had in India — don't you know?"
In December 1882 he produced his first novel, Mr Isaacs, a brilliant sketch of modern Anglo-Indian life mingled with a touch of Oriental mystery.
This book had an immediate success, and its author's promise was confirmed by the publication of Dr Claudius (1883).
In May 1883 he returned to Italy, where he made his permanent home.
His residence at the historic "Villa Cocumella", in Sorrento during 1885 moved him to settle permanently in Sant' Agnello, where in the Fall he bought the "Villa Renzi," that became "Villa Crawford".
Over one half of his novels are set in Italy.
He wrote three long historical studies of Italy and was well advanced with a history of Rome in the Middle Ages when he died.
In October 1884 he married Elizabeth Berdan, the daughter of the American Civil War Union Gen. Hiram Berdan.
They had two sons and two daughters.
Year by year Crawford published a number of successful novels.
Late in the 1890s, he began to write his historical works.
These are: Ave Roma Immortalis (1898), Rulers of the South (1900) renamed Southern Italy and Sicily and The Rulers of the South in 1905 for the American market, and Gleanings from Venetian History (1905) with the American title Salvae Venetia, itself reissued in 1909 as Venice; the Place and the People.
In these, his intimate knowledge of local Italian history combines with the romanticist's imaginative faculty to excellent effect.
His shorter book Constantinople (1895) belongs to this category.
After most of his fictional works had been published, most came to think he was a gifted narrator; and his books of fiction, full of historic vitality and dramatic characterization, became widely popular among readers to whom the realism of problems or the eccentricities of subjective analysis were repellent.
In The Novel: What It Is (1893), he defended his literary approach, self-conceived as a combination of romanticism and realism, defining the art form in terms of its marketplace and audience.
The novel, he wrote, is "a marketable commodity" and "intellectual artistic luxury" (8, 9) that "must amuse, indeed, but should amuse reasonably, from an intellectual point of view. . . .
Its intention is to amuse and please, and certainly not to teach and preach; but in order to amuse well it must be a finely-balanced creation. . . ." (82).
The Saracinesca series is perhaps known to be his best work, with the third in the series, Don Orsino (1892) set against the background of a real estate bubble, told with effective concision.
The second volume is Sant' Ilario [Hilary] (1889).
A fourth book in the series, Corleone (1897), was the first major treatment of the Mafia in literature, and used the now-familiar but then-original device of a priest unable to testify to a crime because of the Seal of the Confessional; the novel is not one of his major works, having failed to live up to the standard set by the books earlier in the series.
Crawford ended Rulers of the South (1900) with a chapter about the Sicilian Mafia.
Crawford himself was fondest of Khaled: A Tale of Arabia (1891), a story of a genie (genius is Crawford's word) who becomes human, which was reprinted (1971) in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series of the early 1970s.
A Cigarette-Maker's Romance (1890) was dramatized, and had considerable popularity on the stage as well as in its novel form.
In 1902, an original play from his pen, Francesca da Rimini, was produced in Paris by his friend Sarah Bernhardt.
Crawford's best known dramatization was that of The White Sister (1909). Its main actress was Viola Allen, whose first film was the 1915 film of this novel; it was filmed again in 1923 and 1933. In the Palace of the King (1900) was filmed in 1915 and 1923; Mr. Isaacs (1882) was filmed in 1931 as Son of India.
Several of his short stories, such as "The Upper Berth" (1886; written in 1885), "For the Blood Is the Life" (1905, a vampiress tale), "The Dead Smile" (1899), and "The Screaming Skull" (1908), are often-anthologized classics of the horror genre. An essay on Crawford's weird tales can be found in S. T. Joshi's The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004); there are many other essays and introductions. The collected weird stories were posthumously published in 1911 as Wandering Ghosts in the U. S. and as Uncanny Tales in Gt. Britain, both without the long-forgotten "The King's Messenger" (1907). The present definitive edition is that edited by Richard Dalby as Uncanny Tales and published by the Tartarus Press (1997; 2008). Crawford's novella Man Overboard! (1903) is often overlooked, but belongs with his supernatural works.
In 1901 the American Macmillan firm began a deluxe uniform "edition" of his novels, as reprintings required. In 1904 the P. F. Collier Co. (N. Y.) was authorized to publish a 25-volume "edition", later increased to 32 volumes. Around 1914 the subscription firm McKinlay, Stone, Mackenzie was authorized to publish an "edition" using the Macmillan binding decorations. In 1919 the American Macmillan firm published the "Sorrento Edition". They also had issued some first American editions and reprints in a uniform binding from 1891 through 1899. The British Macmillan firm used two separate uniform bindings from 1889 until after 1910.
Crawford wrote numerous articles for major periodicals and a few contributions to books. See the section "Bibliographical History" in An F. Marion Crawford Companion (1981) by John C. Moran.
Crawford died at Sorrento on Good Friday 1909 at Villa Crawford of a heart attack. It was the ten-year result of a severe lung injury (inhalation of toxic gases at a glass-smelting works in Colorado) that happened on his American lecture-tour during the winter of 1897–1898. He was gathering technical information for his historical novel Marietta (1901), that describes glass-making in late medieval Venice.
The F. Marion Crawford Memorial Society was founded in 1975 and published the literary review The Romantist from 1977 until 1997. In 1997 the Centro Studi e Ricerche Francis Marion Crawford was founded at Sant' Agnello di Sorrento. It is formally associated with the FMC Memorial Society and continues The Romantist in its annual review Genius Loci (1997–).
In early May 1988 at Sant' Agnello, a Conference was held to commemorate Crawford. It was organized by the Comune di Sant' Agnello di Sorrento and the Istituto Universitario Orientale (Naples). Its "Acta" were published in English and Italian as Il Magnifico Crawford. Scrittore per Mestiere / The Magnificent Crawford. Writer by Trade (1990), edited by Gordon Poole. In mid-May 2009 the Centro Studi e Ricerche Francis Marion Crawford and the Comune di Sant' Agnello organized another Conference – Francis Marion Crawford; 100 Anni Dopo – to remember Crawford on the centenary of his death. Its "Acta" were published in Italian and English as Nuova Luce Su Francis Marion Crawford. Cento Anni Dopo 2009-1909 / A Hundred Years Later: New Light on Francis Marion Crawford early in 2011, edited by Gordon Poole. The F. Marion Crawford Memorial Society collaborated in the organization of both Conferences.
There is a major street in the Italian town of Sant' Agnello di Sorrento (the town where he died) named after him, the Corso Marion Crawford. There is a historical marker on the house where Crawford was born, in Bagni di Lucca. Villa Crawford was donated many years ago by Crawford's daughters Lady Eleanor Rocca-Crawford and Mother Clare Marion-Crawford to the Salesian Sisters, who operate it today as a high school for girls.
Bibliography
Novels [edit]
- Mr. Isaacs (1882)
- Doctor Claudius (1883)
- To Leeward (1884); actually late 1883. The second American edition (Macmillan, 1893) is the only one of his novels that Crawford substantively revised.
- A Roman Singer (1884); Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig, Vol. 2254 of the Collection of British Authors. All of Crawford's novels, except for Love in Idleness (1893), were authorized by him for inclusion in his friend Baron Tauchnitz's series Collection of British Authors, whose name was later changed to Collection of British and American Authors. The Tauchnitz editions do not take bibliographical precedence over the British and United States editions. See the Crawford section of the Bibliography of American Literature.
- An American Politician (1884); U.S. title-page has 1885.
- Zoroaster (1885)
- A Tale of a Lonely Parish (1886)
- Saracinesca (1887)
- Marzio's Crucifix (1887)
- Paul Patoff (1887)
- With the Immortals (1888)
- Greifenstein (1889)
- Sant Ilario (1889)
- A Cigarette-Maker's Romance (1890)
- Khaled: A Tale of Arabia (1891)
- The Witch of Prague (1891)
- The Three Fates (1892)
- Don Orsino (1892)
- The Children of the King (1893)
- Pietro Ghisleri (1893)
- Marion Darche (1893)
- Katharine Lauderdale (1894)
- The Upper Berth (1894); with "By the Waters of Paradise"
- Love in Idleness (1894)
- The Ralstons (1894); sequel to Katharine Lauderdale
- Casa Braccio (1895); related to Katharine Lauderdale and The Ralstons.
- Adam Johnstone's Son (1896)
- Taquisara (1896)
- A Rose of Yesterday (1897)
- Corleone (1897)
- Via Crucis (1899)
- In the Palace of the King (1900)
- Marietta (1901)
- Cecilia (1902)
- Man Overboard! (1903) [novella]
- The Heart of Rome (1903)
- Whosoever Shall Offend (1904)
- Soprano (1905); U. S. title Fair Margaret.
- A Lady of Rome (1906)
- Arethusa (1907)
- The Little City of Hope (1907)
- The Primadonna (1908); sequel to Soprano / Fair Margaret
- The Diva's Ruby (1908); sequel to The Primadonna
- The White Sister (1909)
- Stradella (1909)
- The Undesirable Governess (1910)
- Wandering Ghosts; British title: Uncanny Tales.
Nonfiction [edit]
- Our Silver (1881) [pamphlet]
- The Novel: What It Is (1893)
- Constantinople (1895)
- Bar Harbor (1896)
- Ave Roma Immortalis (1898)
- Rulers of the South (1900; 1905 in the U. S. as Southern Italy and Sicily and The Rulers of the South)
- Gleanings from Venetian History (1905; in the U. S. as Salvae Venetia and in 1909 as Venice; the People and the Place)
Drama [edit]
- In the Palace of the King (1900); with Lorrimer Stoddard.
- Francesca da Rimini (1902). Written at the request of Crawford's good friend Sarah Bernhardt. Translated by Marcel Schwob (Paris: Charpentier et Fasquelle, 1902); new edition traduction de l'américain en français par Marcel Schwob, Sulliver, 1996. The English text was not published until 1980, with introductory matter, by The F. Marion Crawford Memorial Society. Ten unpublished copies of the English text were set up and printed for The Macmillan Company (New York City) in 1902 to copyright the text. The piece was adapted into an opera by Franco Leoni in 1904.
- Evelyn Hastings (1902). Unpublished typescript discovered in 2008.
- The White Sister (1937); with Walter Hackett.
See also [edit]
Notes [edit]
- ^ Henschel, George (1919). Musings and memories of a musician. The Macmillan Company. pp. 256–258. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
References [edit]
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Crawford, Francis Marion". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- John Pilkington, Jr. (1964): Francis Marion Crawford, Twayne Publishers Inc. (Library of Congress Catalog Number: 64-20717)
- Maud Howe Elliott (1934): My Cousin, F. Marion Crawford, The Macmillan Company
- John C. Moran (1981): An F. Marion Crawford Companion, Greenwood Press (LC Catalog Num.: 80-1707)
- Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 88.
- Alessandra Contenti (1992) : Esercizi di Nostalgia. La Roma Sparita di F. Marion Crawford, Archivo Guido Izzi
- Crawford has been the subject of a voluminous amount of biographical and critical writings beginning in 1883: articles in periodicals, sections of books, introductions, theses and dissertations (mainly in the U. S. and Italy), etc.
- Crawford's works form a section of the Bibliography of American Literature.
External links [edit]
 | Wikisource has original works written by or about: |
- Works by Francis Marion Crawford at Project Gutenberg
- "The Upper Berth" Full Text.
- "The Upper Berth" Creative Commons Audio Book.
Categories:
- 1854 births
- 1909 deaths
- 19th-century American novelists
- 20th-century American novelists
- Harvard University alumni
- St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire) alumni
- Alumni of the University of Cambridge
- University of Heidelberg alumni
- Sapienza University of Rome alumni
- People from the Province of Lucca
- American expatriates in Italy
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