Robert William Chambers, one of the more prolific and popular American
authors of late nineteenth and early twentieth century, was born on 26
May, 1865 in Brooklyn to a prominent New York family.
Chambers spent his younger years at the Brooklyn Polytechnic School,after which he attended the Art Student League, in New York.
Chambers studied art at The
Académie Julian in Paris. He also spent a summer studying and writing at the University of Munich. It is during this time that he penned his first novel, In the Quarter. Once he left Munich he returned to art school but did so at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts.
By the time he was in his mid-twenties
Chambers was already exhibiting his art at salons in Paris. Returning
to America in 1892, Chambers soon began drawing illustrations for
magazines like Vogue, Life and True. It was during this period that
Chambers and his friend, Charles Dana Gibson, submitted
sketches they had drawn of each other to Life magazine. Chambers'
sketch of Gibson was published, Gibson's sketch was rejected. Gibson
would get the last laugh though, when after becoming successful he
purchased Life magazine. In 1912 Gibson provided the illustrations in
Chambers' book "Blue-Bird Weather".
Chambers originally began submitting articles, accompanied with his
illustrations, to magazines and newspapers before concentrating on
writing full time. Over the next forty years or so, he would publish 72
novels, numerous short stories and several plays. Chambers' early
writings would cover such diverse subject matters as the supernatural
and historical romances. A heavy taskmaster, Chambers would often work
on three or four projects at a time. His early work won him high praise
from literary critics, but as he became more successful, the critics
grew more critical. His opinion of critics nosedived after one reviewer
said of his mystic collection of short stories, "The King in Yellow",
"a splendid success of horror, which haunts the memory of all who have
read it", and another had suggested the book was written under the
influence of drugs.
A man of varied interests, Chambers was a historian, artist,
outdoors man, collector of rare furniture and fine art, expert on
Chinese and Japanese antiquities, collector of North American
butterflies and a conservationist. Chambers was once responsible for
the planting of around 25,000 trees in Broadalbin, New York.
Chambers, who was a direct descendant of Roger Williams, the founder of
Providence, Rhode Island, wrote a number of historical novels, usually
set in Colonial America or the Revolutionary and Civil War periods. His
interest in the legendary Captain Kidd led him to write a rather
sympathetic treatment of Kidd's life entitled, "The Man They Hung".
A small example of additional works by Chambers that were popular with
the public are: "The Red Republic," "A King and a Few Dukes," "The
Maker of Moons," "With the Band," "The Mystery of Choice," "Lorraine,"
"Ashes of Empire," "The Maid-at-Arms," "Outdoor Land," "The Maids of
Paradise," "Orchard-Land," "Forest-Land," "The Haunts of Men," "The
Cambric Mask," "Cardigan", "The Fighting Chance", "The Firing Line",
"Iole", "The Witch of Ellangowan" and "Ailsa Paige". His popularity was
such that during his lifetime first edition copies of his books were
wildly treasured among book collectors.
Robert William Chambers died in New York City on 16 December, 1933
after an unsuccessful operation to alleviate an intestinal disorder. He
was survived by his wife, the former Elsa Vaughn Moller (1882-1939), a
son, author Robert Edward Stuart Chambers (a.k.a. Robert Husted
Chambers) and a brother, renowned architect Walter Boughton Chambers
(1866-1945).
