Eden Phillpotts (1862–1960) was a prolific and popular British novelist, playwright, and poet. He is celebrated for novels evoking their Dartmoor backdrop in a manner reminiscent of the style of Thomas Hardy.
Born in Mount Abu, Rajasthan, British India, Phillpotts worked as an insurance officer for 10 years before studying for the stage in London and then turning to literature in 1893. He made his name through realistic novels primarily set in Devonshire, such as Lying Prophets (1896,) Children of the Mist (1898,) and Widecombe Fair (1913.) He wrote more than 250 books in all. The Human Boy (1899) and The Waters of the Walla (1950) are his autobiographical reflections of boyhood and adolescence.
Phillpotts’s most successful plays were The Farmer’s Wife (1917; staged 1924) and Yellow Sands (1926; written with his daughter Adelaide.) Poetry collections include The Iscariot (1912,) Brother Beast (1928,) and The Enchanted Wood (1948.) Phillpotts also collaborated on plays with novelist Arnold Bennett and humorist Jerome K. Jerome. One Thing and Another (1954) is a collection of poems and essays.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Eden Phillpotts
Faith is a permanent and vital endowment of the human mind—a part of reason itself. The insane alone are without it.
—Eden Phillpotts
Topics: Insanity
We always think every other man’s job is easier than our own. The better he does it, the easier it looks.
—Eden Phillpotts
Topics: Illusion
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
—Eden Phillpotts
Topics: Abundance, World, Wonder, Universe, Progress, Magic
A Persian carpet or piece of Sheraton makes a distinguished end and bears itself with dignity to the last—as aristocrats before the guillotine. But a Brussels or bit of mid-Victorian will be found to grovel, show its unlovely wounds and scream for pity.
—Eden Phillpotts
Topics: Character
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