James Payn
James Payn was an English author born in Cheltenham in 1830, who initially pursued a military career but shifted to literature due to health issues. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, Payn published poetry and short stories early in his career, contributing to notable journals such as Charles Dickens's *Household Words*. He became a significant figure in the literary world, particularly during the 1850s, when the repeal of newspaper stamp taxes led to a surge in the publication of fiction. Payn was known for his role in the emergence of the Sensation Novel, characterized by themes of suspense and complex character dynamics. His notable works include *Lost Sir Massingberd* and *Found Dead*, which featured innovative detective characters. In 1883, he became the editor of *Cornhill Magazine*, where he controversially rejected the first Sherlock Holmes story but influenced contemporaries, including E. W. Hornung, in the crime fiction genre. Payn's contributions significantly shaped Victorian literature and the evolution of popular fiction.
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James Payn
Author
- Born: 1830
- Birthplace: Cheltenham, England
- Died: 1898
Biography
James Payn was born in Cheltenham, England, in 1830. His father was clerk to the Thames Commissioners, who controlled matters related to navigation on the river, and treasurer of Berkshire county. James was educated at Eton. He entered the Military Academy at Woolwich, but health issues kept him from a military career, so he went to Cambridge University, where he was elected president of the Union at Trinity College. Despite his popularity at school, he had little respect for formal education; he hated Greek, refused to learn any foreign language, and later claimed that Eton was “repulsive” and his education at Cambridge “not worth a tenth” of what it cost.
By the time he left Cambridge in 1853, Payn had published poetry in Leigh Hunt’s short-lived literary Journal and had produced two books, one of poetry and the other a collection of stories from Boccaccio. He married Louisa Adelaide Edlin, sister of Sir Peter Edlin, a prominent judge, and settled in the Lake District to continue his literary career. He was a regular contributor to Charles Dickens’s weekly journal Household Words and to Chamber’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Arts, and in 1858 moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to become coeditor of Chamber’s Journal. He became sole editor in 1860, and moved to London the following year.
In the 1850’s, Great Britain repealed the requirement for newspaper stamps, “taxes on knowledge” that kept the prices of daily and weekly newspapers high and circulation low. Until the repeal, only monthly journals published serious literature. The penny papers aimed at working-class readers were full of lurid tales, leading to a middle-class suspicion of the weekly stories called “penny dreadfuls.” Now, however, weekly and even daily newspapers could afford to pay for better stories, and power began to shift from publishers of books to those of periodicals, especially when they banded together. As Payn noted in 1878, “Literature has taken a curious phase in England so far as fiction is concerned. The largest prices are now got from country newspapers who form syndicates, and each subscribe their portion towards the novel.”
Publishers of both books and newspapers were therefore hungry for material, and Payn was happy to keep them fed, publishing numerous works in the style now called the Sensation Novel. Stories in this style feature suspense, surprises, mystery, excitement, strong characters, illegitimacy, secret or bigamous marriages, and plots that often turn on coincidence, accident, or overheard conversations. Among Payn’s most popular mystery novels were Lost Sir Massingberd: A Romance of Real Life, featuring a Bow Street Runner as detective (which he first serialized in Chamber’s Journal), and Found Dead, starring a sleuthing valet.
In 1883, Payn became editor of Cornhill Magazine, where perhaps his most memorable decision was rejecting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet.” However, E. W. Hornung credited Payn with persuading him to write crime fiction and invent the raffish Raffles, gentleman thief, whose adventures are still popular today.