Arthur Stringer
Arthur Stringer (February 26, 1874 – ) was a Canadian author known for his contributions to romance, adventure, and detective fiction. Born in Chatham, Ontario, he grew up in London, Ontario, where he developed an early interest in writing. Although he did not graduate from the University of Toronto, he pursued writing while working as a clerk and later for various publications, including the Montreal Herald and the American Press Association in New York. Stringer gained recognition with his first novel, *The Silver Poppy* (1903), and went on to write a successful series of mystery novels starting with *The Wire Tappers* in 1906.
His writing often drew from his experiences, particularly in rural Canada, leading to notable works like *The Prairie Wife* trilogy, which is celebrated for its departure from typical romantic clichés. In addition to his fiction, Stringer also wrote extensively for the stage and screen, including the screenplay for the silent film *The Perils of Pauline* (1914). Despite achieving popularity during his lifetime, he is now more widely remembered for his poetry, having published more than ten volumes throughout his career. Stringer's diverse body of work reflects a rich tapestry of storytelling influenced by his life experiences and the cultural contexts of his time.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Arthur Stringer
Writer
- Born: February 26, 1874
- Birthplace: Chatham, Ontario, Canada
- Died: 1950
- Place of death: Mountain Lakes, New Jersey
Biography
Born February 26, 1874, in Chatham, Ontario, Canada, Arthur John Arbuthnott Stringer was the son of Hugh Arbuthnott and Sally Stringer. He grew up in Chatham until the family moved to London, Ontario, when he was ten. Stringer was a good student; while he was in high school, he wrote and edited a magazine. He attended the University of Toronto, where he began to write poems and sketches that were published in magazines such as Toronto Saturday Night and Canadian Magazine, among others.
Stringer did not graduate from the University of Toronto. He spent a year studying at Oxford and traveling through Europe before returning to the United States. His first job was as a clerk in the car record office of the Pere Marquette Railway in Saginaw, Michigan. He continued to write and was eventually offered a position at the Montreal Herald. By 1898, he was working for the American Press Association in New York. He began to have his writing published in such prestigious magazines as Harper’s and The Atlantic Monthly.
His first book of prose sketches, The Loom of Destiny, was published in 1899. Stringer’s first novel, The Silver Poppy, published in 1903, helped establish him as a popular writer of contemporary fiction. Around the same time that his first novel was published, he married Jobyna Howland and moved to a farm in Cedar Springs, Ontario. The marriage failed in 1914, and he later married a cousin, Margaret Arbuthnott Stringer, with whom he had three sons. In 1921, he sold his farm in Canada and moved to another farm in New Jersey, where he remained for the rest of his life. Stringer became a United States citizen in 1937, and he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in literature by the University of Western Ontario in 1946.
During his lifetime, Stringer was a popular writer of romance, adventure, and detective novels. His time as a reporter in New York had provided him with a wealth of experiences about street life and criminal activity. He wrote a successful series of mystery and detective novels, starting with The Wire Tappers in 1906. Years later, he wrote a series of adventure novels, partially based on his own experiences growing up in rural Canada. This trilogy about prairie life—-The Prairie Wife (1915), The Prairie Mother (1920), and The Prairie Child (1922)—includes some of Stringer’s most enduring writing, mostly because he avoided the romantic clichés and melodrama that characterized his other work.
In addition to his other work, Stringer wrote for the stage and screen, including the screenplay for the silent film The Perils of Pauline (1914). He published more than ten volumes of poetry, and although Stringer was a successful novelist during his lifetime, posthumously he is better remembered for his poetry.