Fergus Hume


Ferguson Wright Hume, known as Fergus Hume, was a prolific English novelist.

Early life

Hume was born in Powick, Worcestershire, England, the second son of James C. Hume, a Scot and clerk and steward at the County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum there. When he was three the family emigrated to Dunedin, New Zealand, where he was educated at Otago Boys' High School and studied law at the University of Otago. He was admitted to the New Zealand bar in 1885. Shortly after graduation Hume relocated to Melbourne, Australia, where he obtained a job as a barristers' clerk. He began writing plays, but found it impossible to persuade the managers of Melbourne theatres to accept or even to read them.

Rise to fame

Hume first came to attention after a play he had written, entitled The Bigamist was stolen by a rogue called Calthorpe, and presented by him as his own work under the title The Mormon. Finding that the novels of Émile Gaboriau were then very popular in Melbourne, Hume obtained and read a set of them and determined to write a novel of the same kind. The result was The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, set in Melbourne, with descriptions of poor urban life based on his knowledge of Little Bourke Street. It was self-published in 1886 and became a great success. Because he sold the British and American rights for 50 pounds, however, he reaped little of the potential financial benefit. It became the best-selling mystery novel of the Victorian era; in 1990 John Sutherland called it the "most sensationally popular crime and detective novel of the century". This novel inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle remarked, "Hansom Cab was a slight tale, mostly sold by 'puffing'."
After the success of his first novel and the publication of another, Professor Brankel's Secret, Hume returned to England in 1888. His third novel, Madame Midas, was based on the life of the mine and newspaper owner Alice Ann Cornwell. After this book became a play her estranged husband, John Whiteman, sued over its content.
Hume resided in London for a few years and then moved to the Essex countryside where he lived in Thundersley for 30 years. Eventually he produced more than 100 novels and short stories.

Personal life

Hume was homosexual. He was subject to at least one blackmail attempt by a West Indian actor, Antoine Bollars, and also gave money to an actor, Gordon Lawrence, who was later jailed in Melbourne for crossdressing.
He had a close friendship with an actor, Philip Beck, with whom he lived, and who later committed suicide. A newspaper report of the time stated that "he sold himself to an actor in return for financial assistance when ill in Melbourne, the consideration being a halfshare in the profits of all books or plays subsequently written by Hume. As the actor was said to have shot himself while sailing for England to enforce his rights, Philip Beck is clearly the man in question."
In 1892 Hume published a homoerotic novel The Island of Fantasy.
His obituary notice in The Times stated that he was a very religious man who during his last years did much lecturing to young people's clubs and debating societies. He lived with a married man, a John Joseph Melville, who was described as 'his companion'. Having sold the copyright of his one bestseller for £50, Hume died in England at 73 on the edge of genteel poverty, leaving £201/6/0d. at Thundersley on 12 July 1932, shortly after completing his last book, The Last Straw.

Works

Individual works

Plays