F. Marion Crawford Biographical Note


Text: from Man Overboard! by F. Marion Crawford. New York: Macmillan, 1903. This publisher's note (no authorship ascribed) appeared immediately following the text of Crawford's tale.

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FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD, the youngest of the four children of the well-known sculptor Thomas Crawford, was born in Rome, educated by a French governess; then at St. Paul's School, Concord, N.H.; in the quiet country village of Hatfield Regis, under an English tutor; at Trinity College, Cambridge, where they thought him a mathematician in those days; at Heidelberg and Karlsruhe, and at the University of Rome, where a special interest in Oriental languages sent him to India with the idea of preparing for a professorship.

At one time in India hard times nearly forced him into enlistment in the British army, but a chance opening sent him as editor of the Indian Herald to Allahabad. It was during the next eighteen months that he met at Simla the hero of his first novel, "Mr. Isaacs." "If it had not been for him," Mr. Crawford has been known to say, "I might at this moment be a professor of Sanskrit in some American college;" for that idea persisted after his return to the United States, where he entered Harvard for special study of the subject.

But from the May evening when the story of the interesting man at Simla was first told in a club smoking-room overlooking Madison Square, Mr. Crawford's life has been one of hard literary work. He returned to Italy in 1883, spent most of the next year in Constantinople, where he was married to a daughter of General Berdan. From 1i885 he has made his home in Sorrento, Italy, visiting America at intervals.

"Mr. Isaacs," published in 1882, was followed almost at once by "Dr. Claudius." Then The Atlantic Monthly claimed a serial, "A Roman Singer," in 1883. Since that time the list of his novels has been increased to thirty-two, besides the historical and descriptive works entitled "Ave Roma Immortalis" and "The Rulers of the South."

To Mr. Crawford, the development of a story and of the character which suggested it, is the preëminent thing. As the critics say:--

"He is an artist, a born story-teller and colourist, imaginative and dramatic, virile and vivid."
His wide range as a traveller has contributed doubtless to another characteristic quality: --
"... his strength in unexcelled portraits of odd characters and his magical skill in seeming to make his readers witnesses of the spectacles."
His intimate knowledge of many countries has resulted in an unequalled series of brilliant romances, including varied characters from, the old families of Rome, the glassblowers of Venice, the silversmiths of Rome, the cigarette makers of Munich, the court of old Madrid, the Turks of Stamboul and the Bosphorus, simple sailors on the coast of Spain, Americans of modern New York and Bar Harbor, to Crusaders of the twelfth century. But whether the scene be in modern India, rural England, the Black Forest, or the palaces of Babylon, the story seizes on the imagination and fascinates the reader.
"The romantic reader will find here a tale of love passionate and pure; the student of character the subtle analysis and deft portrayal he loves; the historian will approve its conscientious historic accuracy; the lover of adventure will find his blood stir and pulses quicken as he reads."
"F. Marion Crawford Biographical Note."