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Percy F. Westerman | |
---|---|
Born | 1876 Portsmouth, England |
Died | 22 February 1959 | (aged 82–83)
Occupation | Author |
Nationality | English |
Alma mater | Portsmouth Grammar School |
Genre | Children's literature |
Notable works | King of Kilba |
Spouse | Florence Wager (1900–death) |
Children | John F.C. Westerman (son) |
Percy Francis Westerman (1876 – 22 February 1959) was an English author of children's literature, with a prolific output. Many of his books are adventure stories with military and naval themes.
Biography
He was born in Portsmouth, England in 1876, and educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, before taking up a clerical appointment at Portsmouth Dockyard at the age of twenty. He married Florence Wager, of Portsmouth, in 1900. Always keen sailors, they spent part of their honeymoon sailing in the Solent. Their son, John F.C. Westerman, born in 1901, also wrote adventure books for boys.
At the age of 70 he was reluctantly forced by a fall to leave his houseboat for dry land, but he continued writing apace. He died at the age of 82, and his last book, Mistaken Identity, was published posthumously in 1959.
Writing career
His writing career allegedly began with a sixpence bet made with his wife that he could write a better story than the one he was reading to his son, who was at the time ill with chickenpox.
His first book for boys, A Lad of Grit, was published by Blackie and Son Limited in 1908. In the same year, Baden-Powell founded the Scouting movement, which strongly influenced many of Westerman's books – he was a particularly keen supporter of the Sea Scouts.
He published a further three books in 1911, which were so successful that he gave up his Admiralty appointment that year to become a full-time author. He lived on board a houseboat – a converted Thames barge – on the River Frome at Wareham in Dorset, where he wrote the majority of his books.
An early book, The Flying Submarine (published in 1912) may indicate Westerman's genre. This boys' adventure novel was about a mysterious man from a South American country. He was an inventor, who had discovered a new kind of lighter-than-air gas that he called "helia", which was much lighter than helium or hydrogen. He used helia in many inventions, including back-packs that could help a man float in the air or fly upwards, and in the remarkable titular submarine that could, when enough helia was used, fly! Eventually he used his flying submarine to win a war between his South American country and its belligerent neighbour.
It is highly likely that Westerman derived the idea for this super-weapon from Jules Verne's Terror, the speedboat, submarine, automobile, or aircraft superweapon invented by Verne's arch-hero Robur in Master of the World and The Clipper of the Clouds.
Similarly Westerman's South American conflict reflects the wars between Paraguay and Uruguay.
During the First World War, he was initially employed on coastal duties by the Royal Navy, but in 1918 he was commissioned, like W. E. Johns, in the Royal Flying Corps, as an instructor of navigation. During the Second World War he commanded the Arne platoon of the 7th Dorset Home Guard battalion (Wareham) from June 1940 until 26 December 1942. He wrote to Blackie of his service in the two wars that "neither appointment seriously interfered with my literary output."
During the 1930s Westerman was voted the most popular author of stories for boys. His books sold over one and a half million copies in his lifetime (total sales at his death were 1,599,000). He published at least 174 books, with 12 different firms.
Bibliography
Publication dates as listed by the British Library. Many titles were reissued subsequently, some several times.
No. | Title | Subtitle | Publisher | Place | Year | Illustrator | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | A Lad of Grit | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1908 | Edward S. Hodgson | Project Gutenberg | |
2 | The Young Cavalier | C. Arthur Pearson | London | 1909 | Gordon Browne | Project Gutenberg | |
3 | The Winning of the Golden Spurs | James Nisbet and Co. | London | 1911 | [note 1][1]Project Gutenberg | ||
4 | The Quest of the "Golden Hope" | A seventeenth century story of adventure | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1912 | Frank E. Wiles | Project Gutenberg |
5 | The Flying Submarine | James Nisbet and Co. | London | 1912 | Faded Page | ||
6 | Captured at Tripoli | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1912 | Charles M. Sheldon | Project Gutenberg | |
7 | The Sea Monarch | Adam and Charles Black | London | 1912 | Edward S. Hodgson | [note 2]Project Gutenberg | |
8 | The Scouts of Seal Island | Adam and Charles Black | London | 1913 | Ernest Prater | Project Gutenberg | |
9 | The Rival Submarines | S. W. Partridge and Co. | London | 1913 | C. Fleming Williams | Project Gutenberg | |
10 | The Stolen Cruiser | Jarrold and Sons | London | 1913 | Project Gutenberg | ||
11 | When East Meets West | A story of the yellow peril | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1913 | C. M. Padday | |
12 | Under King Henry's Banners | A story of the days of Agincourt | Pilgrim Press | London | 1913 | John Campbell | [note 3][2]Project Gutenberg |
13 | The Log of a Snob | Chapman and Hall | London | 1914 | W. Edward Wigfull | [note 4] | |
14 | The Sea-Girt Fortress | A story of Heligoland | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1914 | W. E. Wigfull | Project Gutenberg |
15 | The Sea Scouts of the "Petrel" | Adam and Charles Black | London | 1914 | |||
16 | 'Gainst the Might of Spain | A story of the days of the Great Armada | Pilgrim Press | London | 1914 | ||
17 | Building the Empire | A story of the North-West Frontier | Jarrold and Sons | London | 1914 | ||
18 | The Dreadnought of the Air | S. W. Partridge and Co. | London | 1914 | Project Gutenberg | ||
19 | The Dispatch-Riders | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1915 | Project Gutenberg | ||
20 | The Nameless Island | A story of some modern Robinson Crusoes | C. Arthur Pearson | London | 1915 | Project Gutenberg | |
21 | The Fight for Constantinople | A story of the Gallipoli Peninsula | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1915 | Project Gutenberg | |
22 | A Sub. of the R.N.R.[3] | S. W. Partridge and Co. | London | 1915 | Project Gutenberg | ||
23 | Rounding up the Raider | A naval story of the Great War | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1916 | Edward S. Hodgson | Project Gutenberg |
24 | The Secret Battleplane[3] | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1916 | Ernest Prater | Project Gutenberg | |
25 | The Treasure of the "San Philipo" | Religious Tract Society / Boy's Own Paper | London | 1916 | Project Gutenberg | ||
26 | A Watch-dog of the North Sea | S. W. Partridge and Co. | London | 1916 | C. M. Padday | Project Gutenberg | |
27 | Deeds of Pluck and Daring in the Great War | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1917 | |||
28 | To the Fore with the Tanks![3] | S. W. Partridge and Co. | London | 1918 | Project Gutenberg | ||
29 | Under the White Ensign | A naval story of the Great War | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1918 | Edward S. Hodgson | Project Gutenberg |
30 | The Fritz-Strafers | S. W. Partridge and Co. | London | 1918 | [note 5]Project Gutenberg | ||
31 | Billy Barcroft, R.N.A.S.[3] | A story of the Great War | S. W. Partridge and Co. | London | 1918 | Project Gutenberg | |
32 | A Lively Bit of the Front | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1918 | Project Gutenberg | ||
33 | The Secret Channel and Other Stories of the Great War | Adam and Charles Black | London | 1918 | Edward S. Hodgson | ||
34 | The Submarine Hunters[4] | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1918 | Edward S. Hodgson | Project Gutenberg | |
35 | With Beatty off Jutland | A romance of the great sea fight | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1918 | Project Gutenberg | |
36 | Wilmshurst of the Frontier Force[5] | A story of the conquest of German East Africa | S. W. Partridge and Co. | London | 1918 | Ernest Prater[3] | Project Gutenberg |
37 | A Sub. And a Submarine | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1919 | Edward S. Hodgson | Faded Page / Project Gutenberg | |
38 | Winning his Wings | A story of the R.A.F. | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1919 | Project Gutenberg | |
39 | The Thick of the Fray at Zeebrugge: April 1918 | Blackie and Son Ltd. | London and Glasgow | 1919 | W. Edward Wigfull | Project Gutenberg | |
40 | Midst Arctic Perils | C. Arthur Pearson | London | 1919 | Project Gutenberg | ||
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