Image Not Available

Maurice Hewlett

Weybridge, England, 1861 - 1923, Salisbury, England

Biographyhttp://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50039548
Hewlett, Maurice Henry (1861–1923), novelist and poet, was born at Oatlands Park, Weybridge, Surrey, on 22 January 1861. His father, Henry Gay Hewlett (1832–1897), of Huguenot extraction, had the civil service appointment of keeper of land revenue records, but was also an amateur poet and critic. Henry Gay Hewlett married Emmeline Mary, daughter of James Thomas Knowles, architect, and sister of Sir James Thomas Knowles (1831–1908), architect, and founder and editor of the Nineteenth Century. They had eight children, of whom Maurice was the eldest.

In 1872 Maurice Hewlett's parents moved to Farningham, Kent, and he became a day boy at Sevenoaks School. In 1874 he went as a boarder to Palace School, Enfield, Middlesex, and in 1875 to the International College, Spring Grove, Isleworth. In 1878 he joined his cousin, W. O. Hewlett, in the family law business at 2 Raymond Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, London. On 3 January 1888 he married Hilda Beatrice (1864–1943), daughter of the Revd George William Herbert, vicar of St Peter's, Vauxhall. With her he had a son, Cecco, in 1890, and a daughter, Pia, in 1895. Hilda Beatrice Hewlett later became a pioneer aviator, the first British woman to obtain a pilot's licence. Hewlett was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1890, and in 1897 succeeded his father as keeper of land revenue records, a post which he held until 1901.

In 1898 Hewlett's career changed dramatically when his first novel, The Forest Lovers, was published to immediate popular and critical acclaim. Fame exacted its price, however, as Hewlett was labelled a writer of historical romance, a label against which he rebelled throughout his career, as he wished to be taken seriously as a poet. He asserted that ‘The truth is, I write everything and approach everything as a poet—history, psychology, romance, novels, everything’. Nevertheless, Hewlett's success enabled him from 1901 on to devote himself fully to his writing, which may be divided into three periods. During the first, from 1895 to 1905, he produced mainly Italian and historical short stories and romance novels. The most important of the latter are The Life of Richard Yea-and-Nay (1900), about Richard I, and The Queen's Quair (1904), on Mary, Queen of Scots. In the second period, to the outbreak of war in 1914, Hewlett wrote Regency novels, and contemporary thesis novels which reflected his growing interest in socialism and issues such as universal suffrage; notable among these is a trilogy beginning with Halfway House (1908) and concerning itself with marriage and the freedom of the sexes. During the third period, from 1914 to his death, he developed his poetry, and penned wide-ranging, unaffected essays, including Extemporary Essays (1922).

Hewlett was a warm-hearted man of sardonic speech, who abhorred publicity about his private life. Nevertheless, he did publish a curious volume of autobiographical reminiscences, Lore of Proserpine (1913), which reveals his dividedness and his typically Edwardian fascination with the spirit world. Hewlett died at Broad Chalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire, on 15 June 1923. He was cremated, and a memorial service was held at the Broad Chalke parish church.

To his death Hewlett believed that his reputation would rest on his poetry, and in particular on The Song of the Plow (1916), an epic poem that praises the English peasantry as the only hope for England. It has been almost completely forgotten, although as recently as 1972 the critic Samuel Hynes hailed it as ‘one of the best terza rima poems in English’ (Hynes, 187). Hewlett now appears to have come at the end of the traditions in which he wrote. If he is remembered at all, it will be for bringing to the historical romance a certain depth of knowledge and insight about the historical periods he portrayed, while maintaining an entertaining tone. If his plots now seem derivative and predictable, and his style unfashionably affected, his characterization retains a delightful and broadly humane quality. This strength undoubtedly stems from his vivid personality, paid tribute to by a number of contemporaries, including J. C. Squire:

He was an extraordinarily full man....He never said a thing twice in different words, and never pretended to knowledge that he did not possess. The knowledge that he did possess sufficed him. It was almost impossible to mention to him in conversation a thing which he did not know about; and everything was alive to him. His knowledge and imagination working together made the whole past, and the whole of literature, live for him. (Squire, 363)

George Malcolm Johnson
Sources

The letters of Maurice Hewlett, ed. L. Binyon (1926) · S. Hynes, ‘Maurice Hewlett: an Edwardian career’, Edwardian occasions: essays on English writing in the early twentieth century (1972), 173–90 · J. C. Squire, ‘Maurice Hewlett, man of many talents’, Language Arts (25 Aug 1923), 363–4 · G. M. Johnson, ‘Maurice Hewlett’, British short-fiction writers, 1880–1914: the romantic tradition, ed. W. F. Naufftus, DLitB, 156 (1996) · M. Bronner, Maurice Hewlett: being a critical review of his prose and poetry (1910) · P. H. Muir, ‘A bibliography of the first editions of books by Maurice H. Hewlett (1861–1923)’, Bookman's Journal, 15 (1927) [supplement] · D. P. Moutz, ‘Hewlett, Maurice’, The 1890s: an encyclopedia of British literature, art, and culture, ed. G. A. Cevasco (1993) · DNZB [Hilda Beatrice Hewlett]
Archives

BL, extracts from diaries, Add. MS 41075 · BL, corresp. with Society of Authors, Add. MS 56722 · Harvard U., Houghton L., corresp. and papers · Ransom HRC, papers · U. Cal., Berkeley, letters :: BL, corresp. with Macmillans, Add. MSS 54946–54948 · BL, corresp. with Mary Stopes, Add. MS 58496 · BLPES, letters to Frederic Harrison · Bodl. Oxf., corresp. with Robert Bridges · Harvard U., Houghton L., letters to Curtis Brown · Harvard U., Houghton L., letters to Harold Munro · U. Leeds, Brotherton L., letters to Sir Edmund Gosse

Likenesses

W. Rothenstein, chalk drawing, 1898, NPG · G. C. Beresford, photograph, 1903, NPG · J. K. Lawson, oils, 1904, NPG · J. K. Lawson, pencil study, c.1904 (after J. K. Lawson, 1904), NPG · M. Beerbohm, caricature, 1908, AM Oxf.; repro. in British novelists, 1890–1929: traditionalists, DLitB, 34, 193 · A. L. Coburn, photogravure, 1914, NPG · V. Tittle, portrait, 1922, repro. in A. B. Sutherland, Maurice Hewlett (1938) · W. Tittle, lithograph, 1922, NPG · W. Hester, mechanically reproduced caricature, NPG; repro. in VF (5 March 1913) · photograph, repro. in Letters of Maurice Hewlett, frontispiece · photograph, repro. in Bronner, Maurice Hewlett, frontispiece
Wealth at death

£4449 15s. 0d.: probate, 21 Aug 1923, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
© Oxford University Press 2004–16
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

George Malcolm Johnson, ‘Hewlett, Maurice Henry (1861–1923)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2010 [http://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2055/view/article/33849, accessed 19 Oct 2017]

Maurice Henry Hewlett (1861–1923): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33849

Person TypeIndividual

Last Updated8/7/24

Terms