Charles Hawes

January 24, 1889 (age 34)

Qifton Springs, New York, United States

After leaving Harvard Charles Hawes taught at Harrisburg Academy, Pennsylvania, for a brief period, and then joined the staff of the Youth’s Companion, Boston. Short stories of distinction from his pen now began to appear in various periodicals and he commenced to gather material for the “swinging yarns of high adventure and the sea” which gave him rank as a writer. He frequented the wharves, talked with seafaring men, perused old chronicles, and collected charts, maps, and logs. His earliest book, The Mutineers (1920), a tale of old days at sea and of adventures in the Far East, first appeared as a serial in the Open Road, 1919, a magazine for boys, of which Hawes became associate editor in 1920. For the same periodical were written The Great Quest, a romance of 1826, and The Dark Frigate, published in book form in 1921 and 1923 respectively. They are vigorous, vivid stories of reckless exploits on sea and land, of pressgang, piracy, slave ships, and bloody fights, in which striking personalities are skilfully depicted and imagination and accuracy of historical background are joined, written in rhythmic prose that lays a spell upon the reader, young or old. A few days after Hawes’s sudden death in his thirty-fifth year, his Gloucester, by Land and Sea (1923) was published. In 1924 appeared Whaling (1924), in which is set forth in a wealth of detail the history of that industry from the first whalemen of whom we have record down to the days of its decline. It was completed by his wife. In 1926 a tablet to his memory was placed in the Bowdoin Library.

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book

La fregata nera.

(Milano, Mondadori, 1974, 4to cartonato con copertina a co...)

Gloucester By Land and Sea

Whaling

(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

The Mutineers

(A tale of old days at sea and of adventures in the Far Ea...)

The Open Road For Boys Magazine: April 1947, Vol. XXIX No. 4 Issue

(April 1947, Vol. XXIX No. 4 Issue. Sample Stories include...)

The Dark Frigate

(In seventeenth century England, a terrible accident force...)

The great quest; a romance of 1826, wherein are recorded the experiences of Josiah Woods of Topham, and of those others with whom he sailed for Cuba and the Gulf of Guinea

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

The Great Quest

(The experiences of Josiah Woods of Topham, and of those o...)

Charles Boardman Hawes

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Background

Charles Hawes was born on January 24, 1889, in Qifton Springs, New York, United States. He was a descendant of English ancestors who came to Massachusetts in the first half of the seventeenth century, and the son of Charles Taylor and Martha (Boardman) Hawes.

Education

Charles was brought up in Bangor, Maine, in the schools of which city he prepared for college. He entered Bowdoin in 1907, graduating four years later. Here his interest centered in literature and composition. In his junior and senior years he was class poet, and later in his career occasional bits of verse by him were published; but prose was to be his chosen medium of expression. Three prizes were awarded him during his senior year: one for being “the best scholar in English literature and original English composition”; another as the author of the best short story - even in childhood his gift for story-telling had attracted attention; and the third as the author of the best Commencement part. He was also awarded the Henry W. Longfellow Graduate Scholarship, devised to afford students exhibiting marked ability in English opportunity for graduate work in some other institution. A year at Harvard followed. Both the forest and the sea appealed to him, and he spent his summers with surveying parties in the Maine wilderness where he acquired a knowledge of woodcraft and found inspiration for some of his earlier stories.

Career

After leaving Harvard Charles Hawes taught at Harrisburg Academy, Pennsylvania, for a brief period, and then joined the staff of the Youth’s Companion, Boston. Short stories of distinction from his pen now began to appear in various periodicals and he commenced to gather material for the “swinging yarns of high adventure and the sea” which gave him rank as a writer. He frequented the wharves, talked with seafaring men, perused old chronicles, and collected charts, maps, and logs. His earliest book, The Mutineers (1920), a tale of old days at sea and of adventures in the Far East, first appeared as a serial in the Open Road, 1919, a magazine for boys, of which Hawes became associate editor in 1920. For the same periodical were written The Great Quest, a romance of 1826, and The Dark Frigate, published in book form in 1921 and 1923 respectively. They are vigorous, vivid stories of reckless exploits on sea and land, of pressgang, piracy, slave ships, and bloody fights, in which striking personalities are skilfully depicted and imagination and accuracy of historical background are joined, written in rhythmic prose that lays a spell upon the reader, young or old.

A few days after Hawes’s sudden death in his thirty-fifth year, his Gloucester, by Land and Sea (1923) was published. In 1924 appeared Whaling (1924), in which is set forth in a wealth of detail the history of that industry from the first whalemen of whom we have record down to the days of its decline. It was completed by his wife. In 1926 a tablet to his memory was placed in the Bowdoin Library.

Achievements

Charles Hawes is famous for his three novels: The Great Quest (1921), Gloucester, by Land and Sea (1923), and The Dark Frigate (1923). He was the first United States born winner of the annual Newbery Medal, recognizing his novel The Dark Frigate as the year's best American children's book.