George Charles Jenks

Background

Jenks was born on April 13, 1850, in London, England, the son of George Stilwell and Eliza (Miller) Jenks.

Career

After serving an apprenticeship with a London printer, Jenks came to America in 1872 and worked at printing for ten years. He was a writer on the Pittsburgh Press for six years; then moved to New York in 1895, where he became correspondent of the Pittsburgh Dispatch and Gazette-Times, and an author of fiction and motion pictures. He wrote dramatic criticism, engaged in private theatricals, and in the occasional directorship of small theatres. He also gave lectures on the work of the writers of fiction.

Paradoxically, he owes his fame to work done under pseudonyms. His career as a writer of dime novels began as early as 1886, when he was writing, under his own name, for the pioneer firm in this branch of fiction: Beadle & Adams. Years later, in an article, "Dime Novel Makers, " he gave a good-humored description of his fellow dimenovelists of the early period, not, however, admitting his own share in this work. Writing for the firm of Street & Smith, Jenks was one of the group of authors who related the preposterous but highly popular adventures of Nick Carter. Despite the similarity in name to E. L. Wheeler's Deadwood Dick, the new tales were successful. Years after the dime novels had vanished, the names of only five or six out of their thousands of characters remained in the minds of readers, and Jenks's youthful hero was one of the survivors.

While Jenks might get only one hundred dollars for a novel of 80, 000 words, his industry helped him achieve what seemed to him, as contrasted with his boyhood, a great success; frequently to visit Europe with his family; and finally to retire to a country home at Owasco, New York. Nevertheless, his facility in writing led to a deterioration, even from the standards of the dime novel. He died aged 79 in 1929, leaving a widow and two sons.

Achievements

• Jenks is best known for his dime novels.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Climax (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Climax Azalia was an all-fired busy pla...)

  • The Deserters (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Deserters He blinked around the apartme...)

  • Stop Thief!...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Mesh

Personality

Jenks had a cheerful, kindly temperament which not only made him well liked by his associates, but enabled him to keep his poise in the midst of literary over-production. His physical strength - he grew to be very large - was such that, at a moment's notice, he could attack his type-writer with a tremendous vigor, and finish a fifteen-thousand-word story in two sittings. He saw the amusing side of the manufacture of five-cent thrillers, but had the necessary ability to take his own work seriously. He found genuine excitement in the exploits of his hero.

Connections

Jenks was married thrice: in 1878 to Sarah Jane Lambert, who died in 1895; in 1897 to Elizabeth J. Aylward, who died in 1897; and in 1899 to Katharine Baird, who survived him.

Father:

George Stilwell

Mother:

Eliza Miller

Spouse:

Sarah Jane Lambert

Son:

Frank H. Jenks

Son:

Charles J. Jenks

References

• Pseudonyms: The Names behind the Names