John Fleming Wilson

Background

John F. Wilson was born on February 22, 1877, in Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of the Rev. Joseph Rogers Wilson and Viola Harriet Eaton.

Education

Wilson was educated at Parsons College, Iowa, and at Princeton University, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts degree in 1900.

Career

He first taught for two years in Oregon at Portland Academy, of which his father was then president.

After doing newspaper work in Portland and editing a newspaper at Newport, Oregon, he became editor of the weekly San Francisco Argonaut, an earthquake edition of which he published at San Jose, California, on May 5, 1906, and was associated with the Oregonian, the Pacific Monthly, and the Advertiser of Honolulu.

From early boyhood he had spent much time on the water, and in the West, after having qualified as a deck officer, he worked on board seagoing tugs, with pilots in the Columbia River, in dry docks, and for a time on board ship at wireless telegraphy. For nearly two years he lived on light ships and in the Columbia and Tillamook lightouses. He studied steam engineering and other technical nautical subjects, at one time setting himself to report investigations made by courts having admiralty jurisdiction. Traveling extensively, he lived for a time in Japan.

During the World War he served in France (1917 - 1919) in the 7th Battalion, Canadian Infantry. His first sea story, "When Winds Awake, " appeared in Munsey's Magazine for August 1900. This was followed by seven stories in the Overland Monthly during 1902 - 1903.

Not a prolific writer, he wrote between 1906 and 1920 about one hundred short stories. These were published in various magazines and collected in Across the Latitudes (1911), Tad Sheldon, Boy Scout (1913), Tad Sheldon's Fourth of July (1913), and Somewhere at Sea and Other Tales (1923), the last of which contains his best work. His full-length novels are The Land Claimers (1911), The Man Who Came Back (1912), which was turned into a play, The Princess of Sorry Valley (1913), The Master Key (1915), on which a photoplay was based, and Scouts of the Desert (1920).

On March 5, 1922, while he was shaving, his bathrobe caught fire from a gas heater, and Wilson was burned to death. He died in Santa Monica and was buried three days later at Hemet, California.

Achievements

• John Fleming Wilson was a noted author, whose best literary work grew out of a thorough and intimate knowledge of the sea and ships, and of sailors, whose peculiar psychology he presents with remarkable insight and fidelity.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Man Who Came Back (Classic Reprint)

    (Since we met sixteen years ago we have sailed on many sea...)

  • Scouts of the desert

    (This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

  • Across the latitudes

    (This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

  • The Princess of Sorry Valley

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • The Land Claimers

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Somewhere at sea: And other tales
  • Noctes Ambrosian Ae.

Connections

On July 14, 1906, John F. Wilson married Elena Burt of Newport, Oregon, from whom he was afterwards divorced. There were no children by her or by his second wife, Alberta Adele Wilson.

Father:

Joseph Rogers Wilson

Mother:

Viola Harriet Wilson (Eaton)

Wife:

Alberta Adele Wilson

Wife:

Elena Wilson (Burt)