Background
Matthew Phipps Shiel was born on July 21, 1865, in Plymouth, Montserrat, United Kingdom. He was a son of Matthew Dowdy Shiell, a shipowner, storekeeper, and Methodist lay preacher, and Priscilla Ann (maiden name Blake) Shiell.
Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
One of the buildings of King’s College in London where M. P. Shiel did his studies.
(Sheil's free-flowing and persuasive style of writing prod...)
Sheil's free-flowing and persuasive style of writing produces a convincing portrait of Adam Jefferson, a man who, upon returning alone from an expedition to the North Pole, learns that a world-wide catastrophe has left him the last man on Earth.
https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cloud-M-P-Shiel/dp/1547195525/?tag=2022091-20
1901
(The story is of Richard Hogarth, a man of lofty spirit wh...)
The story is of Richard Hogarth, a man of lofty spirit who on discovering a cache of giant diamonds inside a fallen meteor undertakes a bold project to re-shape the human condition on a global scale.
https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Sea-M-P-Shiel/dp/154719538X/?tag=2022091-20
1901
Matthew Phipps Shiel was born on July 21, 1865, in Plymouth, Montserrat, United Kingdom. He was a son of Matthew Dowdy Shiell, a shipowner, storekeeper, and Methodist lay preacher, and Priscilla Ann (maiden name Blake) Shiell.
M. P. Shiel attended Harrison College in Bridgetown, Barbados. Then, he studied at King’s College in London.
M. P. Shiel moved to the United Kingdom in 1885. From 1888 to 1889, he earned his living as an educator teaching mathematics in a Devonshire school. His first book-length story, ‘The Rajah’s Sapphire’, was created in collaboration with a journalist W. T. Stead for serial publication in a new journal, the Daily Paper in 1893. The journal folded after its first issue, but Shiel’s story appeared in book form three years later. The author’s next venture was a collection of detective stories, titled ‘Prince Zaleski’ whose protagonist was a mysterious figure living a solitary life in Oriental splendor attended only by his black manservant.
Shiel’s next book, ‘Shapes in the Fire: Being a Mid-Winter’s Night Entertainment in Two Parts and an Interlude’ was a work of horror in the manner of Poe. Shiel was then convinced by his friend Louis Tracy, a well-known author of adventure stories with whom he would later co-author several books, to produce a “future-war” story, a tale imagining a war between Britain and would-be invaders at some time in the near future.
The turn of the century was a period of intense rivalries among the European countries, which were competing against each other and against Japan for economic supremacy and control over colonies. A persistent awareness of the possibility of war was one factor contributing to British fascination with this subject. Shiel’s first contribution to the genre became ‘The Yellow Danger: The World of the World's Greatest War’ in which Europe was invaded by the "yellow hordes" of Asia led by the "evil genius" Dr. Yen How.
M. P. Shiel would revisit the “yellow peril” theme repeatedly in subsequent books, including ‘The Yellow Wave’ and ‘The Dragon’. His next contribution to the future-war genre, however, ‘The Lord of the Sea’, had a somewhat different slant. In this story, which would prove to be the author’s roost controversial work, large numbers of Jews have fled to England to escape violent persecution in mainland Europe.
‘The Yellow Danger’ and ‘The Lord of the Sea’ also exemplify another common theme of Shiel’s writing, that of the “overman”, a superior individual whose outstanding qualities afford him a natural and, in the author’s view, permissible dominance over others. Shiel expanded on the theme of the overman in his most acclaimed novel, ‘The Purple Cloud’, conceived as the second book in a trilogy that also included ‘The Lord of the Sea’ and ‘The Last Miracle’.
Shiel continued to publish prolifically until the outbreak of World War I having however a ten-years pause since 1913. During the early years of the conflict, he worked in the British Censor’s Office but the end of the war found him living in Italy.
His next published work was a 1923 ‘Children of the Wind’, an adventure set in South Africa, followed by the mystery story ‘How the Old Woman Got Home’ four years later. He published several other titles in the late 1920s and early 1930s, at the same time as the republication of several of his earlier books created a brief revival in his popularity.
(Sheil's free-flowing and persuasive style of writing prod...)
1901(The story is of Richard Hogarth, a man of lofty spirit wh...)
1901Initially, M. P. Shiel's surname was spelled with two letters 'l' at the end. Later, he took away the last one.
The author had some problems with the law. So, in 1914, according to the Criminal Law Amendment Act, he was declared guilty for the carnal abuse of his preteen stepdaughter. He stayed impenitent and completed sixteen months’ term of hard labor in prison.
Modern-day discussions of M. P. Shiel's work usually focus on his erudite and idiosyncratic use of language and on the racist tenor of the ideas embodied in his writings. In his study ‘Explorers of the Infinite’, Sam Moskowitz documents the author’s insistent racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism as well as “his almost paranoid vilification of organized religion.” While conceding the existence of “honest flashes of power and brilliance” in Shiel’s works, Moskowitz concludes, “It would have to be admitted that, in the psychiatrist’s vernacular, the man had a ‘problem.’ On the other hand, A. Reynolds Morse, who edited a collection of Shiel’s works in 1980, has portrayed the author as a master stylist, citing his “profound knowledge, his immense vocabulary, his liquid light' bubbling poetic narrative, [and] his vast vivid imaginings.”
M. P. Shiel was married twice. His first wife became Carolina Garcia Gomez in 1898. She died four years later. In about 1918, Shiel married Lydia Gerald Newson with whom he lived till 1929.
The author had one daughter from the first marriage. Her name was Dolores Katherine Shiell. He also had two illegitimate children named Ada Phipps Seward, and Caesar Kenneth Price.