Background
Fenn, the third child and eldest son of a butler, Charles Fenn, was largely self-educated, teaching himself French, German and Italian.
Fenn, the third child and eldest son of a butler, Charles Fenn, was largely self-educated, teaching himself French, German and Italian.
He later became a printer, editor and publisher of short-lived periodicals, before attracting the attention of Charles Dickens and others with a sketch for All the Year Round in 1864. He contributed to Chambers"s Journal and Once a Week. In 1866, he wrote a series of articles on working-class life for the newspaper The Star.
These were collected and republished in four volumes.
They were followed by a similar series in the Weekly Times. Fenn"s first story for boys, Hollowdell Grange, appeared in 1867.
lieutenant was followed by a long list of other novels for juveniles and adults. Having become editor of Cassell"s Magazine in 1870, he purchased Once a Week and edited it until it closed in 1879.
He also wrote for the theatre.
Fenn and his family lived at Syon Lodge, Isleworth, Middlesex, where he built up a library of 25,000 volumes and took up telescope making. His last book was a biography of a great fellow writer of boys" stories, George Alfred Henty. He died at home on 26 August 1909.