Background
George Robert Sims was born on September 2, 1847, in London, England.
Sims in 1884.
Sims at work.
Sims c. 1910.
University of Bonn 53012 Bonn, Germany
Sims attended the University of Bonn.
(George R. Sims's Rogues and Vagabonds packs his satirical...)
George R. Sims's Rogues and Vagabonds packs his satirical novel with numerous villains, a promising murderer, fears of death by shipwreck and many, many, many incidents that allow the author to poke fun at his characters, their social standing and their prejudices. This is an old-fashioned romp with Dickens-style humour.
https://www.amazon.com/Rogues-Vagabonds-George-R-Sims-ebook/dp/B00M9F4G6I/?tag=2022091-20
1885
dramatist journalist novelist poet
George Robert Sims was born on September 2, 1847, in London, England.
Sims attended the University of Bonn.
Sims’ first literary ambition was to become a poet, and he reportedly wrote verses from a very young age. The Dagonet Ballads (1879), The Ballads of Babylon (1880), The Lifeboat, and Other Poems (1883), Ballads and Poems (1883), The Land of Gold and Other Poems (1888), and Prepare to Shed Them Now (posthumously published in 1968) contain most of Sims’ verse, some of which was published under the pseudonym Dagonet. His legitimate reputation as a poet led Bret Harte to seek him out upon arriving in England. Though he is one of the few minor Victorians whose poetry has been made available in a modern edition, Sims produced relatively little verse after the publication of The Dagonet Ballads in 1879. This first book was well received and drew the praise of poet and dramatist Robert Buchanan. As a result of Buchanan’s favorable review, the two authors forged a lasting relationship and later collaborated on two plays, The English Rose (1890) and The Trumpet Call (1891).
About ten years before these two productions, Sims’ successful dramatic debut was achieved with the staging of The Lights of London in 1881. The play treated the story of a working-class couple seeking employment in the city. Several other popular dramas followed, including The Romany Rye (1882) and two plays co-written with Henry Pettitt, In the Ranks (1883) and Harbour Lights (1885).
The Independent Theatre of London, founded by J. T. Grein in 1891, became a player in a quarrel between Sims and rival English playwright George Moore. Moore was closely tied to the Independent Theatre, publicizing and producing many of its plays. Sims began the altercation in retaliation for an unflattering review of his work by Moore. From the beginning, the Independent Theatre’s stated mission was the promotion and production of native English work. Sims charged that a planned production of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi did not serve this mission and challenged the theater to produce one of Moore’s plays instead, offering one hundred pounds as a wager. Presumably, Sims wished to return the insult Moore had given him by pronouncing the production failure. Moore obliged, editing a five-act play down to three acts for the occasion. Moore’s The Strike at Arlingford debuted in 1893 to an ambiguous critical reception but rose above Sims’ hopes that it would turn out to be a clear failure for his rival. Sims also stirred up other noble controversies, as with his series of investigative articles for the Daily News.
Sims also contributed numerous articles from 1879 to 1883 about the bad condition of the poor in London's slums in the Sunday Dispatch, Daily News and other papers. Many of these were later published in book form, such as The Theatre of Life (1881, Fuller), Horrible London (1889, Billing and Sons), The Social Kaleidoscope, and The Three Brass Balls. In particular, in 1881, Sims and Frederick Barnard wrote a series of illustrated articles entitled How the Poor Live for a new journal, The Pictorial World. This was published in book form in 1883. He also wrote many popular ballads attempting to draw attention to the predicament of the poor. These efforts were important in raising public opinion on the subject and led to reform legislation in the Act of 1885.
Sims’ firsthand knowledge of the streets had been gained with the help of both the London police and the criminals themselves, investing his writing with acute realism. In his columns for the Daily Mail, Sims attacked Scotland Yard, believing that investigators had wrongly accused Norwegian Adolf Beck of fraud. As a result of Sims’ journalism, Beck’s conviction was nullified. Sims was made a Knight of the Order of St. Olaf, and because of his efforts, the Court of Criminal Appeal was instituted.
In the Daily Telegraph, Sims sided with police in another case in which a well-known London woman had been arrested for prostitution. In the pages of this same paper, Sims exposed an extensive white-slavery ring operating in London. These columns were collected in London by Night (1906) and Watches of the Night (1907). In his fiction too, Sims championed the rights of the poor and the children of London slums. Sims’s pamphlet The Cry of the Children, later expanded as The Black Stain, resulted in an influential piece of child welfare legislation in 1908.
(George R. Sims's Rogues and Vagabonds packs his satirical...)
1885In his works, such as Zeph, and Other Stories (1880), The Ring o’ Bells (1886), and Tinkletop’s Crime (1891), Sims illuminates the situations of the poor, domestic servants, London’s homeless, oppressed workers, abused children, and other injustices. These collections of socially aware, realistic fiction prompted comparisons to the work of Emile Zola as well as Charles Dickens. The National Press praised Sims’ ability to expose lamentable conditions in London, and the Athenaeum remarked on Sims’ desire to affect positive change. Sims continued to expose the injustices that plagued Britain’s women and children in the period leading up to World War I. He used graphic photographs and on-the-scene descriptions to call attention to the problem of child abuse and neglect (especially by mothers) in England’s urban centers.
In his nonfiction, journalism, and short stories alike, Sims presented the plight of the underprivileged citizen with a sharply realistic edge. Living in London through the turn of the century, Sims steadfastly expressed his opinion on what he viewed as the social ills of the period, producing works of lasting interest in several genres. With his series of investigative articles collected as How the Poor Live and Horrible London, Sims contributed to the public knowledge a previously unavailable portrait of London’s underprivileged poor and criminal elements.
Sims' prolific output, personal charm, and social advocacy distinguished him from his contemporaries and inspired such figures as Charles Booth and Frederick Rogers.
In 1901, Sims married Florence Wykes.