Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933) was an American artist and fiction writer, best known for his book of short stories titled The King in Yellow, published in 1895.
Early life Chambers was born in Brooklyn, New York, to William P. Chambers (1827–1911), a corporate and bankruptcy lawyer, and Caroline Smith Boughton (1842–1913). His parents met when his mother was twelve years old and William P. was interning with her father, Joseph Boughton, a prominent corporate lawyer. Eventually the two formed the law firm of Chambers and Boughton which continued to prosper even after Joseph's death in 1861. Robert Chambers's great-grandfather, William Chambers (birth unknown), a lieutenant in the British Royal Navy, was married to Amelia Saunders (1765–1822), a great-granddaughter of Tobias Saunders of Westerly, Rhode Island. The couple moved from Westerly to Greenfield, Massachusetts, and then to Galway, New York, where their son, also named William Chambers (1798–1874), was born. The second William graduated from Union College at the age of 18, and then went to a college in Boston, where he studied medicine. Upon graduating, he and his wife, Eliza P. Allen (1793–1880), a direct descendant of Roger Williams, the founder of Providence, Rhode Island, were among the first settlers of Broadalbin, New York. His brother was the architect Walter Boughton Chambers.
Chambers was first educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and then entered the Art Students' League at around the age of twenty, where the artist Charles Dana Gibson was a fellow student. Chambers studied in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian from 1886 to 1893, and his work was displayed at the Salon as early as 1889.
Career On his return to New York, he succeeded in selling his illustrations to Life, Truth, and Vogue magazines.Klein, T. E. D., "Chambers, Robert W(illiam)", in Jack Sullivan (1986). The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, New York: Penguin/Viking. , p. 74. Then, for reasons unclear, he devoted his time to writing, producing his first novel, In the Quarter, written in 1887 in Munich. His most famous effort is The King in Yellow, a collection of short stories published in 1895. This included several famous weird short stories that are connected by the theme of a fictitious drama of the same title, which drives those who read it insane.Stableford, Brian (1983), "The King in Yellow" in Frank N. Magill, ed. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, Vol. 2. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, Inc. (pp. 844–847). E. F. Bleiler described The King in Yellow as one of the most important works of American supernatural fiction.Quoted in Klein, T. E. D., "Chambers, Robert W(illiam)", in Jack Sullivan (1986). The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, New York: Penguin/Viking. , pp. 74–76. The story was also strongly admired by H. P. Lovecraft and his circle.
Chambers returned to the weird genre in his later short story collections The Maker of Moons, The Mystery of Choice and The Tree of Heaven, but none matched the success or acclaim of The King in Yellow. Some of Chambers's work contains elements of science fiction, such as In Search of the Unknown (1904) and Police!!! (1915), about a zoologist who encounters monsters.Bleiler, Everett Franklin and Bleiler, Richard. Science-Fiction: The Early Years. Kent State University Press, 1990. . pp. 129–132. Lovecraft expressed admiration for Chambers's story "The Harbor Master" (from In Search of the Unknown) which probably influenced "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1931).Robert Price (editor). The Innsmouth Cycle: The Taint of the Deep Ones in 13 Tales. 2006, Chaosium Inc.
Chambers's main work of historical fiction was a series of novels set during the Franco-Prussian War. These novels were The Red Republic (1895, centring on the Paris Commune), Lorraine (1898), Ashes of Empire (1898) and Maids of Paradise (1903).Boime, Albert (1989), "Olin Levi Warner's Defense of the Paris Commune", Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 29, No. 3/4, (pp. 4, 13).Nield, Jonathan (1925), A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales. G. P. Putnam's Sons (pp. 91, 114).Bousfield, Wendy. "Chambers, Robert W(illiam)", in Henderson, Lesley, and Kirkpatrick. D. L. (eds), Twentieth-century romance and historical writers. Detroit : St. James Press, 1990. (pp. 120–122). Chambers wrote Special Messenger (1909), Ailsa Paige (1910) and Whistling Cat (1932), novels set during the American Civil War. Chambers also wrote Cardigan (1901), a historical novel for younger readers, set at the outbreak of the American Revolution. Chambers later turned to writing romantic fiction to earn a living. According to some estimates, Chambers had one of the most successful literary careers of his period, his later novels selling well and a handful achieving best-seller status. Chambers' romance novels often featured intimate relationships between "caddish" men and sexually willing women, resulting in some reviewers accusing Chambers' works of promoting "immorality." Many of his works were also serialised in magazines.
His novel The Man They Hanged was about Captain Kidd, and argued that Kidd was not a pirate but had been made a scapegoat by the British government.
During World War I, Chambers wrote war adventure novels and war stories, some of which showed a strong return to his old weird style, such as "Marooned" in Barbarians (1917). After 1924 he devoted himself solely to writing historical fiction.
Chambers for several years made Broadalbin, New York, his summer home. Some of his novels touch upon colonial life in Broadalbin and Johnstown.
Personal life On July 12, 1898, he married Elsa (Elsie) Vaughn Moller (1882–1939). They had a son, Robert Edward Stuart Chambers (1899–1955) (who sometimes used the name Robert Husted Chambers).
Death Robert W. Chambers died on December 16, 1933, three days after undergoing intestinal surgery.
Criticism and legacy H. P. Lovecraft said of Chambers in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith:
Though Chambers largely abandoned supernatural themes in his later works, only his early weird fiction remained in print through most of the twentieth century thanks in part to Lovecraft's inclusion of them in the critical study "Supernatural Horror in Literature".
Frederic Taber Cooper commented:
In an overview of Chambers' historical fiction, Wendy Bousfield stated that the historical novel Cardigan was "Chambers' most highly praised historical novel" during his lifetime. Bousfield also argued that much of Chambers' historical fiction was marred by poorly written characters and "insensitive humor at the expense of ethnic types". Bousfield also wrote that "Chambers' trivializing of human relationships is regrettable, since his recreation of period details of dress and daily life is vivid and historically accurate."
Critical studies of Chambers's horror and fantasy work include Lee Weinstein's essay in Supernatural Fiction Writers,Weinstein, Lee, "Robert W. Chambers in, E. F. Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985. (pp. 739–746). Brian Stableford's essay in the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic WritersStableford, Brian (1998), "Chambers, Robert W(illiam)" in David Pringle, ed., St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers (London: St. James Press) (pp. 130–132). and a chapter in S. T. Joshi's book The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004).
Chambers's novel The Tracer of Lost Persons was adapted into a long-running (1937–54) radio crime drama, Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, by soap opera producers Frank and Anne Hummert.
Science fiction and fantasy writers influenced by Robert W. Chambers' work include H. P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Tod Robbins, Jack Vance, James Blish, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Joseph Payne Brennan, Lin Carter, and Karl Edward Wagner.
Chambers's The King in Yellow has inspired many modern authors, including Joseph S. Pulver, Lin Carter, James Blish, Nic Pizzolatto, Michael Cisco, Stephen King, Ann K. Schwader, Robert M. Price, Galad Elflandsson and Charles Stross.
Bibliography
Novels and story collections In the Quarter (1894) The King in Yellow (1895) – short stories The Red Republic (1895) The Maker of Moons (1896) – short stories A King and A Few Dukes (1896) With the Band (1896) The Mystery of Choice (1897) – short stories Lorraine (1898) Ashes of Empire (1898) The Haunts of Men (1898) – short stories Outsiders (1899) The Cambric Mask (1899) The Conspirators (1899) Cardigan (1901) The Maid-at-Arms (1902) The Maids of Paradise (1903) In Search of the Unknown (1904) A Young Man in a Hurry (1904) – short stories The Reckoning (1905) Iole (1905) The Tracer of Lost Persons (1906) The Fighting Chance (1906) The Tree of Heaven (1907) – short stories The Younger Set (1907) Some Ladies in Haste (1908) The Firing Line (1908) Romance (1908) – serialized in Collier's Special Messenger (1909) The Danger Mark (1909) The Green Mouse (1910) Ailsa Paige (1910) The Common Law (1911) The Adventures of a Modest Man (1911) Blue-Bird Weather (1912) The Streets of Ascalon (1912) The Japonette (1912) – serialized in Cosmopolitan under the title The Turning Point The Gay Rebellion (1913) The Business of Life (1913) Quick Action (1914) The Hidden Children (1914) Anne's Bridge (1914) Between Friends (1914) Who Goes There! (1915) Athalie (1915) Police!!! (1915) – short stories The Girl Philippa (1916) The Better Man (1916) – short stories The Dark Star (1917) Barbarians (1917)Toronto: George J. McLeod, Ltd. Publishers, 1917. The Laughing Girl (1918) The Restless Sex (1918) The Moonlit Way (1919) In Secret (1919) The Crimson Tide (1919) A Story of Primitive Love (1920) The Slayer of Souls (1920) The Little Red Foot (1920) Eris (1922) The Flaming Jewel (1922) The Talkers (1923) The Hi-Jackers (1923) America; or, The Sacrifice (1924) The Mystery Lady (1925) Marie Halkett (1925 UK, 1937 US) The Girl in Golden Rags (1925 UK, 1936 US) The Man They Hanged (1926) The Drums of Aulone (1927) The Gold Chase (1927) The Sun Hawk (1928) The Rogue's Moon (1928) The Happy Parrot (1929) The Painted Minx (1930) The Rake and the Hussy (1930) War Paint and Rouge (1931) Gitana (1931) Whistling Cat (1932) Whatever Love Is (1933) Secret Service Operator 13 (1934) – short stories published in Cosmopolitan between 1930 and 1932 The Young Man's Girl (1934) – serialized in The Delineator, 1933 Love and the Lieutenant (1935) – serialized in The Woman's Home Companion, 1934 Beating Wings (1936) – serialized in McCall's, 1927 The Fifth Horseman (1937) – serialized in McCall's, 1930 Smoke of Battle (1938) – this novel was possibly finished by Rupert Hughes.
Children's books Outdoorland (1902). Illustrated by Reginald Bathurst Birch Orchard-Land (1903). Illustrated by Reginald Bathurst Birch River-Land (1904). Illustrated by Elizabeth S. Green Forest-Land (1905). Illustrated by Emily Benson Knipe Mountain-Land (1906). Illustrated by Frederick Richardson & Walter King Stone Garden-Land (1907). Illustrated by Harrison Cady The Happy Parrot (1931). Illustrated by Norman Price
Reprint collections The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories, edited by E. F. Bleiler, Dover 1970 The Yellow Sign and Other Stories, edited by S.T. Joshi, Chaosium 2004
Anthologies containing reprinted work by Robert W. Chambers
Sporting Blood: The Great Sports Detective Stories, edited by Ellery Queen, Little, Brown and Company, 1942 – contains "The Purple Emperor" Sleep No More, edited by August Derleth, Rinehart & Company, 1944 – contains "The Yellow Sign" The Faded Banners, edited by Eric Solomon, T. Yoseloff, 1960 – contains "Pickets" The Dark Descent, edited by David G. Hartwell, Tor, 1987 – contains "The Repairer of Reputations"