Anthony Hope

Tristram of Blent Anthony Hope

Publisher Marketing: Mr Jenkinson Neeld was an elderly man of comfortable private means; he had chambers in Pall Mall, close to the Imperium Club, and his short stoutish figure, topped by a chubby spectacled face, might be seen entering that dignified establishment every day at lunch time, and also at the hour of dinner on the evenings when he had no invitation elsewhere. He had once practised at the Bar, and liked to explain that he had deserted his profession for the pursuit of literature. He did not, however, write on his own account; he edited. He would edit anything provided there was no great public demand for an edition of it. Regardless of present favor, he appealed to posterity-as gentlemen with private means are quite entitled to do. Perhaps he made rather high demands on posterity; but that was his business-and its. At any rate his taste was curious and his conscience acute. He was very minute and very scrupulous, very painstaking and very discreet, in the exercise of his duties. Posterity may perhaps like these qualities in an editor of memoirs and diaries; for such were Mr Neeld's favorite subjects. Sometimes he fell into a sore struggle between curiosity and discretion, having impulses in himself which he forbore to attribute to posterity. Contributor Bio:  Hope, Anthony Anthony Hope (Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins) was an English writer and playwright. Best known for his classic adventure tales The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau, Hope is credited with creating the Ruritanian romance genre. Although he originally published short pieces in popular periodicals, Hope started his own publishing press because of a lack of interest in publishing his longer works. The success of The Prisoner of Zenda allowed him to give up his career in law in favour of writing full time, but his later works never achieved the same popularity as Zenda. Hope was knighted in 1918 in recognition of his work with wartime propaganda, and he continued to write steadily until his death from cancer in 1933.