Stanley Weyman (1855-1928) A brief survey

On 31st January 2020 B.C. (Before Coronavirus), we were in one of our favourite Market Towns - Ludlow. It was to watch the unveiling of a Blue Plaque to Stanley John Weyman  (fittingly for him, it was on the wall of his family home in Broad Street, now the H.Q. of the local Conservative Association). There was a decent crowd gathered who, sensibly, afterwards betook of goodly refreshments in The Angel opposite. Also there, was Jim Lawley, who had written an Appendix to a recent re-publication of one of Weyman's best works: Ovington's Bank (by the Ludlow book publishers Merlin Unwin Books, 2018 ISBN 978-1-910723-82-1); and members of the present Weyman family.

   

Broad Street, Ludlow

Evelyn Weyman and family

It was in March 2005 that I and two American friends, one of whom - Donna - was as keen on Weyman as I was/am - visited Llanrhyd Church and adjoining churchyard where Stanley and his wife are buried. This was in the company of another Stanley Weyman, the author's great-nephew (and named after him). Alas. the great-nephew died not that long after, but his widow, Evelyn, and her family were at Ludlow nearly 15 years later.

Weyman's grave at Llanrhyd

Although Weyman called his novels and short stories pleasant fables, he was known as The Prince of Romance in his heyday - from 1890 until c.1908. His later books, from 1919 until 1928 (the last one published posthumously), perhaps showed even greater depths of character drawing. Graham Greene, in a BBC interview in 1970, said The key books in my life included Anthony Hope, Rider Haggard...and I do occasionally re-read them. Stanley Weyman in particular. Robert Louis Stevenson and Oscar Wilde, amongst other writers, admired Weyman's works. Donna Rudin, my companion in 2005, had already set up a website in 2001 devoted to Weyman, subtitled "Prince of Romance", which was stimulated by her, by chance, picking up his A Gentleman of France and being hooked from then on. I recall reading several Weyman novels whilst at prep school in the wilds of Berkshire, linking him with John Buchan and Baroness Orczy as firm favourites.

In the 1970s I collected and read a few of his books in the Pan paperbacks. I then bought the entire 24 volumes of the Thin Paper edition, which had in the first story, The House of the Wolf, a General Preface by the author,which explained his motives and methods of writing.  The collecting of first editions and ephemera had to wait another decade or so. Now, I have just spent a week scanning the covers and title pages of my entire Weyman Collection, prior to private publication of an illustrated booklet. *  I have also brought them all together on a couple of shelves and am determined to read some of them again before the year is out, starting with Ovington's Bank. Favourites? It is a long time since I re-read them, but I do remember liking some of the later ones set in England: besides Ovington's Bank, there were The Castle Inn, Starvecrow Farm, Chippinge and The Great House. Future Blogs will certainly comment on my reading.

U.K. First Editions I hold of Weyman's novels

1890  The House of the Wolf    1891  The Story of Francis Cludde

1891  The New Rector (2 vols.)    1893  A Gentleman of France (3 vol.s)    

1894  The Man in Black    1894  Under the Red Robe (2 vols.)    

1895  The Red Cockade    1898 Shrewsbury

1898  The Castle Inn    1900  Sophia    

1901  Count Hannibal    1902  In Kings' Byways    

1903  The Long Night    1904  The Abbess of Vlaye    

1905  Starvecrow Farm    1906  Chippinge    

1907  Laid up in Lavender    1908  The Wild Geese    

1919  The Great House **    1922  Ovington's Bank

1924  The Traveller in the Fur Cloak **    1925  Queen's Folly **

1928  The Lively Peggy **                                   

U.S.A. First Editions I hold of Weyman's novels

1891  The King's Strategem    1895  The Snowball    

1895  A Little Wizard    1898  The Castle Inn 

1897  For the Cause     1899  When Love Calls

1903  The Long Night **    1905  Starvecrow Farm  **

1919  Madam Constantia (as Jefferson Carter) **

1919  The Great House **   1924  The Traveller in the Fur Cloak **

1925  Queen's Folly **    1928  The Lively Peggy ** 

** = with dust wrapper

*  A Collector's Illustrated Bibliography series, published under my imprint Greenmantle Books.

2014  The First Editions of Constance Holme (2nd. ed. 2018)

2914  The First Editions of Susan Buchan (Susan Tweedsmuir) (2nd. ed. 2018)

2014  The First Editions of  Alfred Duggan

2014  The First Editions of Maurice Walsh

2015  Nineteenth Century Historical Novels from 1327 to 1485 (Edward III to Richard III)

          Part I: 1822-1882 Part II: 1884-1897 Part III: 1898-1905 Part IV: 1905-1917

2016  The First Editions of Josephine Tey/Gordon Daviot 

2019  The First Editions of John Meade Falkner

2020  The First Editions of Robert H. Forster

2020  Nineteenth Century Historical Novels on Lollardy 1822-1905

and 

2020  Buchanalia: A Private Collection of John Buchan's Works (and other Literature  associated with him and his Family) - regularly updated.