Bernard Capes
Bernard Capes was an English writer born on August 30, 1854, in London. He was the son of Frederick Capes, who was involved in the art world, and his brother, John Moore Capes, also pursued a creative career. Capes attended Beaumont College, where he focused on literature before drifting through various jobs in the 1870s, including clerical positions. His passion for writing intensified after he enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he honed his appreciation for originality and imagination.
Capes's career as a writer took off in the late 19th century, particularly after the release of his first novel, "The Mill of Silence," in 1896. He wrote prolifically across multiple genres, including romance, comedy, mystery, and horror, producing over two dozen novels and numerous short stories and articles. His works often featured supernatural elements, reflecting the popular interests of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Notable creations included Inspector Vertue, a character in a serialized story that introduced radium. Bernard Capes passed away on November 2, 1918, and while his works were once widely read, they faded into obscurity for many years. Recently, a resurgence of interest in spiritual themes has revived his legacy, with collections such as "The Black Reaper" (1989) reintroducing his contributions to psychological horror to contemporary audiences.
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Bernard Capes
Writer
- Born: August 30, 1854
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: November 2, 1918
- Place of death: Winchester, England
Biography
Bernard Edward Joseph Capes was born August 30, 1854, in London, England, the son of Frederick Capes, proctor of Doctor’s Commons and an occasional contributor of articles about art. His brother, John Moore Capes, also became a writer of fiction and a composer of operas.
Bernard Capes attended Beaumont College to study literature. After graduation, he drifted from profession to profession during the 1870’s, working in a series of dead-end or uninspiring jobs such as clerk and assistant tea broker. Eventually, he enrolled in the newly established (founded 1871) Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he gained fresh appreciation for originality and imagination, two characteristics that would serve him well during the remainder of his career as he worked to develop his writing style.
In 1888, Capes was hired as an editor by the publisher Edlington and Company, but did not last long at the firm. Between 1890 and 1892, he coedited or edited Theatre magazine, and when the publication folded, he turned inevitably to writing. For several years, he contributed stories and articles to such periodicals as Blackwood’s Magazine, Cornhill Magazine, Current Literature, and Living Age. With the publication of his first novel, The Mill of Silence (1896), he turned fulltime to writing novels and short stories.
Once he began, Capes wrote rapidly—sometimes sloppily, suggesting that in the pursuit of a living he turned in first drafts—in a variety of popular genres: romances (Love Like a Gipsy, 1901), comedies (Moll Davis, 1916), mysteries (The Great Skene Mystery, 1907), ghost and horror stories (The Fabulists, 1915), historical pastiches (Adventures of the Comte de la Muette During the Reign of Terror, 1898), thrillers, and poetry. In a writing career that spanned slightly more than two decades, he produced more than two dozen novels, six collections of short stories, a volume of poetry for children, plus numerous reviews and articles. One of Capes’s more interesting creations was Inspector Vertue of Scotland Yard, who in a serialized tale that ran in 1906-1907 introduced the newly discovered element radium.
Whatever the genre, however, Capes had a penchant for inserting touches of the supernatural into the narrative, reflecting the Victorian and Edwardian eras’ fascination with such subjects. In stories such as “The Thing in the Forest” (werewolves), “An Eddy on the Floor” (ghosts), “The Marble Hands,” and “The Queer Picture” (communication from beyond the grave), Capes helped fulfill the demand for paranormal reading matter. Even in such supposedly nonfiction works as Historical Vignettes (1910), Capes could not resist borrowing from the otherworld: He has Napoleon and Lady Godiva conversing with animated statues, Henry VIII hounded by the ghost of Jane Seymour, and King Charles IX of France pestered by the soul of a dead Huguenot.
Bernard Capes died at age sixty-four on November 2, 1918. His work, though well read during his day, fell into obscurity for many years. In recent years, his memory has been resurrected in an atmosphere of new-found interest for things spiritual. A collection of twenty- two of Capes’s better stories was published under the apt title The Black Reaper (1989) to introduce a new generation of readers to a forgotten specialist in psychological horror.