Stinson Jarvis
Stinson Jarvis | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Stinson Jarvis circa 1894 | |
| Born | May 31, 1854  Toronto |
| Died | January 1, 1926 (aged 71) Los Angeles |
| Alma mater | Osgoode Hall Law School |
Thomas Stinson Jarvis (May 31, 1854 – January 1, 1926) was a Canadian-American writer and lawyer. Born in Toronto, he practised law in Ontario before moving to New York City and later to California to pursue a literary career. Jarvis wrote for the popular press and published several novels and other literary works. Except for his first publication, none were particularly well received.
Early life and education
[edit]Thomas Stinson Jarvis was born in Toronto, then in Canada West, on May 31, 1854,[1] to Mary (Stinson) and Stephen Jarvis.[2] The Jarvis family stood "in the centre of Toronto society".[2]
Jarvis enrolled at Upper Canada College in September 1863, graduating in 1871.[3] After graduating, he was sent on a one-year tour of Europe and Asia.[2] Jarvis attended Osgoode Hall Law School upon his return to Canada (before its affiliation with York University);[1] he was admitted in 1871 but did not begin studying until 1875.[4]
Jarvis married Anne Louise Croft on May 27, 1881, at the Church of the Redeemer in Toronto.[5]
Legal career
[edit]After graduating from Osgoode in 1879, Jarvis articled under Oliver Mowat.[5][2] He was called to the bar of Ontario in 1879 or 1880.[5][1] Beginning around 1880, Jarvis practised law in Niagara Falls, Ontario.[2][5] He often acted in extradition matters; in October 1883, he was appointed to act as extradition counsel to Ontario.[6]
Literary career
[edit]Journalism
[edit]Jarvis moved to the United States in 1891,[1] taking up residence at 23 Washington Place in downtown Manhattan, New York.[7] In New York, he initially worked as a sports journalist, writing mainly on yachting for publications including Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and Sports Afield.[8]
Books
[edit]Jarvis wrote six books and a number of short stories and articles.[9]
Letters from East Longitudes: Sketches of Travel in Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece, and Cities of the Levant, Jarvis's first book, was published in May 1875. It is a travel narrative of his solo journey to various countries in the Near East, with scattered observations of travel in Europe, styled as a set of letters to his parents in Canada.[10] Letters from East Longitudes was favourably reviewed in The Globe and Canadian Monthly.[11][12]
Geoffrey Hampstead (1890), Jarvis's first novel, is a detective story about a bank clerk who frames his friend for murder.[13] It received lukewarm reviews in the Canadian and American press.[7] Dr. Perdue, a sequel to Geoffrey Hampstead, appeared in February 1893. It was also generally panned.[14]
The Ascent of Life (1894), initially serialized in The Arena, is a spiritualist tract that, among other things, describes Jarvis's alleged experience with clairvoyance and mesmerism.[15][16][17] Jarvis withdrew his third novel She Lived in New York (1894) from sale following the poor critical reception of Ascent of Life.[18]
Later in life, Jarvis "came to believe that an ancient Druid priesthood had been controlling history since the dawn of civilization".[19] He expounded on this theory in a "nearly unreadable" set of articles published in the Los Angeles Times in 1913 and 1914. These were subsequently expanded into a book titled The Price of Peace, published by J. F. Rowny, an occult press, in 1921.[20]
Jarvis left New York for California in 1904.[18] He died in Los Angeles on January 1, 1926.[1]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Wallace, W. Stewart, ed. (1963). The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Macmillan Publishers. p. 346. OCLC 1036685523.
- ^ a b c d e Mount 2006, p. 80.
- ^ Wollock 1969, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Wollock 1969, p. 27.
- ^ a b c d Wollock 1969, p. 30.
- ^ Wollock 1969, p. 31.
- ^ a b Mount 2006, p. 81.
- ^ Mount 2006, pp. 81–82.
- ^ Wollock 1969, p. 23.
- ^ Kröller, Eva-Marie (1987). Canadian Travellers in Europe, 1851–1900. University of British Columbia Press. pp. 46–47. ISBN 0-7748-0272-3. OCLC 18989929.
- ^ Kröller, Eva-Marie (February 5, 2004). "Exploration and travel". In Kröller, Eva-Marie (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 84. doi:10.1017/ccol0521814413.004. ISBN 978-0-521-81441-6.
- ^ Wollock 1969, p. 29.
- ^ Mount 2006, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Mount 2006, p. 82.
- ^ "Old and New". Montreal Gazette. November 3, 1894. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Ascent of Life". Chicago Tribune. November 24, 1894. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Mount 2006, pp. 82–83.
- ^ a b Mount 2006, p. 83.
- ^ Mount 2006, pp. 83–84.
- ^ Wollock 1969, pp. 44–45.
Sources
[edit]- Mount, Nicholas J. (2006). When Canadian Literature Moved to New York. University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442683310. ISBN 978-1-4426-8331-0. JSTOR 10.3138/j.ctt2ttvq0. OCLC 666893333.
- Wollock, Jeffrey (1969). "Stinson Jarvis: A Bio-Bibliography". Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. 8 (1): 23–60. doi:10.33137/pbsc.v8i1.16734. ISSN 2562-8941.
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