Arthur J. Rees
Arthur John Rees (1872–29 November 1942),[1] was an Australian-born journalist and mystery writer.
Born in St Kilda, Melbourne,[1] he married Mary Mane Gilbert in Ballarat in 1901.[2] He was for a short time on the staff of the Melbourne Age before moving to New Zealand, where he joined the staff of the New Zealand Herald.[3] In April 1910 he was appointed editor of the NZ Truth,[4] but returned to Australia in August 1910.[5] He then moved to England, where he worked for The Times.[6]
His first novel, The Merry Marauders, was set in New Zealand.[7][8][9] This was followed by The Hampstead Mystery, in collaboration with Australian mystery writer John Reay Watson.[10] By the time of his fifth novel, he had relocated permanently to England,[11] where he lived in Worthing, Sussex.[1] He was a friend of writer Thomas Hardy and one of the founders of PEN International.[1] He focused on writing detective fiction, with a strong element of local folklore.[3] His proficiency as a writer of crime-mystery stories is attested by Dorothy Sayers in the introduction to Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, 1928. Two of his stories were included in an American world-anthology of detective stories.[3] Some of his works were translated into French and German.
He returned to Australia briefly in 1935 for health reasons, where he criticised Australia's censorship regime.[12] While in Australia his wife divorced him for desertion.[13] He resumed journalistic work for the Melbourne Herald, with a series of articles on "authors I have known";[14] he continued to contribute articles to the Melbourne Herald from London until his death in 1942.[15]
Bibliography
[edit]
Inspector Crewe novels
- The Hampstead Mystery (1916) [with John Reay Watson]
- The Mystery of the Downs (1918) [with John Reay Watson]
Grant Colwyn novels
- The Shrieking Pit (1919)
- The Hand in the Dark (1920)
Colwin Grey novels
- The Threshold of Fear (1925)
- Simon of Hangletree (1926)
- Greymarsh (1927)
- The Investigations of Colwin Grey (1932)
Chief Inspector Luckraft novels
- The Island of Destiny (1923)
- Simon of Hangletree (1926)
- The Pavilion by the Lake (1930)
- The Tragedy of Twelvetrees (1931)
- The River Mystery (1932)
- Aldringham's Last Chance (1933)
- The Single Clue (1940)
Others
- The Merry Marauders (1913)
- The Moon Rock (1922)
- The Cup of Silence (1924)
- Love Me Anise (1928)
- Old Sussex and Her Diarists (1929)
- The Brink (1931)
- Peak House (1933)
- The Flying Argosy (1934)
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 "Death of Mr. A. J. Rees, Australian Author". The Sun News-Pictorial. 18 December 1942. p. 6. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ Victorian Marriage Index (Australia) 1901-1902. Marriage certificate 1901/03455.
- 1 2 3 E. Morris Miller (1973). Australian literature from its beginnings to 1935: a descriptive and bibliographical survey of books by Australian authors in poetry, drama, fiction, criticism and anthology with subsidiary entries to 1938. Vol. 2. Sydney University Press. pp. 529–531.
- ↑ ""TRUTH "ASKS FOR NEW TRIAL". NZ Truth. 23 April 1910. p. 5. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via Papers Past.
- ↑ "Personal". NZ Truth. 20 August 1910. p. 1. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via Papers Past.
- ↑ Peter Morton (2011). Lusting for London: Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 7.
- ↑ "A NEW ZEALAND AUTHOR". Colonist. 17 February 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via Papers Past.
- ↑ "AUSTRALIAN NOVELIST. JOURNALIST'S FIRST VENTURE". The Sun. 15 September 1913. p. 6. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ ""THE MERRY MARAUDERS."". NZ Truth. 18 April 1914. p. 4. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via Papers Past.
- ↑ ""THE HAMPSTEAD MYSTERY."". Bendigo Advertiser. 11 January 1917. p. 5. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "AN AUSTRALIAN WRITER OF THE DETECTIVE STORY". Advocate. 5 May 1921. p. 3. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "BOOK CENSORSHIP. AUSTRALIA TOO SEVERE". The Sydney Morning Herald. 21 September 1935. p. 16. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "DIVORCE DECREES GRANTED". The Herald. 9 September 1935. p. 5. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "AUTHORS I HAVE KNOWN: No. 2. -JOSEPH CONRAD". Herald. 2 November 1935. p. 35. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "Personal". The Herald. 17 December 1942. p. 5. Retrieved 30 December 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
External links
[edit]- Works by Arthur John Rees at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Arthur J. Rees at the Internet Archive
- Works by Arthur J. Rees at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- The Merry Marauders at the University of Otago
