罗伯特·钱伯斯

罗伯特·W·钱伯斯（Robert W. Chambers，1865-1933），美国作家，出生于纽约布鲁克林区，最知名作品为1895年出版的《黄衣之王》。

生平

罗伯特·钱伯斯，全名为罗伯特·威廉·钱伯斯（Robert William Chambers）， 1865年出生于纽约布鲁克林区，父亲威廉·钱伯斯（William Peace Chambers）为律师，母亲为凯洛琳·鲍顿（Caroline Smith Boughton）。

罗伯特·钱伯斯受教于布鲁克林工艺学校（纽约大学坦登工程学院），二十岁时就读纽约艺术学生联盟，1896年赴巴黎朱利安学院深造六年，在学期间作品曾入选巴黎沙龙。

罗伯特·钱伯斯回到纽约之后，成功的在《生活》、《真实》、《Vogue》发表插画作品．他亦投入文学创作，其中 1895年发表的短篇小说《黄衣之王》被誉为美国超自然小说的最重要作品之一。

罗伯特·钱伯斯之后的短篇小说都不如《黄衣之王》成功，他只得投入言情小说写作维持生计，这类作品十分畅销，也在多本杂志上连载。

他在小说《他们吊死的人》（The Man They Hanged）当中，宣称威廉·基德并非海盗，而是英国政府的代罪羔羊。

第一次世界大战期间，他开始写作战争冒险小说与战争报导。1924年之后，他专注写作历史小说，撰写关于纽约州布罗尔达宾市与约翰斯顿市的殖民地故事。

1933年12月16日，在做完肠道手术三天后，罗伯特·钱伯斯病逝于纽约市。

影响

HBO原创电视剧《无间警探》第一季大量引用出现在《黄衣之王》中的语汇“Carcosa” 和“the yellow king”。

Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933) was an American artist and fiction writer, best known for his book of short stories titled The King in Yellow, published in 1895.

Early life

Chambers was born in Brooklyn, New York, to William P. Chambers (1827–1911), a corporate and bankruptcy lawyer, and Caroline Smith Boughton (1842–1913). His parents met when his mother was twelve years old and William P. was interning with her father, Joseph Boughton, a prominent corporate lawyer. Eventually the two formed the law firm of Chambers and Boughton which continued to prosper even after Joseph's death in 1861. Robert Chambers's great-grandfather, William Chambers (birth unknown), a lieutenant in the British Royal Navy, was married to Amelia Saunders (1765–1822), a great-granddaughter of Tobias Saunders of Westerly, Rhode Island. The couple moved from Westerly to Greenfield, Massachusetts, and then to Galway, New York, where their son, also named William Chambers (1798–1874), was born. The second William graduated from Union College at the age of 18, and then went to a college in Boston, where he studied medicine. Upon graduating, he and his wife, Eliza P. Allen (1793–1880), a direct descendant of Roger Williams, the founder of Providence, Rhode Island, were among the first settlers of Broadalbin, New York. His brother was the architect Walter Boughton Chambers.

Chambers was first educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and then entered the Art Students' League at around the age of twenty, where the artist Charles Dana Gibson was a fellow student. Chambers studied in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian from 1886 to 1893, and his work was displayed at the Salon as early as 1889.

Career

On his return to New York, he succeeded in selling his illustrations to Life, Truth, and Vogue magazines. Then, for reasons unclear, he devoted his time to writing, producing his first novel, In the Quarter, written in 1887 in Munich. His most famous effort is The King in Yellow, a collection of short stories published in 1895. This included several famous weird short stories that are connected by the theme of a fictitious drama of the same title, which drives those who read it insane. E. F. Bleiler described The King in Yellow as one of the most important works of American supernatural fiction. The story was also strongly admired by H. P. Lovecraft and his circle.

Chambers returned to the weird genre in his later short story collections The Maker of Moons, The Mystery of Choice and The Tree of Heaven, but none matched the success or acclaim of The King in Yellow. Some of Chambers's work contains elements of science fiction, such as In Search of the Unknown (1904) and Police!!! (1915), about a zoologist who encounters monsters. Lovecraft expressed admiration for Chambers's story "The Harbor Master" (from In Search of the Unknown) which probably influenced "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1931).

Chambers's main work of historical fiction was a series of novels set during the Franco-Prussian War. These novels were The Red Republic (1895, centring on the Paris Commune), Lorraine (1898), Ashes of Empire (1898) and Maids of Paradise (1903). Chambers wrote Special Messenger (1909), Ailsa Paige (1910) and Whistling Cat (1932), novels set during the American Civil War. Chambers also wrote Cardigan (1901), a historical novel for younger readers, set at the outbreak of the American Revolution. Chambers later turned to writing romantic fiction to earn a living. According to some estimates, Chambers had one of the most successful literary careers of his period, his later novels selling well and a handful achieving best-seller status. Chambers' romance novels often featured intimate relationships between "caddish" men and sexually willing women, resulting in some reviewers accusing Chambers' works of promoting "immorality." Many of his works were also serialised in magazines.