Eden Philpotts, 1862-1960

Eden Philpotts (1862-1960), writer, was born in India while his father Henry Philpotts was serving as an officer in the Indian Army. He returned home with his mother and two siblings at a young age, after the death of his father. He was educated at Mannamead School, Plymouth, and later went to London where for ten years he was employed as a clerk in the Sun Fire Office. He became interested in literature, gave up his dreams of going into the theatre, and made his living from writing novels, short stories and one-act plays. His first major novel, Lying Prophets, was published in 1897, followed by Children of the Mist in 1898. Most of his work has Dartmoor as a background, and his most admired work, The Secret Woman (1905) is in this vein. He died at his home in Broadclyst, near Exeter, in 1960