J. I. M. Stewart
Encyclopedia
John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (30 September 1906 – 12 November 1994) was a Scottish
novelist and academic. He is equally well-known for the works of literary criticism
and contemporary novels published under his real name and for the crime fiction published under the pseudonym of Michael Innes. Many devotees of the Innes books were unaware of his other "identity", and vice versa.
, the son of Elizabeth Jane (née Clark) and John Stewart of Nairn. His father was a lawyer and Director of Education in the city of Edinburgh. Stewart attended Edinburgh Academy
, where Robert Louis Stevenson
had been a pupil for a short time, and later studied English literature
at Oriel College, Oxford. In 1929 he went to Vienna
to study psychoanalysis
. He was lecturer in English at the University of Leeds
from 1930 to 1935, and then became Jury Professor of English in the University of Adelaide
, South Australia
.
He returned to the United Kingdom
to become Lecturer in English at the Queen's University of Belfast
from 1946 to 1948. In 1949 he became a Student (equivalent of Fellow in other Oxford colleges) of Christ Church, Oxford
. By the time of his retirement in 1973, he was a professor of the university. He died at Coulsdon
.
Stewart wrote several critical studies, including full-length studies of James Joyce
, Joseph Conrad
, Thomas Love Peacock
and Thomas Hardy
, as well as many novels and short stories. His last publication was his autobiography Myself and Michael Innes (1987).
identified Innes as one of the "farceurs"—crime writers for whom the detective story was "an over-civilized joke with a frivolity which makes it a literary conversation piece with detection taking place on the side"—and described Innes's writing as being "rather in the manner of Peacock strained through or distorted by Aldous Huxley
". His mysteries have also been described as combining "the elliptical introspection ... [of] a Jamesian
character's speech, the intellectual precision of a Conradian
description, and the amazing coincidences that mark any one of Hardy's
plots".
The best-known of Innes's detective creations is Sir John Appleby
, who is introduced in Death at the President's Lodging, in which he is a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard
. Appleby features in many of the later novels and short stories, in the course of which he rises to become Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Other novels feature portrait painter and Royal Academician, Charles Honeybath, an amateur but nonetheless effective sleuth. The two detectives meet in Appleby and Honeybath. Some of the later stories feature Appleby's son Bobby as sleuth.
In 2007, his family transferred all the Innes copyrights and other legal rights to Owatonna Media. Owatonna Media on-sold these copyrights to Coolabi Plc in 2009, but retained a master licence in radio and audio rights. These rights are commercially licensed in the UK and abroad.
Fiction
Short Story Collections
Memoir
. Exceptions are marked †:
Novels
Short Story Collections
Christmas at Candleshoe was the basis for the 1977 film Candleshoe
starring Jodie Foster
, Helen Hayes
and David Niven
.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
novelist and academic. He is equally well-known for the works of literary criticism
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
and contemporary novels published under his real name and for the crime fiction published under the pseudonym of Michael Innes. Many devotees of the Innes books were unaware of his other "identity", and vice versa.
Biography
Stewart was born in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, the son of Elizabeth Jane (née Clark) and John Stewart of Nairn. His father was a lawyer and Director of Education in the city of Edinburgh. Stewart attended Edinburgh Academy
Edinburgh Academy
The Edinburgh Academy is an independent school which was opened in 1824. The original building, in Henderson Row on the northern fringe of the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, is now part of the Senior School...
, where Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
had been a pupil for a short time, and later studied English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
at Oriel College, Oxford. In 1929 he went to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to study psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
. He was lecturer in English at the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
from 1930 to 1935, and then became Jury Professor of English in the University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
.
He returned to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
to become Lecturer in English at the Queen's University of Belfast
Queen's University of Belfast
Queen's University Belfast is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The university's official title, per its charter, is the Queen's University of Belfast. It is often referred to simply as Queen's, or by the abbreviation QUB...
from 1946 to 1948. In 1949 he became a Student (equivalent of Fellow in other Oxford colleges) of Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
. By the time of his retirement in 1973, he was a professor of the university. He died at Coulsdon
Coulsdon
Coulsdon is a town on the southernmost boundary of the London Borough of Croydon. It is surrounded by the Metropolitan Green Belt of the Farthing Down, Coulsdon Common and Kenley Common...
.
Stewart wrote several critical studies, including full-length studies of James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
, Thomas Love Peacock
Thomas Love Peacock
Thomas Love Peacock was an English satirist and author.Peacock was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work...
and Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
, as well as many novels and short stories. His last publication was his autobiography Myself and Michael Innes (1987).
Michael Innes
Between 1936 and 1986, Stewart, writing under the pseudonym of Michael Innes, published nearly fifty crime novels and short story collections, which he later described as "entertainments". These abound in literary allusions and in what critics have variously described as "mischievous wit", "exuberant fancy" and a "tongue-in-cheek propensity" for intriguing turns of phrase. Julian SymonsJulian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
identified Innes as one of the "farceurs"—crime writers for whom the detective story was "an over-civilized joke with a frivolity which makes it a literary conversation piece with detection taking place on the side"—and described Innes's writing as being "rather in the manner of Peacock strained through or distorted by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
". His mysteries have also been described as combining "the elliptical introspection ... [of] a Jamesian
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
character's speech, the intellectual precision of a Conradian
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
description, and the amazing coincidences that mark any one of Hardy's
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
plots".
The best-known of Innes's detective creations is Sir John Appleby
Sir John Appleby
Sir John Appleby is a fictional detective created by Michael Innes in the 1930s who appeared in many novels and short stories.Appleby had perhaps the longest career of any of the great detectives. He was born in 1907 or 1908...
, who is introduced in Death at the President's Lodging, in which he is a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
. Appleby features in many of the later novels and short stories, in the course of which he rises to become Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Other novels feature portrait painter and Royal Academician, Charles Honeybath, an amateur but nonetheless effective sleuth. The two detectives meet in Appleby and Honeybath. Some of the later stories feature Appleby's son Bobby as sleuth.
In 2007, his family transferred all the Innes copyrights and other legal rights to Owatonna Media. Owatonna Media on-sold these copyrights to Coolabi Plc in 2009, but retained a master licence in radio and audio rights. These rights are commercially licensed in the UK and abroad.
J. I. M. Stewart
Non-fiction- Educating the Emotions (1944)
- Character and Motive in Shakespeare (1949)
- James Joyce (1957)
- Eight Modern Writers (1963)
- Thomas Love Peacock (1963)
- Rudyard Kipling (1966)
- Joseph Conrad (1968)
- Shakespeare's Lofty Scene (1971)
- Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography (1971)
Fiction
- Mark Lambert's Supper (1954)
- The Guardians (1955)
- A Use of Riches (1957)
- The Man Who Won the Pools (1961)
- The Last Tresilians (1963)
- An Acre of Grass (1965)
- The Aylwins (1966)
- Vanderlyn's Kingdom (1967)
- Avery's Mission (1971)
- A Palace of Art (1972)
- Mungo's Dream (1973)
- A Staircase in SurreyA Staircase in SurreyA Staircase in Surrey is a sequence of five novels byScottish novelist and academic J. I. M. Stewart , and published between 1974 and 1978. The title refers to student accommodation in an imaginary Oxford college...
quintet:- The Gaudy (1974)
- Young Patullo (1975)
- Memorial Service (1976)
- The Madonna of the Astrolabe (1977)
- Full Term (1978)
- Andrew and Tobias (1980)
- A Villa in France (1982)
- An Open Prison (1984)
- The Naylors (1985)
Short Story Collections
- The Man Who Wrote Detective Stories (1959)
- Cucumber Sandwiches (1969)
- Our England Is a Garden (1979)
- The Bridge at Arta (1981)
- My Aunt Christina (1983)
- Parlour Four (1984)
Memoir
- Myself and Michael Innes: A Memoir (1987)
As Michael Innes
Most of these works feature John ApplebySir John Appleby
Sir John Appleby is a fictional detective created by Michael Innes in the 1930s who appeared in many novels and short stories.Appleby had perhaps the longest career of any of the great detectives. He was born in 1907 or 1908...
. Exceptions are marked †:
Novels
- Death at the President's Lodging (1936) (also known as Seven Suspects)
- Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
- Lament for a Maker (1938)
- Stop Press (1939) (also known as The Spider Strikes)
- The Secret Vanguard (1940)
- There Came Both Mist and Snow (1940) (also known as A Comedy of Terrors)
- Appleby on Ararat (1941)
- The Daffodil Affair (1942)
- The Weight of the Evidence (1943)
- Appleby's End (1945)
- †What Happened at Hazelwood (1946)
- †From London Far (1946) (also known as The Unsuspected Chasm)
- A Night of Errors (1947)
- †The Journeying Boy (1949)
- Operation Pax (1951) (also known as The Paper Thunderbolt)
- A Private View (1952) (also known as One-Man Show and Murder Is an Art)
- †Christmas at Candleshoe (1953) (also known as Candleshoe)
- †The Man from the Sea (1955) (also known as Death by Moonlight)
- †Old Hall, New Hall (1956) (also known as A Question of Queens)
- Appleby Plays Chicken (1957) (also known as Death on a Quiet Day)
- The Long Farewell (1958)
- Hare Sitting Up (1959)
- †The New Sonia Wayward (1960) (also known as The Case of Sonia Wayward)
- Silence Observed (1961)
- A Connoisseur's Case (1962) (also known as The Crabtree Affair)
- †Money from Holme (1964)
- Appleby Intervenes (omnibus volume, 1965)
- The Bloody Wood (1966)
- †A Change of Heir (1966)
- Appleby at Allington (1968) (also known as Death by Water)
- A Family Affair (1969) (also known as Picture of Guilt)
- Death at the Chase (1970)
- An Awkward Lie (1971), ISBN 0-396-06345-4
- The Open House (1972), ISBN 0-396-06524-4
- Appleby's Answer (1973), ISBN 0-396-06744-1
- Appleby's Other Story (1974), ISBN 0-396-06715-8
- †The Mysterious Commission (1974), ISBN 0-396-07134-1
- The Gay Phoenix (1976), ISBN 0-396-07442-1
- †Honeybath's Haven (1977), ISBN 0-396-07555-X
- The Ampersand Papers (1978), ISBN 0-396-07663-7
- †Going It Alone (1980), ISBN 0-396-07819-2
- †Lord Mullion's Secret (1981), ISBN 0-396-08005-7
- Sheiks and Adders (1982), ISBN 0-396-08063-4
- Appleby and Honeybath (1983), ISBN 0-396-08247-5
- Carson's Conspiracy (1984), ISBN 0-396-08395-1
- Appleby and the Ospreys (1986), ISBN 0-396-08950-X
Short Story Collections
- Appleby Talking (1954) (also known as Dead Man's Shoes)
- Appleby Talks Again (1956)
- The Appleby File (1975), ISBN 0-396-07279-8
- Appleby Talks About Crime (2010), ISBN 978-1932009910
Christmas at Candleshoe was the basis for the 1977 film Candleshoe
Candleshoe
Candleshoe is a 1977 Walt Disney Productions live action family film and heist film based on the Michael Innes novel Christmas at Candleshoe and starring Jodie Foster, Helen Hayes in her last big screen appearance, David Niven and Leo McKern.-Plot:...
starring Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
, Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
and David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
.
External links
- Obituary, New York Times
- Appraisal of each of Innes's books