1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Conway, Hugh

CONWAY, HUGH, the nom-de-plume of Frederick John Fargus (1847–1885), English novelist, who was born at Bristol on the 26th of December 1847, the son of an auctioneer. He was intended for his father’s business, but at the age of thirteen joined the training-ship “Conway” in the Mersey. In deference to his father’s wishes, however, he gave up the idea of becoming a sailor, and returned to Bristol, where he was articled to a firm of accountants till on his father’s death in 1868 he took over the family business. While a clerk he had written the words for various songs, adopting the nom-de-plume Hugh Conway in memory of his days on the training-ship. Mr Arrowsmith, the Bristol printer and publisher, took an interest in his work, and Fargus’s first short story appeared in Arrowsmith’s Miscellany. In 1883 Fargus published through Arrowsmith his first long story, Called Back, of which over 350,000 copies were sold within four years. A dramatic version of this book was produced in London in 1884, and in this year Fargus published another story, Dark Days. Ordered to the Riviera for his health, he caught typhoid fever, and died at Monte Carlo on the 15th of May 1885. Several other books from his pen appeared posthumously, notably A Family Affair.