The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Phillpotts, Eden

PHILLPOTTS, fĭl'pŏts, Eden, English novelist: b. Mount Aboo, India, 4 Nov. 1862. After serving as clerk in a fire insurance office at Plymouth in 1880-90, he studied in London for the stage, but found “his ability did not justify perseverance.” His earlier works are of inferior value. Among his representative books are ‘Down Dartmoor Way’ (1895); ‘Lying Prophets’ (1897); ‘Children of the Mist’ (1898); ‘Sons of the Morning’ (1900); ‘The Good Red Earth’ (1901); ‘The Striking Hours’ (1901); ‘The River’ (1902); ‘My Devon Year’ (1903); ‘The Secret Woman’ (dramatized in 1912); ‘Knock at a Venture’ (1905); ‘The Portreeve’ (1906); ‘The Virgin in Judgment’ (1908); ‘The Three Brothers’ (1909); ‘Dance of the Months’ (1911); ‘The Forest on the Hill’ (1912); ‘The Iscariot’ (poem 1912); ‘Widcombe Fair’ (1913); ‘Curtain Raisers’ (1914); ‘Old Delabole’ (1915); ‘The Human Boy and the War’ (1916); ‘The Chronicles of Saint Tyd’ (1917); and ‘Storm in a Teacup’ (1919). Phillpotts is the recognized interpreter of Dartmoor folk and scenery, and received high praise from R. D. Blackmore (q.v.).