William Gordon Stables (21 May 1840 – 10 May 1910) was a Scottish medical doctor in the Royal Navy and a prolific author of adventure fiction, primarily for boys.
William Gordon Stables | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 21 May 1840 Aberchirder, Banffshire, Scotland |
| Died | 10 May 1910 (aged 69) Twyford, Berkshire, England |
| Occupation(s) | Doctor, writer |
| Spouse |
Theresa "Lizzie" McCormack
(m. 1874) |
| Children | 6 |
Life and career
editWilliam Gordon Stables was born in Aberchirder, in Banffshire (now part of Aberdeenshire) on 21 May 1840. He attended a school at Marnock and Aberdeen Grammar School. After studying medicine at the University of Aberdeen, he served as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. He came ashore in 1875, and settled in Twyford, Berkshire.[1]
Stables wrote over 130 books. The bulk of his large output is boys' adventure fiction, often with a nautical or historical setting. He also wrote books on health, fitness and medical subjects, and the keeping of cats and dogs.[1]
For over 20 years Stables was the medical columnist for The Girl's Own Paper, writing under the peusdonym 'Medicus'.[2] He was also a contributor of copuous articles and stories to The Boy's Own Paper.[3]
Stables has been regarded as one of the most prominent of the English imitators of Jules Verne, especially in his novels of polar adventure, like The Cruise of the Snowbird (1882), Wild Adventures Round the Pole (1883), From Pole to Pole (1886), and "his most ambitious novel," The Cruise of the Crystal Boat (1891).[4]
Stables is also notable as the first person to order a "gentleman's caravan" from the Bristol Wagon & Carriage Works, in which he travelled the length of Great Britain in 1885 (the subject of his book The Gentleman Gypsy).[5]
Stables died at his home in Twyford on 10 May 1910 from tuberculosis.[1]
Personal life
editStables married Theresa "Lizzie" McCormack on 15 July 1874 and they had four sons and two daughters.[1]
Stables was a strong opponent of vivisection.[6]
Selected works by Gordon Stables
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- Medical Life in the Navy (1868)
- The Domestic Cat (1876)
- Cats: Their Points and Characteristics (1877)
- Wild Adventures in Wild Places (1881)
- Aileen Aroon (1884)
- On Special Service: A Tale of the Sea (1886)
- Exiles of Fortune: A Tale of a Far North Land (1890)
- Two Sailor Lads (1892)
- The Dog: From Puppyhood to Age (1893)
- Sable And White: The Autobiography of a Show Dog (1894)
- A Souvenir of the "Wanderer" Caravan (1895)
- To Greenland and the Pole (1895)
- For Life and Liberty (1896)
- Off to Klondyke (1898)
- 'Twixt School and College (1901)
- With Cutlass and Torch (1901)
- Every Inch a Sailor (1903)
- In the Great White Land: A Tale of the Antarctic Ocean (1903)
- Our Friend the Dog (1903)
- Westward with Columbus (1906)
- Young Peggy McQueen (1906)
- The Sauciest Boy in the Service: A Story of Pluck and Perseverance (1911)
References
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- ^ a b c d "Stables, William Gordon (1837–1910), children's writer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36229. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "The Girl's Own Paper Index". The Girl's Own Paper Index. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
- ^ "Dr Gordon Stables". Boys Own Paper. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ Robert Holdstock, ed., Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, London, Octopus Books, 1978; p. 21.
- ^ "William Gordon Stables". Foggieloan. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
- ^ Lansbury, Coral. (1985). The Old Brown Dog: Women, Workers, and Vivisection in Edwardian England. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 184. ISBN 9780299102500
