Hulbert Footner
His grandfather, William Footner, was born in England and emigrated to Canada, and settled in Montreal and had a career in architecture; one of his surviving structures is Bonsecours Market, built in 1845.
Its subject was a canoe trip with a companion on the Hudson River, which began on the Fourth of July from the outskirts of New York City and ended at Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
While traveling he wrote a vaudeville sketch for two characters, his Long-lost Child, which he and a comedian from the closed show performed in, until his partner asked that he replace himself.
He returned to New York and nearly starved there, living on thirty cents a day, but fully occupied by a long list of classic literary books and plays, which substituted for a formal education.
He experienced bad weather at Baltimore that forced him to take the steamboat Westmoreland with a ticket to Solomons, Maryland, a stop, according to the boat's purser, that had not been made for seventeen years.
There was a portage by horses to the Hay River and another paddle of several hundred miles that ended at the Alexandra Falls, a 100-foot wall of water on August 29, 1911.
[12] His novel Jack Chanty, which is based on his canoe adventures in the great northwest, and published by Doubleday, Page & Co., where Christopher Morley was a fledgling editor assigned to the similarly inexperienced novelist, and a friendship was created that remained close until Footner's death.
[11][12] Smitten by New York's Broadway and his initial experiences as an actor, when a big moneyed-producer beckoned, he had a play ready, Shirley Kaye, which was produced at the Hudson Theater, and had a decent run during the season of 1916-17, despite unenthusiastic reviews.
His rewards from Shirley Kaye were used to buy and rebuild an ancient house seven miles upriver from the birthplace of his bride, Gladys March, two life-changing events for the enthusiastic canoeist who caught the eye of many beautiful women.
He wrote several more plays; one that starred Margaret Anglin, The Open Fire got close to Broadway, but died on its road tour due to a weak second act.
He acquired a circle of writer-friends abroad, most of whom visited his home, "Charles' Gift," and included authors Frank Swinnerton and H. M. Tomlinson, James Bone, London editor of the Manchester Guardian, David Bone, writer of sea tales and master of White Star liners, Max Beerbohm, who he met at Rapallo, Aldous Huxley, Frank Morley, an editor at Faber & Faber, and Arthur Wesley Wheen, a World War I mentally scarred British spy, who was a close friend, and lived a tottering existence on the rim of life with the stress of deep guilt, and was translator of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and The Road Back, which was published in 1929.
His most successful creation was the beautiful and brilliant Madame Rozika Storey and her plain assistant Bella Brickley, who explains the evolving solutions to her employer’s cases.
His Madame Storey mysteries fit the flapping 1920s like the long lizard gloves that graced her arms and did well supporting his traveling family's lifestyle.
Those that were reissued as books were: He also two-finger typed on his Corona typewriter during these productive years the following books of mystery, adventure and romance: The Fugitive Sleuth, 1918, Thieves Wit, 1918, The Substitute Millionaire, 1919, The Owl Taxi, 1921, Country Love, London, 1921, The Deaves Affair, 1922, Ramshackle House, 1922, Officer!, 1924, The Chase of the "Linda Belle," 1925, Cap’n Sue, 1928, Queen of Clubs, 1928, A Self-Made Thief, 1929, Anybody’s Pearls?, 1930, Trial By Water, 1931, Dead Man’s Hat, 1932 and The Ring of Eyes, 1933.
[12] His romantic novel Country Love has a unique history including the fact that it was never published in the United States as a book after it was serialized by Munsey’s Magazine, July to December 1920.
His original romantic tale is set on board Adams Floating Theater, which brought plays and vaudeville acts to the isolated villages of Chesapeake Bay including Solomons, Maryland during the decades following World War I.
His next nonfiction book is a semi autobiographical homage to the house he restored and of his neighbors in Calvert County, Maryland titled, Charles’ Gift with photographs by Paul Braun, New York, London, 1939.
He wrote a well-received biography of Joshua Barney after having become fascinated by an oral history of his battles in nearby St. Leonard's Creek in Calvert County during the War of 1812, as recited by his neighbor, Edward Sollers.
