(Samuel) Bracebridge Hemyng, popular English dime-novelist, was born in London in 1841, the eldest son of Dempster Hemyng of the English bar. Bracebridge was educated at Eton, then, following his father's footsteps, he entered the Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1862.
As a barrister, however, he was not a success. He had begun writing two years before, and contributed 'The Curate of Invinsk' to the Morning Star. This being moderately successful, induced him to continue writing, and he soon turned out novels at a great rate, so that in the next twenty-five years he had some fifty to his credit. He began to write for Edwin J. Brett in London in 1868, and on July 23, 1871, the first of his 'Jack Harkaway' stories appeared in the weekly Boys of England. It was reprinted in Frank Leslie's Boys' and Girls' Weekly (USA) in December of the same year. In 1873 Leslie engaged Hemyng to write exclusively for his papers. Hemyng went to America and remained with Leslie for a number of years.
When Hemyng was in America he purportedly lived in grand style on Staten Island. It is said that he had a mad wife, who would throw stones, books, dishes, or any other object that was handy at Hemyng and his guests. She died later, after having been found wandering half naked through the woods.
After some years Hemyng fell out with his publishers and returned to England. In the 1880's, in London, he married again and returned to the practice of law although he continued to write novels to some extent and published in such papers as Good News, Half Holiday, etc., in 1897-98.
He died in London, September 18, 1901, practically penniless.
