Aarón De Puy

W.W Jacobs

-Early life

Jacobs was born in 1863 in Wapping, a part of East London near the Thames. His father was a
wharf manager. As a child he was known to be rather shy, but he enjoyed traveling to visit his
relatives in East Anglia. After leaving private school at sixteen he became a postal bank clerk. He
then worked in the savings bank department from 1883-1899.

In 1885 he began to submit some of his writing to Blackfriars, The Idler, and Today. He was also
published in the Strand. His first collection was entitled Many Cargoes and came out in 1896; the
1897 novelette The Skipper’s Wooing and the short story collection Sea Urchins followed it. His
last collection, Night Watches, was published in 1914. Much of his writing was influenced by his
youth spent alongside the River and the characters he met there: stevedores, the derelict and
criminal, civil servants, and travelers returning from the British colonies. Other works tended to
the macabre and the exotic; he was a favorite of Henry James, G.K. Chesterton, and H.G. Wells.

-Early work

In 1879, Jacobs began work as a clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank. By 1885 he had his first short
story published, but success came slowly. Yet Arnold Bennett in 1898 was astonished to hear that
Jacobs had turned down £500 for six short stories. He was financially secure enough to be able to
leave the post office in 1899.

The first book he published, Many Cargoes (1896), was an immediate success, which allowed him
to publish The Skipper's Wooing the following year and, in 1898, Sea Urchins. Playwright John
Drinkwater placed Jacobs' work in the realist tradition of Charles Dickens; however, it is very
unlikely that the sailors in his stories can be found on board any ship; they are literary characters
whose adventures and misadventures nevertheless provide very exciting moments on land.

-Personal life

William Wymark Jacobs was born 8 September 1863 in Wapping, London, England. The eldest son
of William Gage Jacobs, and his first wife, Sophia Wymark, who would die when Jacob was very
young. Jacob's father was the manager of a South Devon wharf, and young Jacobs spent much
time with his brothers and sisters among the wharves observing the comings and goings of the
tramp steamers and their crews.

The Jacobs were a large family and poor; young W.W. as he came to be called by his friends, was
shy and quiet with a fair complexion. A respite now and then from the dreary dockside life were
holidays at a cottage near Sevenoaks, and visiting relatives in the countryside of rural East Anglia,
reflected in his Claybury stories published in Light Freights. (1901)

Jacobs attended a private school in London then went on to Birkbeck College. In 1879 he became a
clerk in the civil service, then the savings bank department from 1883 until 1899. A regular income
was a welcomed change from his childhood of financial hardship, but around 1885 he also started
submitting anonymous sketches to be published in Blackfriars. In the early nineties Jacobs had
some of his stories published in Jerome K. Jerome and Robert Barr's illustrated satirical magazines
The Idler and Today. The Strand magazine also accepted some of his works. His early stories were
tentative and naïve but they were enough to show he had promise upon further development in a
career as a writer. Henry James, G. K. Chesterton, and Christopher Morley commented favourably
on his work.

William Wymark Jacobs died at Hornsey Lane, Islington, London, on 1 September 1943.

-Important works

 Many Cargoes (1896)

 The Skipper's Wooing (1897)
 Sea Urchins (1898)
 A Master of Craft (1900)
 Light Freights (1901)
 At Sunwich Port (1902)
 The Lady of the Barge (1902)
 Odd Craft (1903)
 Dialstone Lane (1902)
 Captain's All (1905)
 Short Cruises (1907)
 Salthaven (1908)
 Sailor's Knots (1909)
 Ship's Company (1911)
 Night Watches (1914)
 The Castaways (1916)
 Deep Waters (1919)
 Sea Whispers (1926)