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Hyne, C J Cutcliffe

Entry updated 31 March 2025. Tagged: Author.

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(1866-1944) UK author who also wrote as by Aunt Ermyntrude (an advice to the lovelorn column), as by Weatherby Chesney, and apparently under other undisclosed pseudonyms. He began producing work of sf interest withBeneath Your Very Boots: Being a Few Striking Episodes from the Life of Anthony Merlwood Haltoun, Esq (1889), aLost-World tale set in caves under England, where a clementUnderground quasi-Utopia has been established by refugees from the world above, who defend themselves through advancedTechnology. His secondScientific Romance takes the shape of is aRobinsonade,The New Eden (1892), in the course of which aScientist secludes a young man and woman (seeAdam and Eve) on an isolatedArchipelago (see alsoIslands), embedding them in aThought Experiment where the precepts ofSocial Darwinism are tested to the full. InThe Recipe for Diamonds (1893) a manuscript by Ramon Llull (circa 1232-1315) may hold the secret of theTransmutation of metals.

In the mid 1890s, Hyne began to utilize his ample though occasionally Munchausean memories of travel in what would be his most popular work, theCaptain Kettle series, short story contributions initially appearing inPearson's Magazine and elsewhere; then in book form beginning withHonour of Thieves (1895Answers as "The Great Sea Swindle";1895; vtThe Little Red Captain: An Early Adventure of Captain Kettle1902), and later in theCinema. Kettle's adventures as a riverboat pilot in the Congo, as confabulated inFurther Adventures of Captain Kettle (coll of linked stories 1898Pearson's Magazine;1899), may have influenced JosephConrad'sHeart of Darkness (February-April 1899Blackwood's;1925), though they are in fact both frivolous and racist (seeImperialism;Race in SF); the suggestion that illustrator Stanley L Wood (1866-1928) caricatured Conrad in his many depictions of Kettle is plausible. Several later titles in the long sequence variously hint at or contain sf elements, includingCaptain Kettle on the Warpath (coll of linked stories1916);The Rev. Captain Kettle (coll of linked stories1925), which features the capture of a woman from the last Ice Age (seePrehistoric SF;Suspended Animation);President Kettle (1929), in which Kettle becomes the president of Mexico by force, thus ensuring the continued profitability of a mining company he is associated with;Mr Kettle, Third Mate (1931), set an imaginary South American country, andIvory Valley: An Adventure of Captain Kettle (1938). Sadly, Hyne's contempt for other races (seeRace in SF), countries,Religions and women, unattractive in the 1890s, has rendered more or less intolerable his interbellum work.

The Adventures of a Solicitor (coll of linked stories1898) as by Weatherby Chesney includes stories aboutInvisibility,Robots,Space Flight andRejuvenation, together with severalGothic and weird fantasies; The Adventures of an Engineer (coll of linked stories1898) as by Weatherby Chesney also contains tales of interest, including the description of at least one advancedWeapon; stories of the fantastic appear intermittently in his later collections, which includeAtoms of Empire (coll1904) – which reprints "London's Danger" (February 1896Pearson's Magazine) as "The Fire", a tale in whichLondon is destroyed by a combination of freezing hurricane and holocaust, and with it the British Empire –Red Herrings (coll1918) andWest Highland Spirits (coll1932), a series of Tall Tales [seeTheEncyclopedia of Fantasy underlinks below], several of which includeLost Worlds and fabulous beasts, and one of which isPrehistoric SF.

Hyne's best-known novel isThe Lost Continent (July-December 1899Pearson's; rev1900), set inAtlantis at the time of its destruction, caused as usual by a retributive flood (as usual, the sinfulness that arouses the elements is tinged withSex, which is to say female sexuality, in the form of an amoralShe-figure known as Queen Phorenice) (seeWomen in SF); the presence of inimical plesiosaurs (seeDinosaurs) and mammoths locates the tales chronologically as an example ofPrehistoric SF, and makes plausible the suggestion that Arthur ConanDoyle may have known the story when he wroteThe Lost World (1912). Hyne later turned toFuture War withEmpire of the World (May 1909-April 1910The London Magazine;1910; vtEmperor of the World: A Tale of an Anglo-American War1915), where a disintegratorRay is used in a typicalScientific Romance climax to enforce world peace; and to theWandering Jew theme withAbbs, His Story through Many Ages (1928The Sphere;1929). This diversity of ideas, noticeable in both his short stories and his novels, signals him as a writer who may have been unfairly forgotten, even though he was one of the most prolific and successful producers of early magazine sf. But the harshly unforgiving racism of much of his work, particularly evident in theCaptain Kettle sequence, seriously diminishes any pleasures he might otherwise provide. [JC/JE]

see also:Crime and Punishment.

Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne

born Bibury, Gloucestershire: 11 May 1866

died Craven, near Skipton, Yorkshire: 10 March 1944

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Captain Kettle

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