C. S. Forester | |
|---|---|
 Forester in 1939 | |
| Born | Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (1899-08-27)27 August 1899 |
| Died | 2 April 1966(1966-04-02) (aged 66) Fullerton, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Alleyn's School,Dulwich College |
| Genre | Adventure, drama, sea stories |
| Spouse | |
| Children | John (1929-2020); George |
Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (27 August 1899 – 2 April 1966), best known by his pen nameC.S. Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-bookHoratio Hornblower series depicting aRoyal Navy officer during theNapoleonic Wars.
The Hornblower novelsA Ship of the Line andFlying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Other works includeThe African Queen andThe Good Shepherd, both of which were later adapted as movies.
DuringWorld War II, he moved to theUnited States where he worked for theBritish Ministry of Information, writing propaganda for theAllied cause. He eventually settled inFullerton, California, where he died in 1966 of complications arising from a stroke.
Forester was born inCairo on 27 August 1899, fifth and youngest child of George Foster Smith and his wife Sarah Troughton. His father was an English teacher in a local school set up to give upper-class Egyptian boys an English education. His parents separated when he was young, and his mother took him to London, where he was educated atAlleyn's School andDulwich College. He began to study medicine atGuy's Hospital, but left without completing his degree. He was somewhat athletic, wore glasses, and had a slender physique. He failed his Army physical and was told that there was no chance that he would be accepted. He began writing seriously, using his pen name, in around 1921.[1][2][3]
During theSecond World War, Forester moved toBerkeley, California, where he worked for theBritish Ministry of Information and wrote propaganda to encourage the U.S. to join theAllies.[1]
In 1942, he met the young British diplomatRoald Dahl inWashington, D.C., and encouraged him to write about his experiences in theRoyal Air Force.[4] According to Dahl's autobiography,Lucky Break, Forester asked him about his experiences as a fighter pilot, and this prompted Dahl to write his first story, "A Piece of Cake".[4]
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Forester wrote many novels, but he is best known for the 12-bookHoratio Hornblower series about an officer in the Royal Navy during theNapoleonic Wars.[5] He began the series with Hornblower a captain in the first novel,The Happy Return, which was published in 1937, but demand for more stories led him to fill in Hornblower's life story, and he wrote novels detailing his rise from the rank of midshipman. The last completed novel was published in 1962. Hornblower's fictional adventures were based on real events, but Forester wrote the body of the works carefully to avoid entanglements with real world history, so that Hornblower is always off on another mission when a great naval battle occurs during the Napoleonic Wars.
Forester's other novels includeThe African Queen (1935) andThe General (1936); two novels about thePeninsular War,Death to the French in 1932 later on (published in the United States asRifleman Dodd) andThe Gun (filmed asThe Pride and the Passion in 1957); and seafaring stories that do not involve Hornblower, such asBrown on Resolution (1929),The Captain from Connecticut (1941),The Ship (1943), andHunting the Bismarck (1959), which was used as the basis of the screenplay for the filmSink the Bismarck! (1960). Several of his novels have been filmed, includingThe African Queen (1951), directed byJohn Huston. Forester is also credited as story writer on several films not based on his published novels, includingCommandos Strike at Dawn (1942).
Forester also wrote several volumes of short stories set during theSecond World War. Those inThe Nightmare (1954) were based on events inNazi Germany, ending at theNuremberg trials. The linked stories inThe Man in the Yellow Raft (1969) follow the career of the destroyer USSBoon, while many of the stories inGold from Crete (1971) follow the destroyer HMSApache. The last of the stories inGold from Crete isIf Hitler Had Invaded England, which offers an imagined sequence of events starting withHitler's attempt to implementOperation Sea Lion and culminating in the early military defeat of Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941.
His non-fiction works about seafaring includeThe Age of Fighting Sail (1956), an account of the sea battles between Great Britain and the United States in theWar of 1812.
Forester also published the crime novelsPayment Deferred (1926) andPlain Murder (1930), as well as two children's books.Poo-Poo and the Dragons (1942) was created as a series of stories told to his son George to encourage him to finish his meals. George had mild food allergies and needed encouragement to eat.[6]The Barbary Pirates (1953) is a children's history of early 19th-century pirates.
Forester appeared as a contestant on the television quiz programmeYou Bet Your Life, hosted byGroucho Marx, in an episode broadcast on 1 November 1956.[7]
A previously unknown novel of Forester's,The Pursued, was discovered in 2003 and published byPenguin Classics on 3 November 2011.[8][9]
Forester married Kathleen Belcher in 1926. They had two sons, John, born in 1929, and George, born in 1933. Forrester moved to Berkeley, CA in 1940 to further his career inHollywood, commuting back and forth from Los Angeles. He had previously commuted back and forth from London since the production ofPayment Deferred in 1932, but felt exhausted from the culture in LA and felt he needed even the little distance Berkeley provided. He was stricken witharteriosclerosis while at sea on a research trip aboard theUSSTennessee (BB-43) in 1943 which would leave him crippled. Belcher and Forester divorced in 1945.[1][10][11]
Kathleen Belcher's great‑uncle was Capt.Edward Belcher, RN, who achieved renown as a hydrographer and explorer. After his retirement, Belcher devoted much of his time to writing. After penning biographical material, he turned his hand to naval fiction, inventing a character calledHoratio Howard Brenton, and attributing great feats and adventures to him. It is possible that Forester found some inspiration in these stories for his ownHoratio Hornblower.[citation needed]
In 1947 Forester married another childhood friend, Dorothy Foster, as Forester's fortunes prospered from the successful releases ofThe African Queen andCaptain Horatio Hornblower, the later which then Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret visited the set of, and Princess Margaret attended the London premiere.[12]Queen Elizabeth offered to honor Forester with aCommander of the British Empire in her 1953Coronation Honours, however he turned it down in the hope of a knighthood.[13][14]
Forester moved into his sonJohn Forester'sFullerton, California home in 1959, suffered a stroke in 1964 which affected his ability to continue writing, and died on 2 April 1966.[15]
John Forester wrote a two-volume biography of his father, including many elements of Forester's life which became clear to his son only after his father's death.[10]
In addition to providing the source material for numerous adaptations (not all of which are listed below), Forester was also credited as "adapted for the screen by" forCaptain Horatio Hornblower.
