I blogged about the grandfather here a while back.
Charles the younger was born in 1871 in Derby. His father had had to make his own way in life after the financial ruin of Charles the elder post-Swinfen, and worked in the Coal Industry. Charles the younger (hereinafter referred to as Charles) who was aged 11 when his father died, similarly had to work in a telegraph office and educate himself and make his way in life without any support, but he became a playwright of note, not in Britain but in his adopted home of the United States where he emigrated in 1907.
He had met his wife Edith Mathison whilst they were actors in London in the early 1900s. They both had strong beliefs in a tough brand of Christianity, drama and hard work. So opposed were they to materialism that they once turned down a 270,000 dollar bequest from a friend and gave it to a school.
He was a Christian Socialist, one of the early Fabians and his plays were generally about the problem of living a truly Christian life in the modern world. This was the theme of Dostoyevsky's later works and it is interesting to ponder if Charles had read any of the Russian writer's works.
Like Dostoyevsky he opposed liberal humanism and especially all forms of the philosophy of 'supermanism' which he believed had led to The Great War and the terrible dictatorships that followed. Like the Russian novelist Charles was a visionary and spoke and wrote often in apocalyptic terms. A New York Times interview here from 1916 shows him giving forth in typical style.
His many plays, which were attacked by critics in the US and Europe, see this and this for example, but also drew plaudits in his adopted homeland of the United States, included:
- The Servant in the House (1908)
- The Winter Feast (1908)
- The Terrible Meek (1911)
- The Necessary Evil (1913)
- The Idol-Breaker (1914) Review in the New York Times
- The Rib of the Man (1916)
- The Army with Banners (1917)
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