The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Phillpotts, Eden

PHILLPOTTS, fĭl'pŏts, Eden, English novelist: b. Mount Aboo, India, 4 Nov. 1862. After serving as clerk in a fire insurance office at Plymouth in 1880-90, he studied in London for the stage, but found &ldquo;his ability did not justify perseverance.&rdquo; His earlier works are of inferior value. Among his representative books are &lsquo;Down Dartmoor Way&rsquo; (1895); &lsquo;Lying Prophets&rsquo; (1897); &lsquo;Children of the Mist&rsquo; (1898); &lsquo;Sons of the Morning&rsquo; (1900); &lsquo;The Good Red Earth&rsquo; (1901); &lsquo;The Striking Hours&rsquo; (1901); &lsquo;The River&rsquo; (1902); &lsquo;My Devon Year&rsquo; (1903); &lsquo;The Secret Woman&rsquo; (dramatized in 1912); &lsquo;Knock at a Venture&rsquo; (1905); &lsquo;The Portreeve&rsquo; (1906); &lsquo;The Virgin in Judgment&rsquo; (1908); &lsquo;The Three Brothers&rsquo; (1909); &lsquo;Dance of the Months&rsquo; (1911); &lsquo;The Forest on the Hill&rsquo; (1912); &lsquo;The Iscariot&rsquo; (poem 1912); &lsquo;Widcombe Fair&rsquo; (1913); &lsquo;Curtain Raisers&rsquo; (1914); &lsquo;Old Delabole&rsquo; (1915); &lsquo;The Human Boy and the War&rsquo;

(1916); &lsquo;The Chronicles of Saint Tyd&rsquo; (1917); and &lsquo;Storm in a Teacup&rsquo; (1919). Phillpotts is the recognized interpreter of Dartmoor folk and scenery, and received high praise from R. D. Blackmore (q.v.).