Payn, JAMES

Payn, JAMES, a prolific novelist, was born at Cheltenham in 1830, and educated at Eton, Woolwich Academy, and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1855 he published a volume of poems, in 1858 succeeded Leitch Ritchie as editor of Chambers's Journal, and in 1882 Leslie Stephen as editor of the Cornhill Magazine. Of his hundred novels may merely be named here Lost Sir Massingberd, A Woman's Vengeance, Carlyon's Year, Not Wooded but Won, By Proxy, Thicker than Water, The Talk of the Town, A Perfect Treasure, and The Heir of the Ages; The Disappearance of George Driffell and Another's Burden were published in 1897. Some critics preferred his shorter stories, essays, and criticisms to his novels, and thought his humour thin. There is much of interest in Some Private Views (1882), Some Literary Recollections (1884), Gleams of Memory, and Some Reflections (1894). He died 25th March 1898.