H. B. Marriott Watson

Who was H. B. Marriott Watson?

Henry Brereton Marriott Watson, known by his pen name H.B. Marriott Watson, was an Australian-born British novelist, journalist, playwright, and short-story writer. He worked for the St. James Gazette, was assistant editor of the Black and White and Pall Mall Gazette, and staff member on W.E. Henley's National Observer.

Marriott Watson was a popular author during his lifetime, best known for his swashbuckling, historical and romance fiction, and had over forty novels published between 1888 and 1919; these included seventeen short story collections and one collection of essays. He was a longtime resident of New Zealand, living there from 1872 to 1885, and often used his childhood home as the setting for many of his novels.

He and his common law wife, English poet Rosamund Marriott Watson, were well known in Britain's literary circles and were associated with many fellow writers of the period including J.M. Barrie, Stephen Crane, Thomas Hardy, Henry James and H.G. Wells among others. Their first and only son, Richard Marriott Watson, was also a noted poet and one of many sons of literary figures killed during the First World War.