(1857-1919)
Another writer whose later obscurity would have seemed inconceivable to readers in his heyday, Gould was one of the most popular authors in the early years of the 20th century. Many of his novels sold a half-million copies in hardcover alone. “In the way of sales,” wrote one journalist, “his topics surpass all others—and we have heard that a newspaper purchasing serial rights of one of his stories could promise itself an increased circulation of 100,000 a day, no matter what its politics or principles.” Gould wrote topics on travel, history, sports, and various types of fiction, but he would become best known as a writer of horse racing tales, short fiction and novels containing the tatty pageantry and colorful characters of the racetrack. In his time, Gould’s name was all but synonymous with the turf, and when, in “The Rocking Horse Winner,” D. H. Lawrence has a character invoke Gould’s name, no further explanation was deemed necessary for contemporary readers (although since that time no doubt countless students have scratched their heads over this passing reference in the much-anthologized story).
The Lincolnshire-born Gould immigrated to Australia as a young man and spent more than 10 years there, working as a reporter on daily papers in Brisbane and Sydney, and starting his topic-writing career, before returning to England. His first novel, The Double Event (1890), a racing tale of the Melbourne Cup, sold a very respectable 20,000 copies. Other early works reflected his Australian residence, including Stuck Up (1894), possibly the first fictional take on the life of Ned Kelly, the Aussie highwayman of legend. Gould went back to his homeland and continued to publish. By the end of the century he had hit it big with a series of thrillers and mysteries—each handwritten manuscript turned out, like a reporter’s copy, at white-hot speed—set in the horse racing world. Many of Gould’s works chronicled the adventures of a horse owner named Barry Bromley, his horse Suspense, and their continuing run-ins with the “nobblers” and cheats who try to keep them from winning. Gould appears never to have improved his prose style beyond the rudimentary readability of the daily newspaper, but his colorful, fast-moving stories, bought by the millions in the railway bookstalls throughout Britain, were clearly exactly what his many readers desired.
Works
- Beating the Favorite (1925);
- Chased by Fire: A Stable Mystery (1905);
- Dangerous Stable, A (1922);
- Dark Horse (1899);
- Dead Certainty, A (1900);
- Demon Twins, The (1922);
- Doctor’s Double, The (1896);
- Exploits of a Racecourse Detective, The (1927);
- Famous Match, The (1910);
- Fast as the Wind (1918);
- Jockey Jack (1930);
- Jockey’s Revenge, The (1909);
- Lad of Mettle, A (1897);
- Landed at Last (1899);
- Magpie Jacket: A Tale of the Turf (1896);
- Miner’s Cup, The (1935);
- Pace That Kills, The (1912);
- Racecourse Tragedy, A (1901);
- Racing Sinner, A (1900);
- Rajah’s Racer (1905);
- Raymond’s Ride (1903);
- Running It Off (1892);
- Seeing Him Through (1900);
- Silken Rein (1902);
- Stable Mystery and Other Stories, A (1921);
- Stolen Race, The (1909);
- Story of Black Bess, The (1910);
- Stuck Up (1894);
- Turf Conspiracy, A (1916);
- Warned Off (1901);
- Whip, The (1919);
- Who Did It? (1896)
