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Howard Spring (1889–1965)

Author of My Son, My Son

42+ Works 842 Members 10 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

Works by Howard Spring

Associated Works

The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories (2007) — Contributor — 134 copies
The Queen's Book of the Red Cross (1939) — Contributor — 36 copies
Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights (2022) — Contributor — 30 copies
Rogues' Gallery: The Great Criminals of Modern Fiction (1945) — Contributor — 27 copies
Cornish Short Stories (1976) — Contributor — 21 copies
Haunted Cornwall (1973) — Contributor — 19 copies
The Word Lives On: A Treasury of Spiritual Fiction (1951) — Contributor — 4 copies

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Recently, a dear friend of mine passed away. His wife, knowing that we both shared many interests, said that I should come by the house and pick up some books. "My children will throw them away when I'm gone; they don't read."

Back at her house, while I was browsing my friend's shelves, she picked up a book from one of her own shelves and said, "This author writes as it should be! One gets lost in his books." It was the way she said it that stuck in my mind, and I decided later to buy "My Son, My Son" – not from her, as she would not sell it. I opened the first page the day the book arrived, just out of curiosity since I had no intention to read it then; I had plenty on my reading list already. A few minutes later, I was no longer standing, and two weeks later, I had finished it.

Since then, three additional books have found their way into my collection, and I'm confronted with a delightful dilemma: to succumb to the temptation of reading them right away or to resist and preserve them for later. So far, it seems highly likely that I will miserably fail the Stanford marshmallow experiment!
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Javi_er | Nov 4, 2023 |
I found this little gem at a library sale. A number of sweet tales of the author's growing up. Nice illustration. I enjoyed it as I read it, but the book doesn't stick with me.
 
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njcur | Dec 14, 2022 |
Hard Facts is about several characters and how their lives become involved with each other. The main character Theodore Chrystal is sent to be a curate to help a vicar in Manchester, England. He was the only character in the book I really didn't care for. He seemed ill- suited to his chosen profession, lacking compassion, judgmental, and selfish. He meets the Dunkersly family, who own a struggling printing company. Mr. Dunkersly has a good heart, hiring a young boy, Alec Dillworth, who is growing up in deplorable conditions with his sister Elsie, as a means to get them out of the slum and better their lives. Theodore Chrystal watches the birth of 'Hard Fact' paper the Mr. Dunkersly creates and ends up making the Dunkersly family immensely wealthy. Through the course of this, Theo believes he has fallen in love with Elsie Dillworth, not knowing the circumstances of her past, and once he does learn the facts-- cannot except Elsie. I thought it was a good book and enjoyed reading it, with good character development and about these people with intertwining lives through the passage of time.

Howard Spring was a popular author, with his first book being published in 1932, and his popularity increased until his death in the '60's. Many of his books later were made into movies or t.v. series. In his early career as a journalist for the Guardian, editor C. P. Scott ' apparently regarded Spring's reporting skills highly; he wrote of Spring that: "Nobody does a better 'descriptive' or a better condensation of a difficult address." ' Wikipedia cites " he combined a wide understanding of human character with technical skill as a novelist. His method of composition was painstaking and professional. Each morning he would shut himself in his room and write one thousand words, steadily building up to novels of around 150,000 words. He rarely made major alterations to his writings." I look forward to reading more by him.

I read this book for #Club1944 and twogalsandabook.com
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Stacy_Krout | 2 other reviews | Jan 3, 2019 |

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Works
42
Also by
8
Members
842
Popularity
#30,364
Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
10
ISBNs
83
Languages
6
Favorited
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