35 Facts About Hulbert Footner

Hulbert Footner was a Canadian born American writer of primarily detective fiction.

Hulbert Footner was born William Hulbert Footner in Hamilton, Ontario on April 2,1879.

Hulbert Footner's mother lived in New York City and was visiting with her parents in Hamilton, Ontario.

Frances Christina Mills and Harold John Footner were his parents.

Hulbert Footner's family were loyalists who fled the United States between 1775 and 1815 and considered themselves British loyalists rather than either citizens of the United States or Canada throughout the 19th Century.

Hulbert Footner's grandfather, William Footner, was born in England and emigrated to Canada, and settled in Montreal and had a career in architecture; one of his surviving structures is Bonsecours Market, built in 1845.

Hulbert Footner attended grade school in Manhattan and beyond that was self-educated.

Hulbert Footner's complete reading program of classics of literature is laid out in his journal.

Hulbert Footner's first known published item is a poem titled Roundelay For March published in 1902.

Hulbert Footner wrote a four-act play, titled, The Saving of Zavia in 1904 that he later retitled, "The Younger Mrs Favor," He accepted a part in a play, Sherlock Holmes, which opened in Baltimore, when the lead actor made a commitment to produce his play.

Hulbert Footner's acting role took him to forty-one states and four Canadian provinces.

Hulbert Footner returned to New York and nearly starved there, living on thirty cents a day, but fully occupied by a long list of classic literary books and plays, which substituted for a formal education.

Hulbert Footner accepted a reporter job on the Calgary "Morning Albertan" in 1906, which was the year after Alberta became a province.

Hulbert Footner was saved by an assignment that sent him to Edmonton to report on the first meeting of the new province's legislature.

Hulbert Footner was appointed historian to a legislative expedition formed to explore the unexplored northern part of the province.

Hulbert Footner paid his expenses by syndicating the story to several Canadian newspapers.

Hulbert Footner returned to New York City and took and lost an office job; almost starved again but sold two western adventure stories to Century magazine, after which he departed New York in his canoe for Chesapeake Bay in 1910.

Hulbert Footner experienced bad weather at Baltimore that forced him to take the steamboat Westmoreland with a ticket to Solomons, Maryland, a stop, according to the boat's purser, that had not been made for seventeen years.

Hulbert Footner's story is a fictionalized version of his 1906,3,000-mile canoe trip made through Northern Alberta alone.

Hulbert Footner made a second journey to the Northwest Territory, and this time with a partner, Auville Eager who he trained in canoe handling during a journey to Florida and return.

Hulbert Footner's explorations opened with a series of rickety, railroad rides west through the Rockies, north by wagons into British Columbia to Yellowhead Lake where they launched a ribbed, folding canvas boat and headed north down the Fraser River, and as he admits, "thoroughly scared of the rapids ahead".

Hulbert Footner continued north to the Crooked River, then on to the Parsnip, the Finlay and their dangerous rapids; east again through a mountain gap, down the mighty rapids of Peace River to Hudson Hope; that was followed by a six hundred mile paddle on Peace River to Fort Vermilion.

Hulbert Footner wrote many short stories and novels based on his early adventurous canoe voyages, which were serialized in Cavalier, Western Story Magazine, Argosy, Munsey's and Mystery and then published as novels.

Hulbert Footner wrote several more plays; one that starred Margaret Anglin, The Open Fire got close to Broadway, but died on its road tour due to a weak second act.

Hulbert Footner turned an article into a sketch for vaudeville titled Love in a Lunch Wagon.

Hulbert Footner collected book royalties in London through the years as his popularity as a writer of detective-adventure stories seemed secure.

Hulbert Footner's friend Christopher Morley was a writer of books and poetry of a lighter vein.

Hulbert Footner's earnings fell victim to the Great Depression, which eventually had a grim effect on the family's yearlong stay in Europe, which was made possible by his royalties there and Europe's lower costs.

Hulbert Footner had a heart attack during the family's winter of 1933 on the Cote d'Azur and the New York stock market crisis occurred during the summer of 1933 at Venice, and so the winter and summer events clouded his future.

Hulbert Footner introduced a new detective, Amos Lee Mappin, whose crimes tend to occur in New York's cafe society.

Hulbert Footner's next nonfiction book is a semi autobiographical homage to the house he restored and of his neighbors in Calvert County, Maryland titled, Charles' Gift with photographs by Paul Braun, New York, London, 1939.

Hulbert Footner wrote a well-received biography of Joshua Barney after having become fascinated by an oral history of his battles in nearby St Leonard's Creek in Calvert County during the War of 1812, as recited by his neighbor, Edward Sollers.

Hulbert Footner titled it: Sailor of Fortune: The Life and Adventures of Commodore Barney, USN.

Marylanders agreed through many printings that the considerate, alert, thoughtful, and self-effacing observer from outside, William Hulbert Footner, caught the essence of Maryland in this book and the preceding books so exactly right.

Hulbert Footner died while proofreading Orchids for Murder on November 25,1944.