"Stella Benson was born on the 6th January 1892 in Easthope, Shropshire to parents who were landed gentry.Her early years involved frequent household moves which was difficult for the child as she suffered from ill-health. Some of her early education was spent at schools in Germany and Switzerland and by 10 she had developed a lifelong habit of keeping a diary.In the following years her parents separated, and she rarely saw her father. When she did, he encouraged to pause her writing until she had further experience and could better make sense of the world. When he died, she learned he had been an alcoholic.A winter spent in the West Indies provided material for her first novel ‘I Pose’ published the following year in 1915.During the War years she became involved in the women's suffrage movement and dedicated time outside of writing to support the troops and help the poor.In 1918 she decided to travel spending much time in California, where she also tutored at the University of California, and continued to write. In China she met her future husband and after marrying in London, journeyed with him to his various Custom postings through Nanning, Beihai, and Hong Kong and the Far East.The works continued to flow novels, short stories, travel essays all helped to build a deserved and burgeoning reputation.Although her works are now in the forgotten and neglected department her writing style, characters, and narratives more than capably demonstrate her obvious talents. Stella Benson died of pneumonia on the 7th December 1933, at Hạ Long in the Vietnamese province of Tonkin. She was 40."
"In this series we turn the pages of classic short stories to put together the literary building blocks of how a particular genre or theme began, how it built its foundations to become the well-loved and well-worn genre that it is today.Do authors have the same ideas at more or less the same time? Or can they sniff out an opportunity as to which way the tastes of an audience are moving. Success undoubtedly builds success and in literary terms we can more politely say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the surest way to reach a hungry readership is to build on the fortune and flair of your literary colleagues. We all fear the world will end badly. Even worse that we might be caught up in it. In this volume our authors summon up stories which illustrate and flavour our thinking and imaginings on just how a society would reach that precipice, how it would ultimately be.01 - Foundations of Fiction - Dystopian - An Introduction2 - A Dream of Armageddon by H G Wells3 - The Park of Kings by Alexander Kuprin4 - Into the Sun by Robert Duncan Milne5 - The Cloud-Men by Owen Oliver6 - The Republic of the Southern Cross by Valery Bryusov7 - The End of the World by Simon Newcomb8 - The World's Last Cataclysm by Robert Duncan Milne9 - Within An Ace of the End of the World by Robert Barr10 - Christmas Formula by Stella Benson11 - The Repairer of Reputations by Robert W Chambers"
