Small image of a man handing a book to a women across a counter.

At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: William Wilthew Fenn

Author: William Wilthew Fenn (1827–1906)

Biography: William Wilthew Fenn was born in 1827 in London, the son of prosperous tea-dealer William Hugh Fenn. He studied art and became a landscape painter but began to lose his sight. By the age of twenty five, he was completely blind. Thereafter, he turned to writing essays and stories for magazines which were collected in several volumes beginning with Half-Hours of Blind Man's Holiday (1878). In addition, he co-authored A Noble Name and a few other works with Bertha Buxton. In 1867, he married Elizabeth Susan Eleanor Bowles and the couple lived comfortably in London. He died in 1906.

References: Allibone; British Census (1881)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Half-Hours of Blind Man's Holiday: or, Summer and Winter Sketches in Black and White.  2 vol.  London: Sampson Low, 1878.
  2. After Sundown: or, The Palette and the Pen.  2 vol.  London: Sampson Low, 1880.
  3. A Noble Name: with other stories by W.W. Fenn.  3 vol.  London: F. V. White, 1883.
  4. Woven in Darkness: A Medley of Stories, Essays, and Dreamwork.  2 vol.  London: Kelly and Co., 1885.
  5. A Professional Secret, and Other Tales.  1 vol.  London: James Hogg, 1888.
  6. Twixt the Lights: or, Odd Tales for Odd Times.  2 vol.  London: H. J. Drane, 1893.