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A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: David Pae

Author: David Pae (1828–1884)

Biography: David Pae was born in 1828 at Buchanty, Perthshire, the son of a master miller William Pae and grandson of Peter Pae, a tenant of Flemington Mill near Ayton in Berwickshire. After his father drowned six weeks after his birth, Pae was taken to Coldingham, Berwickshire, by his mother Janet (neé Paterson), where he spent his childhood. In 1848, he began his apprenticeship as a warehouseman to Thomas Grant, an evangelical bookseller and publisher on George Street, Edinburgh. In 1851 he contributed a drama to the Theatre, a short-lived dramatic periodical for which he also served as editor for a year. In Edinburgh he was a member of the Bristo Square Mutual Improvement Society, attached to the Baptist Church, and produced several pamphlets on evangelicalism and anti-Catholicism, some of which appeared under the nom-de-plumes ‘Civis’ and ‘Anael’. Between 1854 and 1884 at least fifty of his novels were serialised in newspapers throughout the British Isles. In 1859 he became editor of the Dunfermline Press and was a founding editor of the Dunfermline Saturday Post. On the back of his writing success, in 1863 he was hired by John Leng, proprietor of the People’s Journal and Dundee Advertiser, as an exclusive writer for the newspaper and in 1870, when Leng’s People’s Friend magazine became a weekly, Pae served as editor. In 1858 he married his second cousin Margaret Pae and they had two children, David Jnr and William, who both apprenticed as bank clerks. David Jnr grew up to become editor of the People’s Friend from 1900 to 1938 and a serial novelist like his father, and William was a talented organist and musician. Pae died in 1884 at his home, Craigmount, in Newport-on-Tay and was interred in the Western Cemetery, Dundee. (CL)

Author Tags:

References: Sutherland

Fiction Titles:

  1. Jessie Melville: or, The Double Sacrifice. An Edinburgh Tale.  1 vol.  Edinburgh: Thomas Grant, 1856.
  2. The Merchant's Daughter: or, Love and Mammon.  1 vol.  Edinburgh: Thomas Grant, 1857.
  3. Fraud and Friendship: or, The Orphan and the Foundling of the King's Printing-House. An Edinburgh Tale.  1 vol.  Edinburgh: Thomas Grant, 1857.
  4. The Cloud on the Home: or, A Wife's Devotion. A Temperance Tale.  1 vol.  London: William Tweedie, 1858.
  5. Very Hard Times: or, The Trials and Sorrows of the Linwood Family. A Tale of the Cotton Famine.  1 vol.  London: Henry Lea, 1865.