Author: Alfred Snowdon Emmett
Author: Alfred Snowdon Emmett (1828–1903)
Biography: Alfred Snowdon Emmett was born in 1828 in Bristol, the son of Robert Emmett, the controller of customs in Bristol, and his wife Ann (née Sowden). His father died when Emmett was still a child. He was clerk for the Great Western Railway before entering banking. In 1871, he married Emily Mary Jacobs and the couple had two daughters (this may have been his second marriage). Around this time, he inherited a small fortune and retired to Exeter. There, he wrote his only novel, My Polished Corner (1878), which received harsh reviews. He then proceeded to go spectacularly bankrupt by taking out ruinous loans to purchase a number of Devonshire hotels compouned by "rash and hazardous speculations." His collapse in 1886, bordering on the criminal, ruined several of his investors. The family lived on his wife's small income thereafter. Emmett died on 17 April 1903 in Clifton.
References: British Census (1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901); Exeter Gazette (24 April 1903); Western Morning News (24 March 1886)
Fiction Titles:
- My Polished Corner: Her Pleasures and Trials. 3 vol. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1878.