Arthur Cecil Gask (10 July 1869 – 25 June 1951) was an English dentist and novelist. He is one of the earliest authors of Australian-based crime fiction.
Early life Gask was born on 10 July 1869 at St Marylebone, London, fourth of five children of Charles Gask, merchant, and his wife Fanny, née Edis.
Gask, accompanied by his second wife, their two sons, and by a daughter of his first marriage, emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia in 1920, where he set up practice as a dentist. He was among the first in the city to carry out extractions with gas.
Career He began writing crime fiction while waiting for his patients and in 1921 paid for the publication of his first novel, The Secret of the Sandhills, which was an immediate success, which he partly attributed to generous reviews by S. Talbot Smith.
Over a period of thirty years Gask wrote over thirty books as well as contributing short stories to The Mail in Adelaide. Most of his novels described the activities of a Sydney detective, Gilbert Larose, in solving crimes. Gask's work was translated into several European languages, serialised in newspapers and broadcast on radio. He also wrote short stories.
H. G. Wells, an admirer of Gask's work, corresponded with Gask. Wells regarded The Vengeance of Larose (1939) as Gask's "best piece of story-telling...It kept me up till half-past one."
Bertrand Russell, also an admiring reader, called to see Gask at Gask's home in Walkerville, an Adelaide suburb, when he was in Adelaide in August 1950. Gask was reported to have been delighted when, within a few hours after his arrival in Adelaide, Lord Russell called in and spent about an hour and a half with him. Russell confided that he was a reader of Mr. Gask's books in England, and said that now they were so near to each other he felt he really must make his acquaintance. Lord Russell was 78 at the time and Arthur Gask was 81.
Gask's sister, Lilian Gask, was also a writer.
When nearly 80, Gask was still turning out two 80,000-words novels a year, and was reported to have got out of bed to write 23 pages and complete his final novel, Crime After Crime.
Arthur Gask died on 25 June 1951, in an Adelaide private hospital.
Bibliography
Gilbert Larose series
Cloud the Smiter, 1926 The Dark Highway, 1928 The Lonely House, 1929 The Shadow of Larose, 1930 The House on the Island, 1931 Gentlemen of Crime, 1932 The Hidden Door, 1934 The Judgment of Larose, 1934 The Poisoned Goblet, 1935 The Hangman's Knot, 1936 The Master Spy, 1937 The Night of the Storm, 1937 The Grave-Digger of Monks Arden, 1938 The Fall of a Dictator, 1939 The Vengeance of Larose, 1939 The House on the Fens, 1940 The Tragedy of the Silver Moon, 1940 The Beachy Head Murder, 1941 His Prey Was Man, 1942 The Mystery of Fell Castle, 1944 The Man of Death, 1946 The Dark Mill Stream, 1947 The Unfolding Years, 1947 The House with the High Wall, 1948 The Storm Breaks, 1949 The Silent Dead, 1950 The Vaults of Blackarden Castle, 1950 Marauders by Night, 1951 Night and Fog, 1951 Crime Upon Crime, 1952 (Posthumous)
Other Novels
The Secret of the Sandhills, 1921 The Red Paste Murders (US Title: Murder in the Night), 1923 The Secret of the Garden, 1924 The Jest of Life, 1936
Short Stories
The Martyr on the Land, (1935) The Passion Years, (1936) The Destroyer, 1939 The Will, (1944) Buggy's Babies, (1944) Ghosts, (1944) Seedtime and Harvest, (1944) The Amazing Adventure of Marmaduke, (1944) The Lottery Ticket, (1944) The Mark of Honor, (1944) The Hatton Garden Crime, (1945) The Way of Chance, (1945) Black Market, (1945) The Bishop's Dilemma, (1948)
Notes
References
External links Works by Arthur Gask at Project Gutenberg Australia