William Edward Cule (5 December 1870 – 13 July 1944) was a British author of children's books and several books for adults on Christian themes. In all, he wrote some thirty books encompassing a number of popular genres – public school stories, adventure yarns, fairy tales, novels and Christian allegories and fable. His best children's books show an imaginative faculty of a high order and are soundly crafted, befitting his profession as a magazine and book editor. Cule's most popular Christian works are The Man at the Gate of the World and Sir Knight of the Splendid Way, the latter recently reprinted by Lamplighter Publishing in the United States.
Life and works Cule was born in 1870 in the village of St Nicholas near the city of Cardiff in Wales, the eldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Cule. His family moved to Cardiff when his father was appointed as a Customs excise officer. In 1891 Cule was living with his family at 63 Glamorgan Street, Cardiff, and his father was a grocer.1891 Census Household Record The family were devout Baptists and Cule was a committed Christian from an early age, later becoming a Sunday school teacher.
Cule began writing in his teens, and one of his first literary successes was an eisteddfod prize for a poem, awarded by the Welsh preacher poet Evan Gurnos Jones.Cule: autobiographical notes. In 1890 he won an eisteddfod prize for his poem "Violets".Barry Dock News, 17 October 1890. Welsh Newspapers Online Other poems published in the newspaper Barry Dock News included "The Duett Endeth",Barry Dock News, 24 July 1891 Welsh Newspapers Online "Verge of Night: A Fragment",Barry Dock News 12 August 1892 Welsh Newspapers Online"Spring Visitors: A Ballad of Two Chestnuts"Barry Dock News 3 June 1892 Welsh Newspapers Online and "Learning to Skate: In Seven Chapters".Barry Dock News, 10 March 1893 Welsh Newspapers Online In 1892 he won a prize of a guinea for a poem "True Bravery" published in the Boys' Own Paper.B.O.P September 1892.
Cule gave this brief account of his early literary career: "I came to take to writing, I believe, because of my insatiable love of reading, and as a result, also, of my admiration for everybody who wrote books I liked. I was intended for commercial work, and made one or two attempts in that direction, writing all the while in my leisure time. My first efforts, at the age of sixteen or so, were made in the "Literary Olympic" of Young Folk's Paper. This was a page where young authors might exercise their energies and among my companions at that time, but far before me, were two whose names are better known now, Mr R. Murray Gilchrist and Mr A. J. Adcock. My first profitable venture was made in 1892, when Mr Edward Step (now literary adviser to F. Warne and Company) accepted one of my stories for a boy's magazine. In 1894 one of my stories went to Mr Andrew Melrose, manager of the Sunday School Union and it is through his kindness of suggestion and encouragement that most of my work has been done since. In 1895 I was able to devote myself entirely to writing, and in 1899 Mr Melrose published two volumes, Sir Constant and Child Voices; while Messrs W. and R. Chambers brought out a little fairy book, Mabel's Prince Wonderful.Barry Dock News, 30 November 1900 Welsh Newspapers Online
From 1889, Cule was active in the British Amateur Literary Association and in 1891 was elected vice-president. He launched a literary magazine and review for young people" called Opinion which was issued for five or six months "at a great loss!""Balaites who have Risen, No.1 Mr W.E. Cule. The British Amateur Literary Association, September 1902 In one of his editorials Cule argued for the introduction of schools of journalism such as exist in America to improve the standing of what "is now a despised and almost contemptible calling".Barry Dock News, 19 June 1891 Welsh Newspapers Online
After leaving school locally, Cule worked as a journalist in Cardiff and Porthcawl.Rosemary Auchmuty, Robert J. Kirkpatrick, Joy Wotton. The Encyclopaedia of Boys' School Stories, Volume 2, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000, p.92 His first public school stories were published in the Boy's Own Paper and in the Young England magazine. Collections of these stories were subsequently issued in book form, the first such collection being Barfield's Blazer. He married Blanche Williams in 1897. In 1901, Cule and his wife were living at 41 Romilly Road, Canton, Cardiff, with their daughters Mabel (2) and Dilys (5 months).1901 Census Household Record
In 1900, Cule was appointed editor of the Sunday School Teacher magazine, which was afterwards merged in the Sunday School Chronicle.
He received encouragement from Andrew Melrose the publisher for the Sunday School Union after submitting a story to him. Melville published Cule's first two books in 1899 – Child Voices, a collection of sketches and stories about children, and Sir Constant Knight of the Great King, an allegory of the Christian life. The same year, W.& R.Chambers published his fairyland book Mabel's Prince Wonderful, whose heroine was named after Cule's eldest daughter Mabel.
Chambers had earlier published a number of his adult short stories including "Lady Stalland's Diamonds", "The Anthropologist's Coat", "Old Mr. Jellicoe's Plan" and "Lord Cumberwell's Lesson".
In 1903 Cule moved to London to take up a position in the publishing department of the National Sunday School Union. He continued to write boys' stories while also contributing serials to The Child's Own Magazine which were later published in the "Red Nursery" series of children's books. The White Caravan, Two Little New Zealanders and Mr Crusoe's Island are examples of serials that later became popular books.
In 1906, Cule's youngest daughter Dilys died of a childhood illness. A touching account of how the family rallied to furnish a doll's house for her is given in Dilys in the Christmas Garden. Her death is also alluded to in a story from the fairy tale collection The Rose-Coloured Bus, which tells of a grieving woodcarver who makes a doll's house for his daughter.
In 1906 Cule was appointed on the recommendation of Andrew Melrose and Rev Carey Bonner to head the publishing activities of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS).Brian Stanley, History of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792–1992, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1992. Cule worked as an editor of missionary publications, including the monthly Missionary Herald and a children's magazine Wonderlands. He was instrumental in setting up the Carey Press as the BMS's commercial publishing arm.
In 1911 he was living at 12 Genesta Road Westcliff, Southend-on-Sea, with his wife Blanche and their daughters Mabel (aged 12) and Daisy Elizabeth (aged 9).1911 Census Household Record. His occupation is stated as Publishing Manager and Author.
Cule remained with the BMS for thirty years until his retirement, combining his professional editorial and publishing activities with his career as a popular writer.
Cule published five volumes of public school stories, which went through numerous reprints. All are good-humoured and entertaining stories with plots that often turn on the personal foibles of the characters, whether boys or schoolmasters. Cule is a moralist but a genial one: his stories uphold the public school values of honesty, generosity, sportsmanship and service to others. Typical of these is Barfield's Blazer, described by one reviewer as "... a volume to be greatly prized and thoroughly enjoyed, the entire series of stories affording delicious reading accompanied by rare hearty schoolboy fun. The stories have been well conceived and worked with remarkable skill and taste."Barry Dock News, 1 February 1901 Welsh Newspapers Online
Rollinson and I, the story of a public school boy accused of an offence he did not commit and sent to Coventry, is a full-length novel that explores the themes of personal integrity, moral courage and loyalty to friends. The White Knights is not a school story but tells of three boys who elect to live by the values of medieval chivalry. They realise this ideal through acts of service to others. The enemy the "knights" have to fight is the innate human tendency towards selfishness. As this story unfolds, we are made aware of the Great War being fought just across the English Channel. In the Secret Sea, originally published as a serial in the Boy's Own Paper, is a "tale of the desert island variety, better written than most"."Christmas Books for Boys and Girls', The Times, Wed. Dec.5, 1934, p.20.
Cule has a sure touch with fairy tale and fantasy. Mabel's Prince Wonderful tells of a little girl's visit to the land of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, where she becomes caught up in the story of Cinderella and Prince Charming.The Outlook: A Weekly Review of Politics, Art, Literature and Finance, Volume 4, p.284The Journal of Education, Volume 21, p.756 One reviewer commented: The wonderful adventures and encounters of "The Child Who Believes" are told in the most graphic and convincing manner, and the juvenile reader who remains incredulous of the existence of "The Old World" after reading the entrancing story of Mabel and her fairy prince, deserves to be passed over by Santa on his annual visit.Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 25 November 1899
His later work,The Other Side of Nod is the story of a boy transported by a white car into the fairy tale land of Nod. Neither story is an allegory but a careful reading of them reveals that for Cule (as with George Macdonald) the "storybook world" of the imagination is linked to the Christian concept of the Kingdom of Heaven. These must be counted among Cule's most appealing children's books and worthy of reprinting. Some of the original fairy tales in the Rose-Coloured Bus are equally fine although the collection as a whole is less inspired.
Child Voices is a collection of whimsical sketches of children which Cule in his Preface says are not intended for children's reading. "For the greater part . . . they are simple records of incidents observed and children's conversations overheard. In other cases, stories have been framed upon a fanciful child's views and opinions of various matters. The result is dedicated, in all humility, to those who know and love their children."
Two Little New Zealanders, The White Caravan, and The House of the Ogress are examples of Cule's children's fiction. They address children's emotional needs and their experiences when they do not receive love from adults. The stories unfold to their conclusions and feature settings such as Southern England or Edwardian London.
Less successful are the serials Cule wrote for Wonderlands (under the pseudonym of Edward Seaman) and later published as books. Both The Parliament Man and The Adventures of Peter Playne are spoilt by religious sentimentality and didacticism, as are the short stories The Special Messenger and Peter, Bingo and Those Others. Under Eastern Skies, a retelling of stories about Old Testament kings is a workmanlike but otherwise undistinguished book. The Bells of Moulton – a history of the BMS for young people – could have been a dull subject but is entertainingly told by combining history, fiction and travelogue.
Cule's novelette The Prince of Zell is a curiosity – a Ruritanian romance with a wildly improbable plot and a denouement that strains credulity to the limit. However, the short stories included as a makeweight reveal Cule's talent for social comedy in the manner of H. G. Wells. Another such story – "The Auburn Emperor" – appears in Six Roads to Bethlehem. No indication is given as to where the stories in this collection were first published – they apparently come from different stages in Cule's career and make an awkward and uneven collection.