Gissing, George ___ 1857-1903 ___ British ___ writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Gissing was born in Wakefield, where his father was a chemist. Although apparently destined for a brilliant academic career, he failed to complete his education at Owens College, Manchester. This was because he became disastrously involved with a prostitute, for whom he stole money. He was caught and imprisoned for a month. After his release, he went to the US for a year where he undertook some literature and philosophy studies. On returning to England in 1878 he worked both as a tutor and a journalist while also writing and publishing novels such as 'Workers in the Dawn, 'The Unclassed' and 'Demos', which focused on the degrading effects of poverty. He was married twice, once to the prostitute and once to a servant girl, but neither marriage brought him happiness. In total, he wrote over 20 novels ('New Grub Street' and 'The Odd Women' being among the most well known), some of which, with a writer as the main character, were quite autobiographical. He also also wrote more than a hundred short stories, literary criticism, essays, and many letters. Commentators say there is an unrepentant gloom about much of his writing. He travelled abroad several times; and, on one journey to Italy, was accompanied by H G Wells. In the last decade of his life, Gissing became involved with Clara Collet, who helped take care of him and his two children, but who was then disappointed when Gissing fell in love with a Gabrielle Fleury, a French woman.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - An anguish of suffering

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1887-1902 ___ literary social travel self Italy France

WEB TEXT LINKS
a bit about
one very short quote
a couple of short quote

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
John Rylands Library, Manchester University

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
London and the Life of Literature in Late Victorian England - The Diary of George Gissing
 

May 2005, June 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.