William John Locke
William John Locke (20 March 1863 – 15 May 1930) was a British novelist, dramatist and playwright, best known for his short stories.
Also recorded as William Locke · William J. Locke
William John Locke
Anonymous Unknown author · Frederic Taber Cooper (1912) Some English Story Tellers, Henry Holt Co., New York · Public domain
- Name
- William John Locke
- Born
- 20 March 1863
- Birthplace
- Cunningsbury St George, Christ Church, Demerara, British Guiana
- Died
- 15 May 1930
- Place of death
- Paris, France
- Occupation
- Novelist and playwright
- Spouse
- Aimee Maxwell Close (née Heath)
- Nationality
- United Kingdom · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Education
- St John's College
- Languages
- English
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for William John Locke. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q3568747 · wikipedia · William John Locke
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — William John Locke • Born — 20 March 1863 • Birthplace — Cunningsbury St George, Christ Church, Demerara, British Guiana • Died — 15 May 1930 • Place of death — Paris, France • Occupation — Novelist and playwright • Genre — Drama • Spouse — Aimee Maxwell Close (née Heath) • Relatives — John Locke – Father Sarah Elizabeth Locke (née Johns) – Mother Charlie Alfred Locke – Brother Anna Alexandra Hyde (née Locke) – Half-sister Henry Lytton Locke – Half-brother
Biography
Biography
He was born in Georgetown, Demerara, British Guyana on 20 March 1863, the eldest son of John Locke, Bank Manager of Barbados, and his first wife, Sarah Elizabeth Locke (née Johns). His parents were English. In 1865, a second son was born, Charles Alfred Locke in Berbice, British Guyana, who was eventually to become a doctor. In about 1867 the family moved to Trinidad and Tobago. Charles Locke died in 1904 aged 39. His half-sister, Anna Alexandra Hyde (née Locke), by his father's second marriage, died in 1898 in childbirth aged 25. At the age of three, Locke was sent to England for further education. He remained in England for nine years, before returning to Trinidad to attend prep school with his brother at Queen's Royal College. There, he won an exhibition to enter St John's College, Cambridge. He returned to England in 1881 to attend Cambridge University, where he graduated with honours in Mathematics in 1884, despite his dislike of that "utterly futile and inhuman subject". • Illustration — Simon the Jester (1910) After leaving Cambridge, Locke became a schoolmaster. He disliked teaching, but is known to have been a master at the Oxford Military College at Temple Cowley, in 1889 and 1890, and at Clifton College, Bristol in 1890; from 1891 to 1897 he was modern languages master at Trinity College, Glenalmond. In 1893 he published a school edition of Murat, an extract from the Celebrated Crimes (Les crimes célèbres) of Alexandre Dumas père. In 1890 he became seriously ill with tuberculosis, which affected him for the rest of his life. From 1897 to 1907 he was secretary of the Royal Institute of British Architects and lived in London. In 1894 he published his first novel, At the Gate of Samaria, but he did not achieve real success for another decade, with The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne (1905) and The Beloved Vagabond (1906). Chambers Biographical Dictionary wrote of his "long series of novels and plays which with their charmingly written sentimental themes had such a success during his life in both Britain and America.... His plays, some of which were dramatised versions of his novels, were all produced with success on the London Stage" (p. 836). On 19 May 1911, Locke married Aimee Maxwell Close (née Heath), the divorced wife of Percy Hamilton Close, in Chelsea in London. The wedding was attended by Alice Baines and James Douglas. Five times Locke's books made the list of best-selling novels in the United States for the year. His works have been made into 24 films, one being Ladies in Lavender, filmed in 2004 and starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Adapted to the screen by Charles Dance, it was based on Locke's 1916 short story of the same title that had been published in a collection entitled "Faraway Stories." Probably the most famous of Locke's books adapted to the screen was the 1918 production of Stella Maris starring Mary Pickford. In addition, four of his books were made into Broadway plays, two of which Locke wrote and were produced by Charles Frohman. In the early twentieth century Locke lived at Corner Hall, Hemel Hempstead in England. Locke died from cancer, aged 67, on 15 May 1930, in Paris, France.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
British Guiana.
Birth place
Paris.
Death place
Books
• At the Gate of Samaria (1894) • The Demagogue and Lady Phayre (1895) • Some Women and a Man; A Comedy of Contrasts (1896) • Derelicts (1897) • The White Dove (1900) • The Usurper (1901) • Where Love Is (1903) • The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne (1905) • The Beloved Vagabond (1906) • A Study in Shadows (1908) • Septimus (1909) No. 10 for 1909 in the U.S. • A Christmas Mystery – The Story of Three Wise Men (1910) • Viviette (1910) • Simon the Jester (1910) No. 6 for 1910 in the U.S. • The Glory of Clementina Wing The Glory of Clementina Wing (1911) • Idols (1911) • The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol (1912) • Stella Maris (1913) • The Fortunate Youth (1914) No. 5 for 1914 in the U.S. • The William J. Locke Calendar (1914) Compiled by Emma M. Pope • Jaffery (1915) No. 6 for 1915 in the U.S. • Faraway Stories (1916) (short story collection) • The Wonderful Year (1916) • The Red Planet (1917) No. 3 for 1917 in the U.S. • The Rough Road (1918) • The Mountebank (1920. Serialised in Nash's & Pall Mall magazine February 1920) • The House of Baltazar (1920) • The Apostle (1921) • The Tale of Triona (1922) • The Lengthened Shadow (1923) • Moordius & Co (1923) • The Golden Journey of Mr. Paradyne (1924) • The Coming of Amos (1924) • The Great Pandolfo (1925) • Perella (1926) • The Old Bridge (1926) • Stories Near and Far (1927) • The Kingdom of Theophilus (1927) • Joshua's Vision (1928) • Ancestor Jorico (1929) • The Town of Tombarel (1930) • The Shorn Lamb (1930)
Film adaptations
• The Morals of Marcus, directed by Edwin S. Porter and Hugh Ford (1915, based on the novel The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne) • The Glory of Clementina (1915 film), directed by Ashley Miller (1915, based on the novel The Glory of Clementina Wing) • Simon the Jester, directed by Edward José (1915, based on the novel Simon the Jester) • The Beloved Vagabond, directed by Edward José (1915, based on the novel The Beloved Vagabond) • The Fortunate Youth, directed by Joseph W. Smiley (1916, based on the novel The Fortunate Youth) • Idols, directed by Webster Cullison (1916, based on the novel Idols) • Jaffery (film), directed by George Irving (1916, based on the novel Jaffery) • Where Love Is (1917, based on the novel Where Love Is) • Derelicts, directed by Sidney Morgan (UK, 1917, based on the novel Derelicts) • Stella Maris, directed by Marshall Neilan (1918, based on the novel Stella Maris) • Viviette, directed by Walter Edwards (1918, based on the novel Viviette) • The Usurper, directed by Duncan McRae (1919, based on the novel The Usurper) • The White Dove, directed by Henry King (1920, based on the novel The White Dove) • The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol, directed by Frank Miller (UK, 1920, based on the book The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol) • The Song of the Soul, directed by John W. Noble (1920, based on the story "An Old-World Episode") • The Oath, directed by Raoul Walsh (1921, based on the novel Idols) • The Wonderful Year, directed by Kenelm Foss (UK, 1921, based on the novel The Wonderful Year) • Morals, directed by William Desmond Taylor (1921, based on the novel The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne) • The Glory of Clementina, directed by Émile Chautard (1922, based on the novel The Glory of Clementina Wing) • The Beloved Vagabond, directed by Fred LeRoy Granville (UK, 1923, based on the novel The Beloved Vagabond) • A Fool's Awakening, directed by Harold M. Shaw (1924, based on the novel The Tale of Triona) • The Side Show of Life, directed by Herbert Brenon (1924, based on the novel The Mountebank) • The Coming of Amos, directed by Paul Sloane (1925, based on the novel The Coming of Amos) • Simon the Jester, directed by George Melford (1925, based on the novel Simon the Jester) • Stella Maris, directed by Charles Brabin (1925, based on the novel Stella Maris) • Strangers in Love, directed by Lothar Mendes (1932, based on the novel The Shorn Lamb) • The Morals of Marcus, directed by Miles Mander (UK, 1935, based on the novel The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne) • The Beloved Vagabond, directed by Curtis Bernhardt (UK, 1936, based on the novel The Beloved Vagabond) • Stella Maris (1953 film), directed by Homero Cárpena (Argentina, 1953, based on the novel Stella Maris) • Ladies in Lavender, directed by Charles Dance (UK, 2004, based on the story "Ladies in Lavender")
William John Locke
Some English story tellers
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q3568747: William John Locke
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “William John Locke”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article William John Locke, revision 1371891954 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Locke, William John.
- 2.Locke, William John KU Libraries Digital Collections. digital.lib.ku.edu.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q3568747: William John LockeWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Died at
1- ParisPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- William James SidisAuthor
- William Jay SmithAuthor
- William Jennings BryanAuthor
- William John CourthopeAuthor
- William Johnson CoryAuthor
- William JonesAuthor
- William K. HowardAuthor
- William KennedyAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by William John Locke?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.