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Timothy Shay Arthur

Timothy Shay (T.S.) Arthur was born on 6th June 1809, just outside Newburgh, New York, USA. He was a popular author, most famous for his temperance novel Ten Nights in Bar-Room and What I Saw There (1854), which helped demonise alcohol in the eyes of the American public.

By the time Arthur was eleven, his father had relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, where the young boy attended various local schools. He was initially apprenticed to become a tailor, but poor health and a lack of aptitude for physical labour led him to seek other employment, most notably as a wholesale merchandiser and later as an agent for an investment concern. From an early age though, Arthur was passionate about literature, and he devoted as much time as he could to reading and writing. By 1830, he had begun to appear in local literary magazines, and contributed several poems to a gift book called The Amethyst. For the rest of the decade, Arthur untiringly endeavoured to become a professional author and publisher, and succeeded, in 1838 in co-publishing The Baltimore Book. This was a gift book which included a poem by Arthur’s friend, Sir Edgar Allen Poe, entitled Siope. In 1840, Arthur embarked on his largest project to date; writing a series of newspaper articles on the Washington Temperance Society, a local organization formed by working-class artisans and mechanics to counter the life-ruining effects of drink. The articles were widely reprinted and helped fuel the establishment of Washingtonian groups across the country. Arthur’s newspaper sketches were collected in book form as Six Nights with the Washingtonians (1842). Six Nights went through many editions and helped establish Arthur in the public eye as an author associated with the temperance movement. During this period, Arthur also started writing for Godey’s Lady’s Book and he placed his first article in 1840, entitled Tired of Housekeeping. This article, which recounted the struggles of a middle-class family attempting to supervise recalcitrant cooks and servants was an immediate success, and prompted Arthur to move to Philadelphia in 1841, to be near the offices of America’s popular home magazines. He continued to write stories for Godey’s and other periodicals, and issued collected editions of his articles, as well as novel-length narratives almost yearly. Interested in publishing a magazine under his own name however, Arthur launched the monthly Arthur’s Home Magazine in 1852. Aided by the very capable Virginia Townsend, the magazine even survived until several years after Arthur’s death in 1885. It featured Arthur’s own tales, as well as articles and stories reprinted from other sources; a considerable coup came in 1854 when Arthur published, Charles Dickens’ Hard Times. 1854 was a particularly successful year for Arthur; it was also the year that he published Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. This novel recounts the tale of a small-town miller, who gave up his trade to open a bar. Over the course of several years, the physical and moral decline of the proprietor, his family and the town’s citizenry due to alcohol is traced. The story sold very well, but insinuated itself in the public consciousness largely on the basis of a very popular stage version which appeared soon after the book. The play remained in continuous production well into the twentieth century, when at least two film versions were made. Arthur died at his home in Philadelphia on 6th March 1885, at the age of seventy-five. His death was attributed to ‘kidney troubles.’