Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) was an English writer. An author of numerous skills, he remains well known for his humorous works, his detective stories, including the creation of the blind sleuth Max Carrados, and a famous dystopian work, “What might have been”, republished later as “The secret of the league” which is claimed to have influenced George Orwell for 1984.
Born in the suburbs of Manchester, Bramah left Grammar school when he was sixteen. He decided to go into farming, and was financed by his father’s money. He started writing humorous works but his farming did not go too well. He became Jerome K. Jerome’s secretary, and launched into his writing career.
His first successful work was the creation of a Chinese character, an itinerant storyteller by the name of Kai Lung. The most famous of the series is “The wallet of Kai Lung”, published in 1900.
Bramah experimented too with science-fiction, or dystopia, or political fiction. He wrote “What might have been” in 1907, which he then republished in 1909 as The secret of the league. Sometimes considered the first 20th century dystopia novel, considered by others as an anti-socialist dystopia, The secret of the league is a unique book which had great influence over George Orwell.
Bramah also wrote numerous crime novels. In particular, in 1914 he created the character of the blind sleuth Max Carrados. Apparently, the Max Carrados stories (which were published in The Strand) were nearly as popular as those of Sherlock Holmes at the time.
©2014-Les Editions de Londres