Papers of Richard Marsh

The collection consists of 2 photographs of Marsh and typescripts and manuscripts, many fragmentary, of articles; novels, including The interrupted kiss, Too strange not to be true, The Land of Tweedledum where the children rule, and The house with the open window (Book one of The Beetle); short stories and plays, including Sir Frank's engagement, The colonel's cane, Mr Justice Gray, and A corner in Bohemia.

Richard Benjamin Heldmann, who wrote under the name of Richard Marsh, was born in London around 1857. He showed a precocious literary talent and contributed to boys' magazines from the age of 12. As a young man he travelled widely and there were few parts of the world that he had not seen. After his marriage he lived with his wife Ada and their five children in various parts of Sussex including Worth, Brighton, Hove, Three Bridges and Haywards Heath. Richard Marsh was a keen lover of all kinds of recreation - motoring, cycling, football, cricket, golf, chess, bridge, billiards and many more.

As a professional writer Richard Marsh was prolific, producing more than 60 popular novels from 1895 onwards as well as short stories and several plays. Perhaps his best known work was The Beetle, a Mystery published in 1897. In 1913 his health began to fail and he was forced to dictate his books to a secretary. Eventually Richard Marsh died of heart failure on 9 August 1915 at his home in Haywards Heath at the age of 57.

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Gift of Miss Pearson, 1981

This description was written by Gil Skidmore

An item level list is available

RUL MS 2145 is a copy of an obituary of Richard Marsh taken from an unknown paper, 1915