HANSHEW, Thomas W. 1857-1914

(Dashing Charley, Old Cap Collier, H. O. Cooke, Old Cap Darrell, R. T. Emmett, Charlotte Mary Kingsley)

PERSONAL:

Born 1857, in the United States; died March 3, 1914, in London, England; married Mary E. Hanshew; children: Hazel.

CAREER:

Author of novels, short stories and plays. Acted for some years.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Young Mrs. Charnleigh, Carleton (New York, NY), 1883.

Leonie; or, The Sweet Street Singer of New York, Munro (New York, NY), 1884.

A Wedded Widow; or, The Love That Lived, Street and Smith (New York, NY), 1887.

Beautiful but Dangerous; or, The Heir of Shadowdene, Street and Smith (New York, NY), 1891.

The World's Finger, Irwin (New York, NY), 1901, published as The Horton Mystery, Ogilvie (New York, NY), 1903.

(Under name Charlotte Mary Kingsley) Arrol's Engagement, Ward Lock (London, England), 1903.

The Mallison Mystery, Ward Lock (London, England), 1903.

The Great Ruby, Ward Lock (London, England), 1905.

The Shadow of a Dead Man, Ward Lock (London, England), 1906.

Fate and the Man, Cassell (London, England), 1910.

Cleek of Scotland Yard, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1914.

SHORT STORIES

The Man of Forty Faces, Cassell (London, England), 1910, published in novel form as Cleek, The Man of Forty Faces, 1913, pubhished in short-story form as Cleek, The Master Detective, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1918.

OTHER

Author of plays The Forty-Niners; or, The Pioneer's Daughter, Oath Bound; or, Faithful unto Death, and Will-o'-the-Wisp; or, The Shot in the Dark, published by Ames (Clyde, OH). Contributor to periodicals, including Cassell's, Red, Star, Story-Teller, Windsor, Young Men of America, and Argosy. Some works published under pseudonyms Dashing Charley, Old Cap Collier, H. O. Cooke, Old Cap Darrell, and R. T. Emmett.

SIDELIGHTS:

American-born author Thomas W. Hanshew is best remembered for a series of detective novels featuring a central character named Hamilton Cleek, the man of forty faces. The majority of the "Cleek" novels appeared in the first decade of the twentieth century, after Hanshew had moved to London, England, with his wife and daughter. Hanshew got his start writing dime novels while he was still living in America. By the late 1870s, he was penning romance stories and selling them to the paper Young Men of America. Some of the pseudonyms Hanshew used during this period include Dashing Charley, Old Cap Collier, H. O. Cooke, Old Cap Darrell, and R. T. Emmett.

Although it has never been proved, some literary critics believe Hanshew was one of the authors of the Nick Carter stories. Despite this theory, Hanshew, who moved to England when he was forty-three, made his name in the literary world with the "Cleek" series. Published between 1910 and 1925, the series included more than fifty short stories. After Hanshew died in 1914, his wife and daughter used his notes to continue the series, and even retained his name as author—and later co-author with wife, Mary E. Hanshew. His daughter, Hazel Phillips Hanshew, authored the final two volumes in the "Cleek" series, which were published in the 1930s. According to a contributor to the Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction, the series "in many ways summarizes the forms of popular literature of the era just before World War I." Some literary critics have noted Hanshew's imaginative plots, which often included bizarre and impossible circumstances. "The reader who is unprepared or unable to suspend disbelief will never be able to read Thomas W. Hanshew with pleasure," wrote J. Randolph Cox in the St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers. This was particularly the case with the "Cleek" series. In fact, Cleek himself possessed bizarre qualities. Although he was born the true prince of a fictional kingdom called Mauravania, by the time Cleek is introduced to readers he has become an infamous thief known as the Vanishing Cracksman. Cleek uses his weird "birthgift" to transform his face into forty different variations, which he does to elude Scotland Yard's best detectives. "His features seemed to writhe and knot and assume in as many moments a dozen different aspects," the narrator explains in The Man of Forty Faces. Early in the series, Cleek falls in love with a character named Ailsa Lorne, and decides to use his gift for good, and he joins Scotland Yard as a detective. "I'm tired of wallowing in the mire," Cleek declares, adding, "A woman's eyes have lit the way to heaven for me. I want to climb up to her, to win her, to be worthy of her, and to stand beside her in the light." Despite turning his back on his former life of crime, Cleek never reveals his true identity, and is henceforth known as the "Man Who Calls Himself Hamilton Cleek."

Critics often remark on Hanshew's creative plots, in which Cleek often encounters bizarre situations involving such things as disappearing criminals and nine-fingered skeletons, all the while fighting off the demons of his criminal past. According to a contributor for Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction, books in the "Cleek" series, such as The World's Finger, brought together "elements of the crook story and the Balkan romance and combined them with tales featuring an infallible sleuth to produce some of the most extraordinary detective stories of the era." Despite such contemporary praise, Hanshew is little known to modern readers. Addressing the author's legacy in Crime and Mystery Writers, Cox concluded: "Hanshew's significance may lie in the influence he had on some later writers … who also had an interest in ingenious situations and intricate plots."