I lived from 1875-1956.
I was from England, and am in the English category.
Probabably most famous for the development of the verse form named after him [The Clerihew] Bentley was also the first modern detective story writer
Read full description by Jim Saville...
Edward Clerihew Bentley was born on July 10th, 1875 in London, England. As a youth he was educated at the prestigious St Paul's School in London. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was a fellow pupil.
As a way of taking his mind of school work he started writing short descriptive verses about people he knew or had read about. Chesterton took up the hobby too and the rhymes were often accompanied by his sketches.
Bentley began his working life as a newspaper journalist on a number of papers such as the Daily Telegraph. He was also a novelist and a humourist.
In 1805 Bentley and Chesterton jointly published a book of their verses and pictures entitled Biography for Beginners. This was well received and a number of people attempted to copy the style which they named Clerihews after the inventor. So popular were they that he brought out two more volumes. More Biography [1929] and Baseless Biographies [1939].
Bentley is also credited with the introduction of the modern detective novel following his publication of Trent's Last Case [1913] which is claimed as the inspiration for many writers of that genre such as his admirer Dorothy L Sayers. A sequel, Trent's Own Case was published in 1936.
Few writer's can be credited with starting a literary form and Bentley is probably the only person to be credited with two distinct firsts [Clerihews and detective novels]
Bentley died on 30th March, 1956.
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