Bindloss, Harold

Harold Edward Bindloss, born in Liverpool in 1866, was an English author prolific in writing adventure novels. His extensive travels, including years at sea and in colonies like West Africa and Canada, deeply influenced his work. After a period abroad, he returned to England in 1896, having contracted malaria. He began his writing career in journalism, subsequently publishing non-fiction accounts of his travels before moving on to fiction. Bindloss's novels often featured settings in western Canada and West Africa, with critics noting the superiority of his Canadian-themed stories. His writing was characterized by authenticity, stemming from his diverse personal experiences as a sailor, dock worker, farmer, and planter. He married Mary Simpson Hossack in 1899, and they had no children. Bindloss died in 1945, leaving behind a substantial literary output, estimated by various sources to be between 60 and 89 books. The town of Bindloss, Alberta, was named in his honor. His works were popular, with some titles reprinted multiple times, appreciated for their engaging narratives and vivid descriptions of environments he knew well.

Harold Bindloss's literary output was deeply rooted in his personal life experiences. Before embarking on his writing career, he spent considerable time at sea and in various colonial territories, notably in West Africa and Canada. These adventures provided him with firsthand knowledge, which he skillfully wove into his narratives. He worked as a seaman, a dock worker, a farmer in Canada, and a planter, experiences that lent authenticity to his depictions of these environments. Upon returning to England in 1896, weakened by malaria contracted abroad, he transitioned into journalism and then novel writing. His initial non-fiction works, 'In the Niger Country' and 'A Wide Dominion,' documented his travels in West Africa and Canada, respectively. This foundation led to his prolific career in fiction, with a significant portion of his nearly one hundred novels set in these same regions, particularly the Canadian Northwest.

Bindloss's novels were widely read and appreciated during his time, with some of his works achieving multiple reprints on both sides of the Atlantic. Reviewers often highlighted his ability to tell a compelling story and, crucially, his talent for sketching environments he knew intimately. His Canadian-themed novels, in particular, were praised for their superior quality and vivid portrayal of the Canadian Northwest. Critics noted that Bindloss wrote from genuine experience, avoiding the detached perspective of a 'land-lubber.' His characters were described as relatable human beings, navigating exciting circumstances without becoming improbable. One assessment suggested Bindloss was a more skilled craftsman than many contemporary Canadian writers, attributing his authentic settings to his extensive time spent in the region and his keen observation.

“a book that has the double interest and excitement of a story and of a genuine record of travel and adventure mixed together judiciously.”

“A new book by Harold Bindloss is always welcome. He tells a story well indeed, but one likes his books best perhaps for the environment which he knows so well how to sketch. He has written charming stories of the Canadian Northwest and one remembers with pleasure his novels Prescott of Saskatchewan and Winston of the Prairie.”

“His descriptions are not those of the land-lubber who writes from a safe-point of vantage... He writes from a varied and wide experience of the charm the sea exerts over those, who once set forth upon its trackless waste.”

“It has become so that a new book by Bindloss is warmly greeted, for while it Is like greeting an old friend, in a way, there is certain to be new characters and new manner of bringing a quickening of the blood and a tendency to hold the breath. Bindloss, besides writing of the sort of men and women that most of the world knows earns blessings by not making then transcend the improbable either in thought or deed. More briefly, they are human beings with greater opportunity for excitement that falls to the lot of most.”

“Bindloss was probably a more capable craftsman than any native Canadian writer of the period”