C.S. Forester was one of the best writers of his time. He stood out and was better than many others. His works about naval warfare are especially well-known. His most famous character, “Horatio Hornblower,” a Royal Navy officer from the time of Napoleon, continues to inspire writers today and has become one of the most famous fictional characters in history. Aside from the 12 books in the Horatio Hornblower series, he has also written books like “A Ship of the Line” and “Flying Colours.” These are just a few of the 35 novels, 2 plays, 3 children’s books, and 5 biographies he has written. After spending part of his childhood in Cairo, Egypt, he moved to London with his mother and started writing short stories under a different name. Then, for a short time, he worked as a reporter for “The Times” in London. He didn’t become financially independent until he was 27 years old. At the start of World War II, he wrote propaganda to try to get the United States to join the Allied Forces. If you want to find out more interesting things about this person, keep scrolling.
Early years and childhood
Cecil Scott Forester was born in Cairo, Egypt, to English teacher George Foster Smith and Sarah Medhurst Troughton. He was the youngest of the couple’s five children.
The family broke up when Forester was 3 years old, and he went back to London with his mother to go to Alleyn’s School, Dulwich College, and Guy’s Hospital.
He began writing short stories when he was very young. Later, he tried to join the army. But he wasn’t given a spot because he was too small.
In 1921, he stopped going to medical school and began to write seriously under a pen name. In 1924, he wrote “A Pawn among Kings,” which was his first story. He also wrote, “The Paid Piper” and “Napoleon and His Court” in the same year.
C. S. Forester’s Career
In 1926, he wrote a crime novel called “Payment Deferred,” which was a big hit. He then started writing a series of books about the navy and the military.
In 1930, he wrote another crime novel called “Plain Murder.” The book “The Annie Marble in Germany” came out the same year. The next year, two well-known books came out: “Two-and-Twenty” and “U 97, a Play in 3 Acts.”
“The African Queen,” one of his most important works, came out in 1935. People think that this book is one of his best works. “The General” came out the following year.
The first of his Horatio Hornblower books, “The Happy Return,” came out in 1937. The next year, “A Ship of the Line,” the second book in the series, came out.
He wrote “Flying Colours,” which came out in 1938 and was another book in the “Hornblower” series. Over the next ten years, he wrote other books that had nothing to do with the “Hornblower” series. These were “The Captain of Connecticut,” “The Ship,” and “Hunting the Bismarck.”
In 1942, he tried writing a children’s book called “Poo-Poo and the Dragons,” which he only gave to his son to get him to eat.
The second of his two books for kids, “The Barbary Pirates,” was written in 1953. It is about pirates in the 19th century. He wrote a series of short stories about the war during World War II. The next year, “The Nightmare,” a famous book about Nazi Germany, came out. It was based on real events.
In 1956, he wrote “The Age of Fighting Sail,” which was about sea battles between the United States and Great Britain during the war of the 1800s. He was also a contestant on the American game show “You Bet Your Life” that same year, where he talked about the book.
Near the end of his life, he went back to finish the rest of the “Hornblower” books, such as “Hornblower and the Hotspur.” He had started writing “Hornblower and the Crisis,” but because of his sudden death, he was not able to finish it.
Works of note
The “Horatio Hornblower” books are C.S. Forester’s best work. It tells the story of a British naval officer during the Napoleonic era as he rises in rank and fights rivals. Even though “The Happy Return” was the first “Hornblower” story written by C.S. Forester, it was not the first story in the order of events. The first part starts with “Mr. Midshipman Hornblower” and ends with “C.S. Forester’s Hornblower One More Time.”
Critics loved the books, and collections of them were made, such as “Young Hornblower: Three Complete Novels” and “The Young Hornblower Omnibus.” There was also a series of dramas on TV from 1998 to 2003 that were based on these books.
Awards & Achievements
The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction was given to him for two of his “Hornblower” books, “A Ship of the Line” and “Flying Colours.”
Personal History and Legacies
He got married to Kathleen Belcher in 1926, and they had two sons together. In 1945, he broke up with her. Then, in 1946, he got married to Dorothy Ellen Foster.
He died in California, in the city of Fullerton. The reason for his death is still unknown.
Estimated Net worth
CS is one of the wealthiest authors and is on the list of the most popular authors. Based on what we’ve found on Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider, CS Forester’s net worth is about $1.5 million.
Trivia
This well-known English author wrote the “Horatio Hornblower” series, which made him famous all over the world and won him the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.