Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/E. W. Hornung

E. W. Hornung

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/January 20, 2015 by Brianboulton (talk) 21:24, 31 December 2014 (UTC)



E. W. Hornung (1866–1921) was an English author and poet known for writing the A. J. Raffles series of stories about a gentleman thief in late 19th-century London. After school in the UK, Hornung spent two years in Australia before returning to London. His first known work was published in 1887; his Australian experiences strongly influenced his early writing. In 1898 he wrote "In the Chains of Crime", which introduced Raffles and his sidekick, Bunny Manders; the characters were based partly on his friends Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, and also on Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, the characters created by Hornung's brother-in-law, Arthur Conan Doyle. When Hornung's son was killed in the First World War it brought an end to Hornung's fictional output, and led to the writer joining the YMCA, initially in England, then in France, where he helped run a canteen and library. He subsequently published three collections of poetry and an account of his time in France. Hornung's fragile constitution was weakened by the stress of his war work, and he died on 22 March 1921, aged 54. Although much of Hornung's work has fallen into obscurity, his Raffles stories continue to be popular, and have inspired numerous film and television adaptations.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Francis Marrash, 25 August 2014
 * Main editors: SchroCat
 * Promoted: 8 March 2014
 * Reasons for nomination: Nothing special: he's a largely forgotten writer (with the exception of the Raffles stories) and it would be nice to see him in the public eye for a day.
 * Support as nominator. SchroCat (talk) 22:39, 17 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Support, of course. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:48, 27 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Support -- tweaked/trimmed blurb a bit; comes out at around 1,250 characters by my count. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 00:12, 28 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Looks better for the tweak, Ian: many thanks! - SchroCat (talk) 00:22, 28 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Support Looks good, nothing similar lately. Nice work!  Ruby  2010/  2013  18:30, 28 December 2014 (UTC)