Эрнест Брэма: Жизнь и творчество английского писателя

English author

Ernest Bramah (20 March 186827 June 1942), the pseudonym of Ernest Brammah Smith, was an English author. He published 21 books and numerous short stories and features. His humorous works were often ranked with Jerome K. Jerome and W. W. Jacobs, his detective stories with Conan Doyle, his politico science fiction with H. G. Wells, and his supernatural stories with Algernon Blackwood. George Orwell acknowledged that Bramah's book What Might Have Been influenced his Nineteen Eighty Four. Bramah created the characters Kai Lung and Max Carrados.

Ernest Brammah Smith (the spelling of his middle name on his birth certificate was recorded by the register as 'Brammah', not 'Bramah') was born in Manchester, England in 1868, the son of Charles Clement Smith and Susannah (Brammah) Smith. Aged 16, he quit Manchester Grammar School, having been near the bottom in each subject. He became a farmer, first as a pupil and then in his own right. He was assisted financially by his father, who had transformed in a short time from a factory hand to a wealthy man. The farming enterprise cost his father £100,000 in modern money, but it was while farming that Bramah began to contribute local vignettes to the Birmingham News. Later he wrote a satirical book about his adventures in farming. It had few buyers, and was remaindered and pulped, though his father agreed to assist him financially while he made his way in Grub Street as a writer. He eventually obtained a position as secretary to Jerome K. Jerome and became editor of one of Jerome's magazines. After quitting Jerome, Smith edited other journals for a publishing business that later went bankrupt.

Bramah has been credited with the invention of the saying, quoted often as an ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times", along with "May you come to the attention of those in authority" and "May you find what you are looking for". However, these do not appear in the Kai Lung stories.

Bramah's manuscripts, correspondence and additional materials including his work for Jerome K. Jerome and as staff member for the magazine Today, The Idler (1892–1911) and the Grosvenor Press are held at the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center. A letter of 27 April 1923 from Bramah to Grant Richards explains that he had never been to China.

Bramah was a very private man who did not make public any details of his personal life. He was married to Lucy Maisie Smith. He died at the age of 74 in Weston super Mare, Somerset, leaving an estate valued at £15,172 (£ as of ). After his death, his widow presented a collection of all his published books to the Hammersmith borough libraries, for reference use only. Bramah had lived in Hammersmith for some 30 years, not far from Ravenscourt Park.