E. W. Hornung

Ernest William Hornung (professionally known as E. W. Hornung; 1866-1921), was an English poet and writer. From a Hungarian background, Hornung was educated at Uppingham School; as a result of poor health he left the school in December 1883 to travel to Sydney, where he stayed for two years. He returned in early 1886 when his father was dying and bankrupt, and began writing professionally shortly afterwards. Hornung had his first work published in 1887-the short story "Stroke of Five" in Belgravia magazine. His first novel, A Bride from the Bush, was published in 1890, and Hornung used his Australian experiences as a backdrop to the story. He went on to use Australia as a setting or plot element in a further seven novels and two collections of short stories. In 1899 The Amateur Cracksman was published, a series of short stories that introduced A. J. Raffles, a gentleman thief in late-Victorian Britain. Hornung dedicated the book to his friend, the writer Arthur Conan Doyle: "To A. C. D. This form of flattery", and the narrative form is similar to Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, with Raffles and his partner Bunny Manders being the criminal counterparts to Holmes and Dr. Watson. Two further short story collections and a novel followed, as did a play, Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman, first shown at the Princess Theatre, New York in 1903. It is for the character of Raffles that Hornung is best remembered.

Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Sherlock Holmes: he is a 'gentleman thief, ' living at a very upscale address in London, playing cricket for the Gentlemen of England and supporting himself by carrying out ingenious burglaries. He is called the "Amateur Cracksman," and differentiates between himself and the "professors" professional criminals from the lower classes.