Biographical Note

English journalist and editor Clement King Shorter was born in London, at Southwark, on July 19, 1857, to Richard and Elizabeth (Clemenson) Shorter.

From 1863 to 1871, Shorter attended school at Downham Market, Norfolk. After leaving school Shorter worked for four years for several different booksellers or publishers on Paternoster Row in London. In 1877 Shorter began working as a clerk in the exchequer and audit department at Somerset House.

Shorter began his career in journalism in 1888, writing a weekly column about books for The Star and working as a sub-editor for the Penny Illustrated Paper. In 1890 he resigned his clerical position at Somerset House and focused on journalism. In 1891 he was made editor of the Illustrated London News, where he also edited "Album" and "Pick-me-up." In addition to editing, Shorter founded three papers: Sketch (1893), The Sphere (1900), and The Tatler (1903).

Shorter was editor of The Sphere from 1900 until his death in 1926, each week contributing his controversial column “A Literary Letter.” Shorter described the content of The Sphere and later of The Tatler as “on less serious lines” and “on more frivolous lines.”

In the early 1900s, Shorter's main interest had become collecting manuscripts, books, and ephemera related to his favorite authors. Shorter was a particularly avid collector of material related to the Brontës. Shorter's collection and research eventually developed into several books on the Brontës.

Clement Shorter's published writing also included several volumes on Napoleon, two works on George Borrow, a volume of essays and addresses, and a fragment of his autobiography. C. K. S.: an autobiography was edited by J. M. Bulloch and published posthumously in 1927.

Shorter, the youngest of three sons, was a still a boy when his father died in Melbourne, Australia, where he had traveled in hopes of making a better living. Clement Shorter was married twice: first to Irish poet Dora Sigerson, whom he married in 1896 and who died in 1918; and in 1920 to Annie Doris Banfield of Penzance. Doris Shorter and their daughter, Doreen Clement Shorter, survived Clement Shorter, who died on November 19, 1926, at his home at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

Sources:

Caroline Zilboorg, "Shorter, Clement King (1857–1926)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36076 (accessed April 10, 2007).

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of a letter from Clement King Shorter to Dr. George Williamson. The letter makes references to "Gissing" and "George Whale."