View source for C. S. Forester

{{Short description|British novelist (1899–1966)}}
{{redirect|Cecil Forester}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = C.&nbsp;S. Forester
| image            = C. S. Forester in 1939.jpg
| caption          = Forester in 1939
| birth_name       = Cecil Louis Troughton Smith
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1899|8|27}}
| birth_place      = [[Cairo]], [[Khedivate of Egypt]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1966|4|2|1899|8|27}}
| death_place      = [[Fullerton, California]], U.S.
| occupation       = Novelist
| nationality      = British
| genre            = Adventure, drama, sea stories
| spouse           = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Kathleen Belcher|1926|1945|reason=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Dorothy Foster|1947}}
}}
| children         = [[John Forester (cyclist)|John]] (1929-2020); George
| education        = [[Alleyn's School]], [[Dulwich College]]
}}

'''Cecil Louis Troughton Smith''' (27 August 1899 – 2 April 1966), best known by his pen name '''C.S. ''(Cecil Scott)'' Forester''', was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-book [[Horatio Hornblower]] series depicting a [[Royal Navy]] officer during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. 

The Hornblower novels ''[[A Ship of the Line]]'' and ''[[Flying Colours (novel)|Flying Colours]]'' were jointly awarded the 1938 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction. Other works include ''[[The African Queen (novel)|The African Queen]]'' and ''[[The Good Shepherd (novel)|The Good Shepherd]]'', both of which were later adapted as movies. 

During [[World War II]], he moved to the [[United States]] where he worked for the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|British Ministry of Information]], writing propaganda for the [[Allies of World War II|Allied cause]]. He eventually settled in [[Fullerton, California]], where he died in 1966 of complications arising from a stroke.

==Early years==
[[File:C. S. FORESTER 1899-1966 Novelist lived here.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|[[English heritage]] [[blue plaque]] in [[East Dulwich]], south London]]
Forester was born in [[Cairo]] on 27 August 1899, fifth and youngest child of George Foster Smith and his wife Sarah Troughton. His father was an English teacher in a local school set up to give upper-class Egyptian boys an English education. His parents separated when he was young, and his mother took him to London, where he was educated at [[Alleyn's School]] and [[Dulwich College]]. He began to study medicine at [[Guy's Hospital]], but left without completing his degree. He was somewhat athletic, wore glasses, and had a slender physique. He failed his Army physical and was told that there was no chance that he would be accepted. He began writing seriously, using his pen name, in around 1921.<ref name=CSForester1e>{{cite book|last1=Forester|first1=John|title=Novelist & Storyteller: The Life of C.&nbsp;S. Forester|date=2000|publisher=John Forester|location=Lemon Grove, CA|isbn=978-0-940558-04-5|edition=first|type=2 volumes}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sternlicht |first1=Sanford |title=C.S. Forester and the Hornblower saga |date=1999 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |isbn=9780815606215 |edition=Rev. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0wfq6JUAkcIC |access-date=4 November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Book: Flying colours. |url=https://esploro.libs.uga.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma993828323902959&context=L&vid=01GALI_UGA:UGA&lang=en&search_scope=MyInstitution&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=LibraryCatalog&query=title,exact,Flying%20colours. |website=University of Georgia |access-date=4 November 2022}}</ref>

==Second World War==
During the [[World War II|Second World War]], Forester moved to [[Berkeley, California]], where he worked for the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|British Ministry of Information]] and wrote propaganda to encourage the U.S. to join the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]].<ref name=CSForester1e/>

In 1942, he met the young British diplomat [[Roald Dahl]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], and encouraged him to write about his experiences in the [[Royal Air Force]].<ref name=Dahl>Donald Sturrock, ''Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl'', Harper Collins 2010, p. 168.</ref> According to Dahl's autobiography,  ''Lucky Break'', Forester asked him about his experiences as a fighter pilot, and this prompted Dahl to write his first story, "A Piece of Cake".<ref name=Dahl />

==Literary career==
{{more citations needed section|date=July 2017}}
[[File:Famous fantastic mysteries 194802.jpg|thumb|Forester's 1934 science fiction novel ''The Peacemaker'' was reprinted in ''[[Famous Fantastic Mysteries]]'' in 1948.]]

Forester wrote many novels, but he is best known for the 12-book [[Horatio Hornblower]] series about an officer in the Royal Navy during the [[Napoleonic Wars]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historicnavalfiction.com/index.php/general-hnf-info/fleet-actions/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=247:the-hornblower-companion&catid=110&Itemid=205 |title=The Hornblower Companion |website=Historic Naval Fiction |access-date=2 July 2020 |archive-date=2 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702114410/https://www.historicnavalfiction.com/index.php/general-hnf-info/fleet-actions/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=247:the-hornblower-companion&catid=110&Itemid=205 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He began the series with Hornblower a captain in the first novel, ''[[The Happy Return]]'', which was published in 1937, but demand for more stories led him to fill in Hornblower's life story, and he wrote novels detailing his rise from the rank of midshipman. The last completed novel was published in 1962. Hornblower's fictional adventures were based on real events, but Forester wrote the body of the works carefully to avoid entanglements with real world history, so that Hornblower is always off on another mission when a great naval battle occurs during the Napoleonic Wars.

Forester's other novels include ''[[The African Queen (novel)|The African Queen]]'' (1935) and ''[[The General (C. S. Forester novel)|The General]]'' (1936); two novels about the [[Peninsular War]], ''[[Death to the French]]'' in 1932 later on (published in the United States as ''Rifleman Dodd'') and ''[[The Gun (novel)|The Gun]]'' (filmed as ''[[The Pride and the Passion]]'' in 1957); and seafaring stories that do not involve Hornblower, such as ''[[Brown on Resolution]]'' (1929), ''[[The Captain from Connecticut]]'' (1941), ''[[The Ship (novel)|The Ship]]'' (1943), and ''[[The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck|Hunting the Bismarck]]'' (1959), which was used as the basis of the screenplay for the film ''[[Sink the Bismarck!]]'' (1960). Several of his novels have been filmed, including ''[[The African Queen (film)|The African Queen]]'' (1951), directed by [[John Huston]]. Forester is also credited as story writer on several films not based on his published novels, including ''[[Commandos Strike at Dawn]]'' (1942).

Forester also wrote several volumes of short stories set during the [[Second World War]]. Those in ''The Nightmare'' (1954) were based on events in [[Nazi Germany]], ending at the [[Nuremberg trials]]. The linked stories in ''The Man in the Yellow Raft'' (1969) follow the career of the destroyer USS ''Boon'', while many of the stories in ''Gold from Crete'' (1971) follow the destroyer HMS ''Apache''. The last of the stories in ''Gold from Crete'' is ''If Hitler Had Invaded England'', which offers an imagined sequence of events starting with [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s attempt to implement [[Operation Sea Lion]] and culminating in the early military defeat of Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941.

His non-fiction works about seafaring include ''The Age of Fighting Sail'' (1956), an account of the sea battles between Great Britain and the United States in the [[War of 1812]].

Forester also published the crime novels ''[[Payment Deferred]]'' (1926) and ''Plain Murder'' (1930), as well as two children's books. ''Poo-Poo and the Dragons'' (1942) was created as a series of stories told to his son George to encourage him to finish his meals. George had mild food allergies and needed encouragement to eat.<ref>''Poo-Poo and the Dragons'': Preface</ref> ''The Barbary Pirates'' (1953) is a children's history of early 19th-century pirates.

Forester appeared as a contestant on the television quiz programme ''[[You Bet Your Life]]'', hosted by [[Groucho Marx]], in an episode broadcast on 1 November 1956.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neBitTTGr78&list=PLHaioNpr_GDbvsTj_taM-jO6C1658N1PC&index=41|title=You Bet Your Life #56-06 C.&nbsp;S. Forrester, author of Horatio Hornblower (''Name'', 1 November 1956)|date=26 July 2017|via=YouTube}}</ref>

A previously unknown novel of Forester's, ''The Pursued'', was discovered in 2003 and published by [[Penguin Classics]] on 3 November 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-15327043|title=Lost CS Forester book The Pursued to be published|date=16 October 2011|publisher=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Pursued|author= C.&nbsp;S. Forester |year= 2011 |publisher= Penguin |isbn=9780141198071}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Forester married Kathleen Belcher in 1926. They had two sons, John, born in 1929, and George, born in 1933. Forrester moved to Berkeley, CA in 1940 to further his career in [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]], commuting back and forth from Los Angeles. He had previously commuted back and forth from London since the production of ''[[Payment Deferred (film)|Payment Deferred]]'' in 1932, but felt exhausted from the culture in LA and felt he needed even the little distance Berkely provided. He was striken with [[arteriosclerosis]] while at sea on a research trip aboard the [[USS Tennessee (BB-43)|USS ''Tennessee'' (BB-43)]] in 1943 which would leave him crippled. Belcher and Forester divorced in 1945.<ref name=CSForester1e/><ref name=CSForester2e>{{cite book |last1=Forester |first1=John |title=Novelist & Storyteller: The Life of C.&nbsp;S. Forester |date=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9hyAgAAQBAJ |publisher=eNet Press |location=Lake Oswego, OR |edition=second |access-date=23 July 2014 |isbn=978-1-61886-004-0}}. [http://www.enetpress.com/johnforester/jf_book_STLoCSF_excerpt.html Publisher's excerpt]</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=van Gelder |first1=Robert |title=Author of "Captain Horatio Hornblower"; A Talk With C.S. Forester |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/02/23/archives/author-of-captain-horatio-hornblower-a-talk-with-cs-forester-who.html |work=New York Times |date=23 February 1941}}</ref>

Kathleen Belcher's great{{nbhyph}}uncle was Capt. [[Edward Belcher]], RN, who achieved renown as a hydrographer and explorer. After his retirement, Belcher devoted much of his time to writing. After penning biographical material, he turned his hand to naval fiction, inventing a character called ''Horatio Howard Brenton'', and attributing great feats and adventures to him. It is possible that Forester found some inspiration in these stories for his own ''Horatio Hornblower''.{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}}

In 1947 Forester married another childhood friend, Dorothy Foster, as Forester's fortunes prospered from the successful releases of ''[[The African Queen (film)|The African Queen]]'' and ''[[Captain Horatio Hornblower]]'', the later which then Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret visited the set of, and Princess Margaret attended the London premiere.<ref>{{cite web |title=Princess Margaret at World Premier |url=https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/84504/ |website=British Pathé |access-date=29 September 2025 |date=19 April 1951}}</ref> [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth]] offered to honor Forester with a [[Order of the British Empire|Commander of the British Empire]] in her 1953 [[Crown_Honours_Lists#Coronation_Honours|Coronation Honours]], however he turned it down in the hope of a knighthood.<ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Kyle |title=Famous people who have rejected honours from the Queen |url=https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/uk-world-news/famous-people-who-rejected-honours-7159910 |work=Cornwall Live |date=2 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=An Archive of Personal Papers Belonging to Cecil Troughton Smith |url=https://www.jonkers.co.uk/rare-book/3186/an-archive-of-personal-papers-belonging-to-cecil-troughton-smith-c-s-forester/c-s-forester |website=Jonkers Rare Books |access-date=29 September 2025}}</ref>

Forester moved into his son [[John Forester (cyclist)|John Forester]]'s [[Fullerton, California]] home in 1959, suffered a stroke in 1964 which affected his ability to continue writing, and died on 2 April 1966.<ref>{{cite news |title=C. S. Forester Dies; Hornblower Author; C.S. Forester, Author of Hornblomer Novels, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/04/03/archives/c-s-forester-dies-hornblower-author-cs-forester-author-of.html |work=New York Times |date=3 April 1966}}</ref>

John Forester wrote a two-volume biography of his father, including many elements of Forester's life which became clear to his son only after his father's death.<ref name=CSForester2e/>

==Bibliography==
===Horatio Hornblower===
# 1950 ''[[Mr. Midshipman Hornblower|Mr Midshipman Hornblower]]''. Michael Joseph.
# 1941 "The Hand of Destiny". ''[[Collier's]]''
# 1950 "[[Hornblower and the Widow McCool]]" ("Hornblower's Temptation" ""Hornblower and the Big Decision"). ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]''
# 1952 ''[[Lieutenant Hornblower]]''. Michael Joseph.
# 1962 ''[[Hornblower and the Hotspur]]''. Michael Joseph.
# 1967 ''[[Hornblower and the Crisis]], an unfinished novel''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''Hornblower During the Crisis'' (posthumous)
# 1953 ''[[Hornblower and the Atropos]]''. Michael Joseph.
# 1937 ''[[The Happy Return]]''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''Beat to Quarters''
# 1938 ''[[A Ship of the Line]]''. Michael Joseph.
# 1941 ''"Hornblower's Charitable Offering"''. [[Argosy (magazine)|''Argosy'']]
# 1938  ''[[Flying Colours (novel)|Flying Colours]]''. Michael Joseph.
# 1941 "Hornblower and His Majesty". ''[[Collier's]]''
# 1945 ''[[The Commodore]]''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''Commodore Hornblower''
# 1946 ''[[Lord Hornblower]]''. Michael Joseph.
# 1958 ''[[Hornblower in the West Indies]]''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies''
# 1967 "[[The Last Encounter]]". Sunday Mirror, 8 May 1966 (posthumous).
# 1964 ''The Hornblower Companion''. Michael Joseph. (Supplementary book comprising another short story, "The Point and the Edge" only as an outline, "The Hornblower Atlas" and "Some Personal Notes")

====Omnibus====
# 1964 ''The Young Hornblower''. (a compilation of full-length books 1, 2 & 3; numbers 1,4,5 above). Michael Joseph.
# 1965 ''Captain Hornblower'' (a compilation of full-length books 5, 6 & 7; numbers 7,8,9 above). Michael Joseph.
# 1968 ''Admiral Hornblower'' (a compilation of full-length books 8, 9, 10 & 11; numbers 11,13,14,15 above). Michael Joseph.
# 2011 ''Hornblower Addendum – Five Short Stories'' (originally published in magazines)

===Other novels===
* 1924 ''A Pawn among Kings''. Methuen.
* 1924 ''The Paid Piper''. [[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]].
* 1926 ''[[Payment Deferred]]''. Methuen.
* 1927 ''Love Lies Dreaming''. [[John Lane (publisher)|John Lane]].
* 1927 ''The Wonderful Week''. John Lane.
* 1928 ''The Daughter of the Hawk''. John Lane.
* 1929 ''[[Brown on Resolution]]''. John Lane.
* 1930 ''Plain Murder''. John Lane.
* 1931 ''Two-and-Twenty''. John Lane.
* 1932 ''[[Death to the French]]''. John Lane. Published in the U.S. as ''Rifleman Dodd''. [[Little Brown]].
* 1933 ''[[The Gun (novel)|The Gun]]''. John Lane.
* 1934 ''The Peacemaker''. [[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]].
* 1935 ''[[The African Queen (novel)|The African Queen]]''. Heinemann.
* 1935 ''The Pursued'' (a lost novel rediscovered in 1999 and published by [[Penguin Classics]] in 2011)<ref>"A Note on the Text" by Lawrence Brewer, ''The Pursued'' p. 220</ref>
* 1936 ''[[The General (C. S. Forester novel)|The General]]''. [[Michael Joseph (publisher)|Michael Joseph]]. First published as a serial in the ''News Chronicle'' 14–18 January 1935
* 1940 ''The Earthly Paradise''. Michael Joseph. Published in the U.S. as ''To the Indies''.
* 1941 ''[[The Captain from Connecticut]]''. Michael Joseph.
* 1942 ''Poo-Poo and the Dragons''. Michael Joseph.
* 1943 ''[[The Ship (novel)|The Ship]]''. Michael Joseph.
* 1948 ''The Sky and the Forest''. Michael Joseph.
* 1951 ''Randall and the River of Time''. Michael Joseph.
* 1955 ''[[The Good Shepherd (novel)|The Good Shepherd]]''. Michael Joseph.

====Short stories====
*"The Wandering Gentile", ''Liverpool Echo'', 1955

===Posthumous===
* 1967  ''Long before Forty'' (autobiographical). Michael Joseph.
* 1971  ''Gold from Crete'' (short stories). Michael Joseph.
* 2011  ''The Pursued'' (novel). Penguin.

===Collections===
* 1944 ''The Bedchamber Mystery''; to which is added the story of ''The Eleven Deckchairs'' and ''Modernity and Maternity''. S. J. Reginald Saunders. Published in the US as ''Three Matronly Mysteries''. eNet Press
* 1954  ''The Nightmare''. Michael Joseph
* 1969  ''The Man in the Yellow Raft''. Michael Joseph (posthumous)

===Plays in three acts; John Lane===
* 1931  ''U 97''
* 1933  ''Nurse Cavell''. (with [[C. E. Bechhofer Roberts]])

===Non-fiction===
* 1922 ''Victor Emmanuel II''. Methuen (?)
* 1927 ''Victor Emmanuel II and the Union of Italy''. Methuen.
* 1924 ''Napoleon and his Court''. Methuen.
* 1925 ''Josephine, Napoleon's Empress''. Methuen.
* 1928 ''Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre''. Methuen.
* 1929 ''Lord Nelson''. John Lane.
* 1929 ''The Voyage of the Annie Marble''. John Lane.
* 1930 ''The Annie Marble in Germany''. John Lane.
* 1936 ''Marionettes at Home''. Michael Joseph Ltd.
* 1953 ''The Adventures of John Wetherell''. [[Doubleday & Company]], Inc.
* 1953 ''The Barbary Pirates''. Landmark Books, [[Random House]]. Published in the UK in 1956 by Macdonald & Co.
* 1957 ''The Naval War of 1812''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''The Age of Fighting Sail''
* 1959 ''Hunting the Bismarck''. Michael Joseph. Published in the US as ''The Last Nine Days of the Bismark'' and ''Sink the Bismarck''

====Non-fiction short pieces====
*"Calmness under Air Raids in Franco Territory". ''Western Mail'', 28 April 1937
*"Who Is Financing Franco?". ''Aberdeen Press & Journal'', 5 May 1937
*"Sabotage". [[Sunday Graphic]], 11 September 1938
*"Saga of the Submarines". ''Falkirk Herald'', 1 August 1945
*"Hollywood Coincidence". ''Leicester Chronicle'', 3 September 1955

== Film adaptations ==
In addition to providing the source material for numerous adaptations (not all of which are listed below), Forester was also credited as "adapted for the screen by" for ''[[Captain Horatio Hornblower]]''.

* ''[[Payment Deferred (film)|Payment Deferred]]'' (1932), based on a 1931 play which was in turn based on Forester's novel of the same name
* ''[[Brown on Resolution (film)|Brown on Resolution]]'' (1935), based on the novel of the same name
* ''[[Eagle Squadron (film)|Eagle Squadron]]'' (1942), story
* ''[[Commandos Strike at Dawn]]'' (1942), short story "The Commandos"
* ''[[Forever and a Day (1943 film)|Forever and a Day]]'' (1943), story
* ''[[Captain Horatio Hornblower]]'' (1951), based on the novels ''[[The Happy Return]]'', ''[[A Ship of the Line]]'' and ''[[Flying Colours (novel)|Flying Colours]]''
* ''[[The African Queen (film)|The African Queen]]'' (1951), the novel of the same name
* ''[[Sailor of the King]]'' (1953), the novel ''Brown on Resolution''
* ''[[The Pride and the Passion]]'' (1957), the novel ''The Gun''
* ''[[Sink the Bismarck!]]'' (1960), the novel ''The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck''
* ''[[Hornblower (TV series)|Hornblower]]'' (1998–2003 series of made-for-television movies), based on the novels ''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower'', ''Lieutenant Hornblower'' and ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''
* ''[[Greyhound (film)|Greyhound]]'' (2020), the novel ''The Good Shepherd''

== See also ==
* [[Honor Harrington]] – a fictional space captain and admiral in the [[Honorverse]] novels by [[David Weber]], inspired by Horatio Hornblower (see dedication in ''[[On Basilisk Station]]'')
* [[Patrick O'Brian]] – author of the [[Aubrey–Maturin series]]
* [[Dudley Pope]] – author of the [[Lord Ramage|Ramage]] series
* [[Richard Woodman]] – author of the Nathaniel Drinkwater series
* [[Douglas Reeman]] (writing as Alexander Kent) – [[The Bolitho novels]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Sternlicht, Sanford V., ''C.S. Forester and the Hornblower saga'' (Syracuse University Press, 1999)
* Van der Kiste, John, ''C.S. Forester's Crime Noir: A view of the murder stories'' (KDP, 2018)

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
;Digital editions
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/c-s-forester}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=55332 |name=C. S. Forester}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Smith, Cecil Louis Troughton|name=C. S. Forester|author=yes}}
* {{OL author|id=OL232499A}}

;Other links
* [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=01078 C. S. Forester Collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
* {{Books and Writers |id=forester |name=C. S. Forester}}
* [https://csforester.wordpress.com C. S. Forester Society], which publishes the [https://csforester.wordpress.com/about/publications/reflections/ e-journal ''Reflections'']
* {{IMDb name|id=0286163}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neBitTTGr78 C. S. Forester on ''You Bet Your Life'' in 1956]

{{C. S. Forester}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forester, C. S.}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]
[[Category:Civil servants in the Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)]]
[[Category:English historical novelists]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients]]
[[Category:Military personnel from London]]
[[Category:Nautical historical novelists]]
[[Category:People educated at Alleyn's School]]
[[Category:People educated at Dulwich College]]
[[Category:Writers about the Age of Sail]]
[[Category:Writers from London]]
[[Category:Novelists from Cairo]]
[[Category:Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction]]
[[Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age]]