Editing Eden Phillpotts (section)

==Life==
Eden Phillpotts was a great-nephew of [[Henry Phillpotts]], Bishop of Exeter. His father Henry Phillpotts was a son of the bishop's younger brother Thomas Phillpotts. [[James Surtees Phillpotts]] the reforming headmaster of [[Bedford School]] was his second cousin.<ref>''Phillpotts Genealogy'', Percy Phillpotts, 1910 (manuscript in family possession)</ref>

Eden Phillpotts was born on 4 November 1862 at [[Mount Abu]] in [[Rajasthan]]. His father Henry was an officer in the [[Indian Army]], while his mother Adelaide was the daughter of an [[Indian Civil Service]] officer posted in Madras, George Jenkins Waters.<ref name="DNB">''Dictionary of National Biography'', article by Thomas Moult</ref>

Henry Phillpotts died in 1865, leaving Adelaide a widow at the age of 21. With her three small sons, of whom Eden was the eldest, she returned to England and settled in [[Plymouth]].<ref name="Angle88">Eden Phillpotts, ''From the Angle of 88'', 1952</ref>

Phillpotts was educated at Mannamead School in Plymouth. At school he showed no signs of a literary bent. In 1879, aged 17, he left home and went to London to earn his living. He found a job as a clerk with the [[RSA Insurance Group|Sun Fire Office]].<ref name="DNB"/><ref name="Angle88"/>

Phillpotts' ambition was to be an actor and he attended evening classes at a drama school for two years. He came to the conclusion that he would never make a name as an actor but might have success as a writer. In his spare time out of office hours he proceeded to create a stream of small works which he was able to sell. In due course he left the insurance company to concentrate on his writing, while also working part-time as assistant editor for the weekly [[Black and White (magazine)|''Black and White'']] magazine.<ref name="DNB"/><ref name="Angle88"/>

Eden Phillpotts maintained a steady output of three or four books a year for the next half century. He produced poetry, short stories, novels, plays and mystery tales. Many of his novels were about rural [[Devon]] life and some of his plays were distinguished by their effective use of regional dialect.

Eden Phillpotts died at his home in [[Broadclyst]] near [[Exeter]], Devon, on 29 December 1960.