Jules Verne: Obituaries

JULES VERNE DEAD
Novelist Wrote Two Works Each Year
for $4,000 Under Contract.

AMIENS, France, March 24 - Jules Verne died at 3:10 o'clock this afternoon. His family was at his bedside. He retained consciousness until shortly before his death., his brain being the last organ to fail. He calmly awaited the end, called the members of his family to his bedside and discussed his departure. It is expected that the burial will occur here where M. Verne had long lived and where his most notable romances were written. The Municipality of Amiens, of which body he was a councilor, will participate in the funeral services.

In Jules Verne there passes away one who is still the idol of boys, who is still the idol of many who were boys fifty years ago.

He was born in Nantes in February, 1828. His last days were spent at his home in Amiens, half blind, disappointed because the laurels which should have been his were never awarded by the French Academy, and still turning out two novels every year under contract said to have been made before he foresaw his great success.

Early in life he showed inventive and literary ability, a rare combination. he studied law in Paris for a time, then
took to literature, writing for stage production. He first attracted attention by a story published in a popular weekly, entitled Five Weeks in a Balloon. The story was a success. He wrote more inventive-imaginary romances, and soon the public called for nothing else. His most famous production was Around the World in Eighty Days, which was then regarded as the delusion of a popular dreamer. A large number of his dreams have come true; many of them have been outdone in practice.

An interesting story is passed around in French literary circles with regard to the contract by which Verne issued
two books a year. It is said that this contract was made forty years ago, and called for two stories a year for a
remuneration of 20,000 francs per annum, or about $4000. It is said that, despite the enormous circulation of his
works, which have been translated even into Persian and Japanese, Jules Verne never received a penny more than his stipulated salary. His publisher, however, gave the author valuable presents from time to time.

One of the peculiar traits of Jules Verne was his love for the boys for whom he wrote. On one occasion he walked into a school reading club in Ramsgate, England, and, laying a letter written in boyish hand on the table, he said in his quaint French-English: "Boys, I am M'sieu Verne. I thank you for your invitation. let us now put some more coal on the fire and tell stories."

Among the best-known works of Verne are: Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Giant Raft: or Eight Hundred Days up the Amazon (sic), Around the Moon, The Lottery Ticket, and The Purchase of the North Pole.

In Twenty Thousand leagues Under the Sea, he prophesied the submarine boat; in Robur le Conquerant and
Hector Servadec (sic), the dirigible balloon; in The Steam House, the automobile, and in Around the World in Eighty Days, the fast steamship and the mile-a-minute train.

His last two volumes, issued this year were The Master of the World and A Drama in Livonia.

OBITUARY
Amiens, France, Mar. 24 -- Jules Verne died at 3:10 p.m. today.
Jules Verne was one of France's greatest and most charming story writers. Of a strongly scientific bent of mind he wrote novels years ago fore-shadowing inventions and scientific achievements which have since been realized, but which at the time were looked on as dreams. The idea of the submarine boat as given in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is more than realized in the modern submarine boats and the aerial achievements in From the Earth to Moon, bid fair to be an accomplished fact in modern invention. With the passing of Verne, France and indeed the world loses much.

JULES VERNE IS DEAD.
Distinguished Novelist Passes Away Surrounded by His Family

AMIENS, France, March 24. --Jules Verne died at 3:10 p.m. His family was at his bedside.
Verne had been subject to chronic diabetes, but the disease did not assume a critical aspect until March 10. He gradually failed and the end was hastened by a stroke of paralysis, covering his right side until the tongue was affected. The novelist retained consciousness until shortly before his death. He calmly foresaw the end, called the members of his family to his bedside and discussed his departure.
Following the announcement of Verne's death telegrams were received from many eminent persons. It is expected that the burial will take place at Amines, where Verne lived for a long time and where his most notable romances were written. The municipality of Amiens, of which the deceased was a counselor, will participate in the funeral services.

End of Days for Jules Verne.
GIFTED WRITER LAYS DOWN HIS PEN
Noted Frenchman, Whose imagination Ran Riot in Series of Remarkable Romances,
Dies at His Home in Amiens.

AMIENS, France -- March 24 -- Jules Verne died at 3:10 p.m. today. His family was at his bedside.
Jules Verne novelist and romancer was born at Nantes, France, February 8, 1828. He was educated for the law and as a pastime wrote several plays that met with moderate success, but which convinced him that literature and not the law was calling to him as a life work.
Verne's scientific romances have placed him for all time at the head of a peculiar school of novelists. His name has become synonymous for vivid imagination.
Some of his romances which have attained worldwide popularity are Five Weeks in a Balloon, written in 1863, Journey to the Center of the Earth, written the following year; A Trip to the Moon, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island, Around the World in Eighty Days, Michael Strogoff and The Purchase of the North Pole.
Many of Verne's production have been dramatized notably Around the World in Eighty Days and Michael Strogoff, which being staged at fabulous expense, achieved long runs and were revived every now and then with seemingly no diminution of popularity.

JULES VERNE, THE
AUTHOR, IS DEAD

The Famous French Novelist Joins the
Silent Majority.

Expires at His Old Home at Amiens,
France

Chronic Diabetes, Followed by paraly-
sis, the Cause of Death.

Sketch of the Great Writer and a
List of Some of His
Stories

Amiens, France. March 24 - Jules Verne whose stories are known to children as well as adults, the world over, died at 3:10 this afternoon. His family was at the bedside. M. Verne, who was advanced in years, had been ill for several weeks. He is perhaps best known to the present generation of readers and playgoers by his novel 'Around the World in Eighty Days." which was successfully adapted to the American stage twenty years ago and has been seen intermittingly since.

M. Verne had been subject to chronic diabetes but it did not assume a critical aspect until March 10. Since then he gradually failed and the was hastened by a stroke of paralysis, covering his right side until the tongue was affected. The sick man retained consciousness until shortly before his death, his brain being the last organ to fail. He calmly foresaw his death, called the members of his family to his bedside and discussed his departure. The publisher of M. Verne's works was among those who were admitted to his bedside during his last hours, but M. Verne did not recognize him.

Following an announcement of M. Verne's death, telegrams were received from many quarters, including distinguished authors. It is expected that the burial will take place here, where M. Verne had long lived, and where his most notable romances were written. The municipality of Amiens, of which body the deceased was a Councillor, will participate in the funeral services.

Jules Verne was born at Nantes France, Feb 8, 1828. His first literary work was a play written at the age of 22, and for several years he was ..... (this is as far as I was able to transcribe)

Our Paris Correspondent telegraphed yesterday: -- "The death of M. Jules Verne is announced as having occurred at Amiens this afternoon."

Every man whose schooldays have been passed within the last 40 years will feel a special pang of regret at the news of M. Jules Verne's death. How many happy hours of boyhood have been spent over the wonderful romances that came so rapidly and with such fertility of invention from his pen! Now we were travelling, all unconscious of our real surroundings, "twenty thousand leagues under the sea"; now circling the world at breakneck speed in 80 days; now stowing ourselves away in that marvellous projectile which was to take us "from the earth to the moon." Deep in these fascinating tales one forgot everything save the adventures so graphically related, and after reading them one looked with different eyes on the wonders of the earth, air, and water which the novelist had made so familiar. There was no French writer whose works were so widely known in this country. Each one as it came out -- even during recent years, when the vein was seen to be more or less worked out -- was at once translated and published for English readers, and even in France they were scarcely welcomed more heartily than on this side of the Channel and in America as well.

It was not as a writer of these stories of adventure and travel with a strong dash of popular science that Jules Verne began his literary career. Born in 1828, the son of an avocat, at Nantes, and educated at the local lycée, whence he passed on to study law in Paris, he made his first excursions into authorship by writing plays. Under the influence of Victor Hugo's works the young Breton had produced, before he was 20, a collection of dramas, the composition of which served as his apprenticeship to the craft. Before he had been long in Paris, he made the acquaintance of the younger Dumas, who soon became his friend and also his collaborator. Together they wrote Pailles Rompues, given at the Gymnase, and other pieces, while Verne also wrote operettas. He was secretary, too, to the Theatre Lyrique, and seemed fairly embarked on a theatrical career, when suddenly, in 1861, the course of his literary life was changed. The event which changed it was the publication of "Five Weeks in a Balloon." The story, written without any special knowledge of ballooning, had an immediate success; and the demand was created for the kind of fiction which Verne was skilfully to supply for many years. He had at this time little or no familiarity with science in any of its branches, though he was greatly interested in mechanics. But he was a reader of everything that came in his way, and he supplemented his memory by the use of an ever-ready note-book, so that he was able with little difficulty to "get up" any subject that he wished to introduce into his books. Many of them were suggested to him by chance paragraphs in newspapers, or by curious facts that he had happened to meet with. Thus in a cafe one day he saw in one of the journals that a man could travel round the world in 80 days. Immediately it occurred to him that the traveller would by the difference of meridian gain or lose a day on the journey, and, after turning the idea over for some time, he wrote the very popular story for which it served as foundation. It was in the 'sixties and 'seventies that M. Verne wrote his most popular tales; since then they have appeared as regularly as they did before, but have hardly attracted so much attention. In all he has left close upon a hundred works, including a history of travel and travellers, and an illustrated geography of France, written in collaboration. In 1873 he turned aside for a while from stories and wrote another play, "Un neveu d'Amerique," and in reckoning his contributions to the French stage one must also take account of the dramas founded upon several of his books. "Michael Strogoff, the Courier of the Tsar." has, for instance, long been a favourite piece both here and in France -- Its highly-coloured pictures of Nihilism and Siberia made it very effective for the theatre; and a spectacular comedy founded on "Around the World in Eighty Days" also had a good deal of success.

Jules Verne had lived for many years past at Amiens, where he interested himself greatly in municipal affairs. Formerly he travelled widely; it was his favourite recreation, and also came in usefully in suggesting materials for stories. But since 1886, when a nephew of his who had become insane fired a pistol at him and lamed him for life, he had been obliged to remain at home. A specially sad feature of this domestic misfortune was that the nephew declared himself actuated by a desire to draw attention to his uncle's claims to a seat in the Academy. Jules Verne's failure to attain this honour -- the ambition of all French men of letters -- was a sore subject with him all the latter part of his life. Some twenty years ago his name was proposed by Dumas fils, but there was little chance of its being inscribed on the roll of the Forty. Ever afterwards Jules Verne, who insisted emphatically upon the merits of the style in which his works were written, apart from their other qualities, had a grievance, and declared that he was "considered of no account in French literature." He had, however, the Legion of Honour, and enjoyed the distinction of being the very last recipient of the decoration under the Empire. He also had the consolation of making very large sums by his books, though, like many another author, he did not think that his share of the enormous profits on them was as large as it ought to have been. It is interesting to know that Dickens -- read in translations -- was the French writer's favourite author. Verne used to declare that he had read the whole of "Boz's" works ten times over. Fenimore Cooper he was also fond of, and considered many of his novels "immortal." Jules Verne has left one son who has written on scientific subjects with more knowledge but with much less charm than his distinguished father.

Amiens, France. March 24 -- Jules Verne, the famous novelist, died at his home here at 3:10 p.m. today.

The name Verne is synonomous(sic) with his most celebrated work, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and it was on such scientific romances that his fame chiefly rested.

Verne was 77 years of age, having been born at Nantes, France, Feb. 8, 1828. After a primary education in his native town he went to Paris to study law. His attention was shortly afterward drawn to dramatic literature, and his first essay was a comedy entitled "Les Pailles Rompues" which was produced in the Gymnase in 1850. The success of the first work induced Verne to write another comedy entitled "Onze Jours de Siege" in three acts, which was brought out at the Vaudevile and performed later by several comic operas.

It was not until 1862, however, that he brought out the first of that line of literature which was to give him his international position in the field of letters. In that year was published his first scientific romance under the title of "Cinq Semaines en Ballon." The book's popularity assured M. Verne that he had adopted his proper sphere and thenceforth he wrote steadily, producing many novels, the following of which have been translated into English: Abandoned, Adrift in the Pacific, The Archipelago on Fire, The Begum's Fortune, The Blockade Runners, The Demon of Cawnpore, Dick Sands thew(sic) Boy Captain, Dropped From the Clouds, The Family Without a Name, Five Weeks in a Balloon, A Flight to France, The Floating City, From the Earth to the Moon, The Fur Country, The Giant Raft, or Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, The Cryptogram, Godfrey Morgan or A California Mystery, Hector Servadac, Heraban(sic) the Inflexible, The Lottery Ticket or A Tale of Tellemarken, The Mysterious (ed:unreadable), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, Steam House Across North India, Tigers and Traitors, the Vanished Diamond, The Antarctic Mystery, Le Superbe Oronoque, Seconde Patrie, Le Sphinx des Glaces, Le Village Aerian and numerous others.