Morley Charles Roberts, an English novelist and short story writer, is best known for The Private Life of Henry Maitland. Roberts was born in London, the son of William Henry Roberts (1831-1908), a superintending inspector of income tax, and Catherine, née Pullen. He was educated at Bedford Grammar School and Owens College in Manchester, England. Roberts freely exploited his experiences in his writings, beginning with The Western Avernus (1887), a travelogue set in North America. While it was his most successful publication, his depictions of Indigenous and Chinese people were rife with bigotry. In 1890, Roberts began writing a long series of novels and short stories. William Henry Hudson highly commended one of his works, Rachel Marr (1903). His work Prey of the Strongest (1906) provided the first accurate description of British Columbia mills, woodlands, and gambling halls. The Private Life of Henry Maitland (1912), based on the life of novelist George Gissing, was one of his most important works. Roberts also wrote articles, biographies, dramas, and lyrics, as well as some decent biology.
