Image of  W. Gordon Stables

Timeline

Lifetime: 1840 - 1910 Passed: ≈ 114 years ago

Title

Doctor, writer

Country/Nationality

United Kingdom
Wikipedia

W. Gordon Stables

William Gordon Stables was a Scottish-born medical doctor in the Royal Navy and a prolific author of adventure fiction, primarily for boys.

William Gordon Stables was born in Aberchirder, in Banffshire (now part of Aberdeenshire). After studying medicine at the University of Aberdeen, he served as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. He came ashore in 1875, and settled in Twyford, Berkshire, in England.

He wrote over 130 books. The bulk of his large output is boys' adventure fiction, often with a nautical or historical setting. He also wrote books on health, fitness and medical subjects, and the keeping of cats and dogs. He was a copious contributor of articles and stories to the Boy's Own Paper.

Stables has been regarded as one of the most prominent of the English imitators of Jules Verne, especially in his novels of polar adventure, like The Cruise of the Snowbird (1882), Wild Adventures Round the Pole (1883), From Pole to Pole (1886), and "his most ambitious novel," The Cruise of the Crystal Boat (1891).

He is also notable as the first person to order a "gentleman’s caravan" from the Bristol Wagon & Carriage Works, in which he travelled the length of Great Britain in 1885 (the subject of his book The Gentleman Gypsy).

Stables was a strong opponent of vivisection.

Books by W. Gordon Stables

Cats: Their Points and Characteristics Cover image

Cats: Their Points and Characteristics

Non-Fiction
Animal Cats

How true is the old saw: "Dogs have families, but cats have staff"? Cats have been favorite domestic pets for thousands of years. This is a study of their history, characteristics and suitability as pets, together with some charming cat tales. A must...

Cats: Their Points and Characteristics, with Curiosities of Cat  Life, and a Chapter on Feline Ailments Cover image

Cats: Their Points and Characteristics, with Curiosities of Cat Life, and a Chapter on Feline Ailments

How true is the old saw: "Dogs have families, but cats have staff"? Cats have been favorite domestic pets for thousands of years. This is a study of their history, characteristics and suitability as pets, together with some charming cat tales. A must...