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A Biography of Vane Ireton St.John
Introduction
On Saturday July 12, 1862, ‘ The Caledonian Mercury’ included a review of a novel in it’s ‘Literary Notices’ column.
A tale of family feud, remarkably well written, and interesting to the close. S.t John is a name well known to the literature of the day. We have Bayle St. John.Percy B. St. John, H.B. St John, Charles St John, Horace St. John, Isabella St John. J.A.St John and now there is Vane Ireton Shaftsbury St. John[1] — all writers of merit, and the latter, though less known, perhaps than the others, promises to become equally popular. The ‘Chain of Destiny” is a very fair specimen of his powers as a novelist. The story is well constructed, the characters vividly drawn, and the incidents natural and to the purpose. The scene of the midnight duel between the two brothers, on a dark cliff amidst a furious storm, when one of them was struck dead by lightening before the other had fired his pistol, is most graphically told.
The critic seems to have included a few St.Johns who are not related to the St.Johns under consideration, but he does give the youngest son’s literary career a good send off; however he unwittingly hints at a few matters that might have lead to future problems for Vane.
Apart from bring landed with a name that is most certainly ‘O.T.T, ’ Vane Ireton Shaftsbury St.John had, in view of his father and his brothers successes, certainly a most hard act to follow.
Books on the period refer to an early nineteenth century ‘literary bohemia’ led by George Augustus Sala and Edmund Yates - both proteges of Charles Dickens. This ‘literary bohemia’ became self referential and has its contemporary media ‘counterpart” in the reporting of contemporary ‘media ‘ stars in the Victorian periodicals.
‘Peaches” Geldof ‘Sir Mick Jagger’ and ‘Elton John’ are consistently reported by the press in their gossip columns. They are famous for being famous and for having replaced the previous generation’s superstars.
Vane St.John could well have been a fully paid up member of the nineteenth century ‘literary bohemia’ though not, perhaps, receiving the ‘press’ accorded to some of his contemporaries. It might be possible to re-interpret his life as a twentieth century ‘Don Juan’. in the unusual setting of ‘penny-dreadful’ writers, In later life, when he became bed-ridden, he might have lamented his former excesses and even been visited by the enraged father of one of his mistresses?
- ↑ The journalist must have been referring to Vane Ireton Shaftsbury St. John - the youngest of James Augustus St. John’s children.