Over the Border: 'The thin shining blade darted here and there''

Robert Barr was born in Glasgow, Scotland on the 16th September 1849. Five years later the family emigrated to a farm near Muirkirk in Upper Canada.

His early years were uneventful as the family settled into their new lives and Barr began his education.

A career path as a teacher opened up for him and, by 1874, he had been appointed as headmaster at the Central School at Windsor. Concurrently he also wrote travel and humourous articles for magazines. Within two years their success in the regional periodicals encouraged him to change careers to become a reporter and columnist.

In August 1876, at age 27, he married Eva Bennett and they began a family.

A half decade later he was the exchange editor of the ‘Free Press’ but decided to relocate to London to establish an English edition and to write fiction, which both met with much success.

Over the years he was a prolific writer and in 1892, along with Jerome K Jerome, he established ‘The Idler’ magazine and, just after the turn of the century, became its sole proprietor.

Although a number of his crime novels and short stories are parodies on Sherlock Holmes and other best-selling detectives of the time, he also wrote short stories across a whole range of subjects and genres usually with intriguing ideas and many laced with wit and humour.

Robert Barr died at his home in Woldingham, Surrey of heart disease on the 21st October 1912. He was 63.

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