An artistic upbringing and a restless writing life
Born Oliver Franz Hueffer in 1876, he was the son of music critic Francis Hueffer and painter Catherine Madox Brown. His grandfather was Ford Madox Brown, and his elder brother became the novelist Ford Madox Ford. After their father died in 1889, the boys lived with their grandfather. Oliver attended school in Folkestone and University College School in London, growing up among the stories and relationships of a prominent artistic family.
He tried the theatre before establishing himself as a writer. In 1897 he married the violinist Zoe Pyne. From 1903 he contributed journalism to the Manchester Guardian; later work included Paris reporting and coverage of the Mexican Revolution. His novels often turned on disguises, unlikely encounters and class distinctions. Several appeared as Jane Wardle, including The Lord of Latimer Street. During the First World War he served in the British Army and was wounded at the Somme in 1916. He later lived in France with the writer Muriel Harris and continued publishing fiction and cultural observations until his death in 1931.
Witchcraft as history and imaginative survival
The held edition of The Book of Witches was published by John McBride in New York in 1909, following the London edition of 1908. Its title credits a colour frontispiece to W. Heath Robinson. In the foreword, dated September 1908, Hueffer explicitly disclaims an exhaustive scientific or historical treatise. He offers an impression of a large subject, thanks Muriel Harris for help with the material and adopts an ironic defence of the witch’s place in human imagination.
