This early work by Robert Barr was originally published in 1902 and we
are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. "A
Prince of Good Fellows" is a series of Historical Fiction stories about
the young James V, King of Scots (1512 - 1542). The chapters are
humorous and full of adventure. Robert Barr was born on 16th September
1849 in Glasgow, Scotland, but he and his parents emigrated to Upper
Canada when he was just four years old. He attended Toronto Normal
School to train as a teacher and this career path led him to become
headmaster of the Central School of Windsor, Ontario. During his time as
a headteacher he began to contribute short stories to the Detroit Free
Press, a publication for whom he left the teaching profession to become
a staff member in 1876. He wrote for them under the pseudonym "Luke
Sharp", a name he found amusing on a sign reading "Luke Sharpe,
Undertaker" that he used to pass on his daily commute to work. In 1881
he left Canada for London to establish a weekly English edition of the
Detroit Free Press. He remained in England to found The Idler, a monthly
magazine he collaborated on with the popular humourist Jerome K. Jerome.
Robert Barr died from heart disease on October 21, 1912, at his home in
Woldingham, a small village to the south-east of London.
