# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Sturgis, Julian Russell

​STURGIS, JULIAN RUSSELL (1848–1904), novelist, born at Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on 21 Oct. 1848, was fourth son of Russell Sturgis of Boston, U.S.A., by his wife Juliet Overing Boit, also of Boston. When seven months old, the boy was brought to England, and he resided there for the rest of his life. Educated at Eton (in Dame Evans's house) from 1862 to 1867, he matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, on 27 Jan. 1868, and graduated B.A. in 1872, taking a second class in the final classical school; he proceeded M.A. in 1875. His intellectual interest at the university lay chiefly in history and political economy. He was also a notable athlete in school and college days, being captain of the school football eleven and rowing in his college boat. In 1876 he was called to the bar of the Inner Temple. He became a naturalised British subject in Jan. 1877. In 1878 he travelled in the Levant, visiting the Turkish and Russian armies before Constantinople, and in 1880 he made a tour in the west of America. He was more attracted by life and character than by art and archaeology, and he wove descriptions of his travels into his novels (cf. John Maidment, 1885, and Stephen Calinari, 1901).
His first work, a novel entitled 'John-a-Dreams,' appeared in 1878. It was followed by 'An Accomplished Gentleman' in 1879, and by 'Little Comedies,' dialogues in dramatic form, containing some of his most delicate and characteristic writing, in 1880. 'Comedies New and Old' and 'Dick's Wandering' appeared in 1882.
Sturgis married on 8 Nov. 1883, at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, Ireland, Mary Maud, daughter of Colonel Marcus de La Poer Beresford. There were three sons of the marriage. Possessed of ample means, Sturgis after his marriage divided his time between London and the country, first at Elvington near Dover, and then at Compton near Guildford, where he built a house. He continued writing, issuing the novels 'My Friends and I' in 1884, 'John Maidment' in 1885, 'Thraldom' in 1887, 'The Comedy of a Country House' in 1889, 'After Twenty Years' in 1892, 'A Master of Fortune' in 1896, 'The Folly of Pen Harrington' in 1897, and 'Stephen Calinari,' his last and best novel, in 1901. He also attempted verse in 'Count Juhan: a Spanish Tragedy' (1893) and 'A Book of Song' (1894), and wrote the librettos for Goring Thomas's 'Nadeshda' (1885), for Sir Arthur Sullivan's 'Ivanhoe' (1891), and for Sir Charles Villiers Stanford's 'Much Ado about Nothing' (1901).
Sturgis died on 13 April 1904 at 16 Hans Road, London, S.W., and after cremation at Woking was buried in the Compton burial ground.
Sturgis was a man of singular charm of character, the reticence which distinguishes his writings being laid aside in his intercourse with his friends. His novels show a peculiar and sympathetic insight into the immature mind of masculine youth. His style, clear, delicate, and expressive of the writer's refinement and culture, is at times allusive and elliptical, and bears witness to the influence of Pater and Meredith; of the latter Sturgis was a great admirer and a personal friend.
[The Times, 14 and 18 April 1904; Who's Who, 1903; Monthly Review, No. 46, July 1904 (article by P. Lubbock and A. C. Benson); private information.]
E. L.