Martin Hewitt, Investigator: A Magic Lamp Classic Detective Story
Morrison was born in 1863 in a slum district of London known as Poplar, a little to the north of the Isle of Dogs, and he grew up there and in other similar slums in East London. He began working as a clerk at the People’s Palace in East London in 1887 when he was 23 years old. He worked on accounts and correspondence, and eventually became a subeditor of the Palace Journal. In 1890, taking the advice from Walter Besant, Morrison decided that he was capable of making a living at journalism. He moved to West London and took a position on a local newspaper, also working at freelance writing.  Around this time Morrison was also producing detective short stories which emulated those of Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes. Three volumes of Detective Martin Hewitt stories were published. Morrison lived until 1945 but little is known of his life during his last 30 years. He was elected to the Royal Literary Society and in the 1920’s served on its council. When he died in 1945 the world was more astonished to learn that he had been still living than that he was dead.