Basil King

Basil King combined a career in the Anglican clergy with fiction and spiritual nonfiction. Born William Benjamin Basil King in Charlottetown in 1859, he studied at University of King’s College and served churches in Nova Scotia and New England before turning more fully to writing. The Letter of the Contract and The Wild Olive belong to his social fiction, using questions of marriage, obligation, reputation, and moral judgment to structure their plots. The Conquest of Fear takes a different form: it is a reflective work on religious faith, anxiety, and the disciplined effort to overcome fear. University of Pennsylvania library records identify James Montgomery Flagg as illustrator of The Letter of the Contract and Lucius Wolcott Hitchcock as illustrator of an edition of The Wild Olive; the Project Gutenberg edition of The Conquest of Fear includes an introduction by Henry C. Link. King also wrote The Inner Shrine, The Street Called Straight, and The High Heart. His books move between popular narrative and direct spiritual argument, but both sides of his work return to conscience and personal responsibility.