St. John Emile Clavering Hankin
| St John Hankin | |
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| Born | 25 September 1869 Southampton, England |
| Died | 15 June 1909 (aged 39) |
| Occupation | Playwright |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | plays |
St. John Emile Clavering Hankin (25 September 1869 – 15 June 1909) was a British Edwardian essayist and playwright. Along with George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy, and Harley Granville-Barker, he was a major exponent of Edwardian "New Drama". Despite success as a playwright he died by his own hand, and his work was largely neglected until the 1990s.
Hankin was born in Southampton, England. During Hankin's youth, his father suffered a nervous breakdown and became an invalid.
Hankin attended Malvern College and then Merton College, Oxford. Following his graduation in 1890, he became a journalist in London for the Saturday Review. In 1894 he moved to Calcutta and wrote for the India Daily News, but he returned to England the next year after contracting malaria.
Hankin became a drama critic for The Times. He also contributed a series of comic "sequels" to famous plays, including Ibsen's A Doll's House, to Punch. These were published in book form as Mr. Punch's Dramatic Sequels (1901) and Lost Masterpieces (1904).
In 1901 Hankin married Florence Routledge, the daughter of publisher George Routledge.
Hankin's admiration of the work of George Bernard Shaw led him to associate himself with the Stage Society and the Royal Court Theatre. Both groups were supportive of attempts to break loose from the conventionalities of the day. Hankin was actively involved in running the Stage Society, a London theater group that was founded in part to avoid the Lord Chamberlain's censorship.
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