Thomas Bertram Costain (May 8, 1885 – October 8, 1965) was a Canadian and American journalist. He became a best-selling author of historical novels when he was 57 years old.

Life

Costain was born in Brantford, Ontario, to John Herbert Costain and Mary Schultz. He studied at Brantford Collegiate Institute, a high school in his hometown. Before finishing high school, he wrote four novels. One of these was a 70,000-word romance about Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange. These early books were not accepted by publishers.

His first success as a writer came in 1902 when the Brantford Courier published a mystery story he wrote. He became a reporter there, earning five dollars a week. From 1908 to 1910, he worked as an editor at the Guelph Daily Mercury. On January 12, 1910, he married Ida Randolph Spragge in York Township, Ontario. The couple had two children: Molly (later Mrs. Howard Haycraft) and Dora (later Mrs. Henry Darlington Steinmetz). In 1910, Costain joined the Maclean Publishing Group, where he edited three trade journals. Starting in 1914, he worked as a staff writer for Maclean’s magazine, and from 1917, he became its editor. His work there helped him gain recognition from The Saturday Evening Post in New York City, where he later worked as a fiction editor for fourteen years.

In 1920, Costain became a U.S. citizen. He also worked as an editor at Doubleday Books from 1939 to 1946. From 1934 to 1942, he led the story department at 20th Century Fox’s bureau of literary development.

In 1940, Costain wrote four short novels but chose not to share them with publishers. He then planned to write six books in a series called "The Stepchildren of History," focusing on six lesser-known historical figures. His first book in this series was about John Ward, a 17th-century pirate also known as Jack Ward. In 1942, his novel For My Great Folly was published and became a bestseller, selling over 132,000 copies. A reviewer from The New York Times said the book would satisfy all fans of romantic-adventure stories. In January 1946, Costain "retired" to focus on writing, producing about 3,000 words each day.

Costain was raised as a Baptist. A 1953 biography noted that he later attended the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was described as a tall, broad-shouldered man with clear blue eyes, a pink and white complexion, and a slight Canadian accent. By the time he began writing novels, he had white hair. He loved animals and avoided harming insects, though he played bridge and did not extend the same kindness to his opponents. He also enjoyed movies and theater. He met his future wife while she was performing in The Pirates of Penzance.

Costain’s writing included both historical books, such as The White and The Gold (a history of New France up to 1720), and fiction based on real events. One review noted it was hard to tell where history ended and made-up stories began. His most popular novel was The Black Rose (1945), which focused on Bayan of the Baarin, also known as Bayan of the Hundred Eyes. Costain originally planned to write about Bayan and Edward I but became interested in the story of Thomas Becket’s parents: an English knight married to an Eastern woman. The book was selected by the Literary Guild and had a first printing of 650,000 copies. It sold over two million copies in its first year. In 1950, The Black Rose was adapted into a film starring Orson Welles as Bayan and Tyrone Power as Walter.

Costain’s research suggested that Richard III was a good king unfairly blamed for the murder of the princes in the Tower after his death. He supported this idea with evidence, claiming Henry VII was the real murderer.

In the 1940s, Costain wrote four short stories for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine under the name Pat Hand. Three of these stories—“The Showdown,” “The Imponderables,” and “The Ace of Spades”—followed a character named Careful Jones, a gambler who enjoyed beating wealthy men and had a Robin Hood-like sense of justice.

Costain died in 1965 at his home in New York City from a heart attack at the age of 80. He is buried in the Farringdon Independent Church Cemetery in Brantford.

Awards and honours

He earned a Doctor of Letters (D. Litt) degree from the University of Western Ontario in May 1952. In June 1965, he was awarded a gold medal by the Canadian Club of New York. In Brantford, the Thomas B. Costain public elementary school (opened in 1953) and the Thomas B. Costain – S.C. Johnson Community Centre (opened in 2002) are named in his honor. His daughter, Molly Costain Haycraft, became a writer who writes historical novels.

Influence

George R. R. Martin has mentioned that Costain's non-fiction books about the Plantagenet dynasty influenced his book Fire and Blood, which is part of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Publications

• For My Great Folly (1942)
• Joshua: Leader of a United People – A Realistic Biography (1943) – with Rogers MacVeagh
• Ride With Me (1944)
• The Black Rose (1945)
• The Moneyman (1947)
• High Towers (1949)
• Son of a Hundred Kings (1950)
• The Silver Chalice (1952)
• The Tontine (1955) illustrated by Herbert Ryman
• Below the Salt (1957)
• The Darkness And The Dawn (1959) (on Attila the Hun)
• The Last Love (1963)

• The Conquerors: The Pageant of England (1949) The author's "First Work of History," later published as The Conquering Family
• The White and the Gold (1954)
• The Chord of Steel: The Story of the Invention of the Telephone (1960)
• William the Conqueror a Landmark book (1959)
• The Plantagenets series (also known as The Pageant of England) The Conquering Family (1949) The Magnificent Century (1951) The Three Edwards (1958) The Last Plantagenets (1962)

• "The Showdown." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Jan 1944. Reprinted in Rogues Gallery, edited by Ellery Queen (Little, Brown, 1945).
• "The Imponderables." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Jul 1944.
• "The Alibi." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Nov 1944.
• "The Ace of Spades." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Jan 1945. This also appears in Win, Lose or Die (Severn House, 1997) but was incorrectly labeled as "The Showdown."

• Stories to Remember (1956) a selection of novels and short stories chosen by Costain and John Beecroft. First of 3 collections.
• More Stories to Remember (1958) with John Beecroft
• Thirty Stories (1961) with John Beecroft
• Come Read with Me (1965), a selection of short stories and novellas

Films from his works

• The Black Rose (1950): A film starring Tyrone Power.
• Son of a Hundred Kings (1950): A CBC mini-series.
• The Silver Chalice (1954): A film starring Paul Newman (film debut).
• The Chord of Steel (1960): A CBC seven-episode mini-series that aired in 1964.