Robert William Chambers was born on May 26, 1865, in Brooklyn to a prominent New York family. He spent his younger years at the Brooklyn Polytechnic School and later attended the Art Student League in New York. Chambers then studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he penned his first novel, In the Quarter.
He also spent a summer studying and writing at the University of Munich, after which he returned to art school at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts. By his mid-twenties, Chambers was already exhibiting his art at salons in Paris. Returning to America in 1892, he began drawing illustrations for magazines like Vogue, Life, and True.
Chambers originally began submitting articles, accompanied by his illustrations, to magazines and newspapers before concentrating on writing full-time. Over the next forty years, he published 72 novels, numerous short stories, and several plays, covering a diverse range of subjects including the supernatural and historical romances.
A heavy taskmaster, Chambers often worked on three or four projects at a time. His early work won him high praise from literary critics, but as he became more successful, the critics grew more critical. He was a man of varied interests, including being a historian, artist, outdoorsman, collector of rare furniture and fine art, expert on Chinese and Japanese antiquities, collector of North American butterflies, and a conservationist.
Chambers was once responsible for the planting of around 25,000 trees in Broadalbin, New York. He wrote a number of historical novels, usually set in Colonial America or the Revolutionary and Civil War periods. His interest in the legendary Captain Kidd led him to write a rather sympathetic treatment of Kidd's life, entitled "The Man They Hung".
Some of his popular works include "The Red Republic", "A King and a Few Dukes", "The Maker of Moons", "With the Band", "The Mystery of Choice", "Lorraine", "Ashes of Empire", "The Maid-at-Arms", "Outdoor Land", "The Maids of Paradise", "Orchard-Land", "Forest-Land", "The Haunts of Men", "The Cambric Mask", "Cardigan", "The Fighting Chance", "The Firing Line", "Iole", "The Witch of Ellangowan", and "Ailsa Paige".
Robert William Chambers died in New York City on December 16, 1933, after an unsuccessful operation to alleviate an intestinal disorder. He was survived by his wife, Elsa Vaughn Moller, son Robert Edward Stuart Chambers, and brother Walter Boughton Chambers, a renowned architect.
