Ernest Bramah

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-27

Ernest Brammah Smith, who wrote as Ernest Bramah, was born March 20, 1868, near Manchester, England, to Charles Clement Smith and Susannah (Brammah) Smith. At age sixteen he left Manchester Grammar School and initially pursued farming with his father's financial support, though this venture ultimately failed. He transitioned to writing, contributing local pieces to the Birmingham News while farming, and eventually worked as secretary to Jerome K. Jerome, editing one of Jerome's magazines. His early satirical farming book was remaindered and destroyed, but he persevered in pursuing a literary career on Grub Street. His breakthrough came with the character Kai Lung, an itinerant storyteller appearing in humorous fantasy tales set in an imagined China. The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) was initially rejected by eight publishers before Grant Richards published it, and it remained in print for a century. Bramah also created Max Carrados, a blind detective, in 1914, and wrote political science fiction including What Might Have Been (1907), which George Orwell acknowledged influenced Nineteen Eighty-Four. He published twenty-one books in total along with numerous short stories. Bramah died on June 23, 1942, at age 74 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, leaving an estate valued at £15,172, after living for roughly 30 years in Hammersmith with his wife, Lucy Maisie Smith.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) · Kai Lung Core Canon
• Kai Lung's Golden Hours (1922) · Kai Lung Core Canon
• Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat (1928) · Kai Lung Core Canon
• Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry-Tree (1940) · Kai Lung Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 4 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

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